When Shantakumaran Sreesanth emerged as a world-class cricketer from the tiny state of Kerala, located at the southern tip of India, everyone from that state was overjoyed. His achievement was hailed as exceptional, given that he represented a state that never figured among the top cricket-playing teams in India.
Sreesanth rose to become the idol for many budding cricketers when he destroyed South Africa and the West Indies with his immaculate bowling. Very soon, success led him on to a path where he began indulging in aggressive and unsporting behaviour on the field. Off the field too he indulged in boorish behaviour, to the extent that those close to him began distancing themselves from him. Fans from his own state, disgusted with his actions, began to shy away from hailing him as their hero.
Very soon Sreesanth came to be known as the bad boy of Indian cricket and on May 16, when he was arrested by Delhi Police in Mumbai on charges of spot-fixing, he became the shame of not only a whole nation, but also the game of cricket.
Born in Kothamangalam, 45km north-east of the port city of Kochi, Kerala, Sreesanth took to cricket from a very early age. Though his siblings were into performing arts — his sister Nivedita is a well-known television actress, while his brother Dipu Shantan is the proprietor of a music company — Sreesanth embarked on a career in cricket that had no prospects in Kerala.
Initially, Sreesanth had no idea as to what he wanted to take up as a cricketer. He began as a leg-spinner, modelling himself on former Indian captain and leg-spinner Anil Kumble. Very soon he discovered he could bowl yorkers, a weapon used by pacers to fetch wickets, very effectively. In 2000, he enrolled as a trainee at the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai. Guided by renowned coaches like Dennis Lillee and T. A. Sekar, he transformed into an effective medium-pacer.
In 2002, his first season for his state, he bagged 22 wickets and won a place in India’s South Zone team. From then on it was a steady climb. Fortunately for him, that was also the time when S.K. Nair, a cricket official from Kerala, clinched the coveted posts of treasurer and later the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
As convenor of the selection committee, Nair also helped Sreesanth indirectly as his exploits were brought to the attention of the selectors. However, after clinching a place in the Indian team, Sreesanth soon hit out at Nair as well as his state team selectors. Sreesanth’s initial antics were confined to staring at batsmen and showing disgust at umpires when his appeals got turned down. Although a newcomer, during the 2005-06 Challengers Trophy, he stared at none other than master-blaster Sachin Tendulkar after bowling a beautiful delivery that beat the star batsman. Tendulkar hit the next ball from Sreesanth for a six, after which he walked up to him and warned him never to come close to him.
Provoking players
Sreesanth’s antics on the field increased with every match. After dismissing batsmen, he celebrated his success through ugly mannerisms and even directing batsmen to the pavilion. For committing such an act against South Africa’s Hashim Amla, he was fined 30 per cent of his match fee by the International Cricket Council. In 2007, he shoulder-barged England skipper Michael Vaughan and bowled a beamer at Kevin Pietersen, for which he was fined half his match fee. Undeterred by the fines and warnings from match referees, Sreesanth continued to provoke players.
In 2008, during the Indian Premier League (IPL), Sreesanth was allegedly involved in a slapping incident with Harbhajan Singh and that became one of Indian cricket’s most shameful moments.
Despite that, in the very next year, he indulged in a verbal duel with a Mumbai pacer and the BCCI warned him with a possible suspension in case of any further violation of the code of conduct.
Like birds of the same feather flocking together, a bunch of unruly youngsters became his friends. He was booked by the police, following complaints from his neighbours in Bengaluru, and even entered into a scrap with a staff member of a hotel where he was once staying.
Sreesanth systematically tarnished his image as a cricketer and went on to cheat a billion people by indulging in spot-fixing during the current edition of IPL. With a life-ban from the game looming large before him, Sreesanth will soon be remembered as a cricketer who deliberately destroyed himself with arrogance and greed.
For cricket fans from his state and youngsters alike, he is one ‘hero’ who should never be emulated.
