Delhi play the name game

Tower,incidentally is Indian pacer Ishant Sharma – a name given for his towering height over his team mates,obviously.

The entire team has these new names on their back with their new black training gear and most if not all,are based on their personalities. So Aditya Jain is now called ‘Happy Hours’,as the team thinks he remains one all the time. Wicketkeeper Rahul Yadav is ‘Jannu’ as he speaks like a darling. Gaurav Chhabra is ‘Gauri’ and Sumit Narhwal is Naryal. And regular keeper Punit Bisht now is Bistu.

“We had a great time as a team when we met during pre-season. These names are nothing but a continuation of that fun element. When the new gear came,we gave them these names,fitting their personality,” coach Vijay Dahiya said.

For someone like pacer Narhwal,his new name didn’t make any sense,but he also didn’t bother to check why. “I have no ideas why was it given to me,” he said.

But while everybody is more or less happy with their names,one doesn’t like it all. Team physiotherapist Badrinath Prathi had put tapes to hide his. Well anybody would. He was named Nruse!

“I can see the funny part of it,still this is not right as far as I know,” he said. “Our physio didn’t like his name,” Dahiya said with a huge grin.

Back to talking serious business,Dahiya patted the selectors for providing horses for courses for this season. “We had been suggesting Joginder’s name for a while now. But not only him,we have Pawan Suyal and Abhishek Singh too. We have different players for different formats,” he added.

“As senior cricketers it is our duty to suggest names of the worthy players,” Dahiya said justifying Suyal’s selection for the pruned probabales list. “Of course our days team remains the same,but you will see other players in other formats.”

Dahiya also rubbished claims that the recent developments – the Virender Sehwag’s outburst against the DDCA — will have a bearing,as Delhi prepares to overcome last year’s frustrations of not making it to the semi-finals for Ranji Trophy. “As a team we had no ill feelings. And to be honest,I don’t think anybody was bothered at all when the issue (the controversy) came out in the open.”