Neil Johnson: India’s yoga guru that wasn’t!

For Johnson’s colleagues,though,the rumours about his yoga prowess are more than a joke,it’s a way of life. Everywhere he goes,Johnson is asked about the flexing powers of the Indian cricket team. “I usually reply they are very good. Does the real yoga instructor look anything like me? He must be very pretty,” Johnson says,referring to James Harrington.

“I started getting a lot of congratulatory messages without revealing the reason. I thought,‘Wow,I must have done something good I do not know about.’ I even told my wife she’s married to someone special because of the messages,but she refused to believe,” Johnson says.

He fishes out his cell phone and reads them all out. “Oh serene yogi Neil,don’t let your karma crowd over you dogma,” a message reads. “I really wish I knew yoga,I would love to bend like the yogis. Now I’m seriously doubting my profession,” he says.

His reactions are priceless,to say the very least. “When I found out that newspapers were reporting me as the next yoga instructor of the Indian cricket team,I felt it was the most outrageous thing to happen to me. But when the ICC put it up on their website,I realised you can never under-estimate the levels of outrageousness,” claims the 40-year old.

Considered by many as one of the best to don the Zimbabwe red,Johnson bore the brunt of being the torch-bearer,along with Andy Flower,of a struggling cricketing nation.

He earned three Man of the Match awards in the 1999 World Cup. He also rubbed shoulders with the best in the business,representing World XI against Asia in a match at Dhaka. “Wasim Akram charged in first ball and bowled a beamer. It was a pink plastic ball,which got stuck in my helmet grill! Everyone was laughing but for me.It was the most unbelievable moment of my career.” Until he became a yoga instructor,allegedly.