In South Africa, I am the chosen one: Sreesanth

He also wins matches, gets fined by the ICC —as he was yesterday after the semi-final for excessive appealing — dominates TV screens, cries, screams, raves, rants.

Otherwise, he is Gopu, as he is called at home, the joker in the pack, a bit of a buffoon, a bit of a showman.

“Actually, I can’t be a nice man on the field. I try to laugh but whenever I start laughing or try to be jovial, I get smashed. It’s happened to me so many times. People tell me to relax, but I am not tense, I am just concentrating. But when I laugh around or joke on the field, I am not being myself,” he says.

“Split personality, maybe,” he says, laughing out loud. “I fight even at nets. I don’t really look into who’s there inside the helmet or who is playing against me. When I get into the field, I am completely different. My parents see me doing this and they say it’s Sreesanth. When I am off the field, I am their Gopu,” he says.

Anyway, in this Twenty20 World Cup, it’s been Sreesanth all the way, starting with those two balls in the final over against Pakistan, which set up the tie and the bowl-out.

Looking back at those two dot balls, he says there must have been at least 10 different options running through his mind. “Finally, I just went blank. All Pakistan needed was just one run, and I didn’t think about the result or the bowl-out. I just said ‘I might be playing for the country but for these two balls, I am just going to run in and bowl fast’. That’s it. I had been bowling around 130 kmph till then and those last two balls hit 144 kmph and 145kmph.”

All the 200 ‘do-well’ messages that Sreesanth got before the Pakistan game had come true. “They all must have thought we had lost when I got hit for two fours in that last over but maybe on the South African soil, I am chosen one,” he says. Late last year, he was the star in India’s Test campaign in South Africa, topping the bowling charts with 18 wickets, setting up the historic win in Johannesburg.

Then, there was the “funny” moment against South Africa, when he clutched his head, “thinking that Mark Boucher had inner-edged” him for a four, only to be jolted by his screaming teammates who had seen the ball clip the bail. And finally, those two bizarre moments last night, after those key Australian wickets.

“In Twenty20, you always go for wickets,” says the Kochi speedster, adding, “That’s the only way you can contain the opposition. If you tried to restrict, you make a mistake, unless you are a slow medium bowler.”

The interview over, it’s time to gear up for the final against Pakistan tomorrow. “Bye,” says Gopu, it’s time to be Sreesanth.