ICC Cricket World Cup: ‘Mad’ Glenn Maxwell’s heroics the talk of Adelaide

Adelaide: It’s strange that everyone I met on Monday wanted to talk only about Glenn Maxwell’s heroics. Be it the hotel room boy, receptionist, grocery store owner or the taxi driver, everyone seemed excited to talk about how great a player Maxwell is after his century against Sri Lanka at Sydney on Sunday.

Who surprised me the most was the taxi driver who picked me from the hotel. He was an Iranian, but talking fluently about cricket and Maxwell. So when I asked him how he knew so much about the game, he said: “I have a Bangladeshi neighbour who will jump into a conversation about cricket if you talk to him for more than ten minutes. He is disappointed that I have not accompanied him to the ground today and instead turned up for duty.”

The hotel receptionist, of Indian origin, realised I am from the UAE and started talking to me about Maxwell’s connections with Sharjah.

“Do you know that Maxwell made his One Day International debut in Sharjah against Afghanistan?” he asked me. And when he learnt that I had reported his first match, he wanted to know whether I’d reported his first 50 in a one-day match, which was also in Sharjah. So when I replied that I had, he gifted me an apple from the counter with a big smile.

The Pakistani owner of a nearby grocery store had more to say about Maxwell. “If Shahid Afridi is ‘Boom Boom’ for Pakistan, Maxwell is ‘Big Show’ for Australia,” he said.

He had some additional information about Maxwell as well. “Maxwell does not like the nickname ‘Big Show’ — he prefers to be known as Maxi. But I love to call him ‘Mad Max’ because of the shots he plays,” he said.

At the entrance to the Adelaide Oval, a volunteer talked about Maxwell’s knock at Sydney and also demonstrated some of his strokes. He then surprised me with a brilliant quote: “If Lasith Malinga is the best death overs bowler, Maxwell is the best death to the bowler.”

Another fan who overheard our conversation thanked Maxwell’s schoolmates in Melbourne. Owing to Maxwell’s huge talent, his schoolmates let him play with them only if he batted left-hand, and this resulted in him becoming a specialist in switch-hit shots and reverse sweeps.

At the post-match press conference, a journalist asked Maxwell what it would take for a bowler to get someone like him or AB De Villers out. Maxwell smiled and replied: “Change the rules, put 10 men on the fence.”

At the Adelaide Oval, it was interesting to see stilt walkers happily pose with any fan.

Bangladesh fans outnumbered the English fans so much that it was hard to find any group of English supporters.

The first feeling one gets at the entrance is whether it was a fancy dress competition or a cricket match that was going on. Most Bangladesh fans dressed up like their tiger mascot. A fan who had painted himself like a tiger posed for a picture with me.

Almost all English journalists with whom I had played in a friendly game against the ICC at the ICC Academy Oval in the UAE during England’s series against Pakistan in 2012 are here.

It was a pleasure to meet my team captain John Etheridge from The Sun and wicketkeeper Stephen Brenkley from the Independent. For the English journalists, attending the Bangladesh press conference was a matter of patience right till the end, since most questions were in Bengali rather than in English and they had to sit through without understanding a word of what captain Mashrafe Mortaza said.