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| Sreesanth at Adelaide Oval |
Shanthakumaran Sreesanth (Malayalam: ശ്രീശാന്ത്, Santakumaran Srisant) pronunciation (help·info) (born 6 February 1983 in Kothamangalam, Kerala, India), is an Indian cricketer. He is a right-arm fast-medium-pace bowler and a right-handed tail-ender batsman. In first class cricket, he plays for Kerala and in the Indian Premier League, he plays for Rajasthan Royals. In the past, he has represented Kochi Tuskers Kerala and Kings XI Punjab. He is the first Kerala Ranji player to play Twenty20 cricket for India.
Early years
Sreesanth was born to Shanthakumaran Nair and Savithri Devi. He has one elder brother and a sister.[1] His brother Dipu Santhan owns a music company in Kochi and his sister Nivedita is a television actress in Kerala. His brother in law, Madhu Balakrishnan is a famous South Indian playback singer.[2]
Sreesanth initially was a leg-spinner in his childhood, modelling his action on India's leading Test wicket-taker Anil Kumble, who was to become his Test captain. However, his habit of bowling yorkers led him to convert to fast bowling, after being encouraged by his elder brother.[3] Following in the footsteps of fellow Kerala fast bowler Tinu Yohannan, who earned selection to the National Cricket Academy in 2000, Sreesanth was selected for the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai. He then made his first-class debut against Goa in the 2002–03 domestic season, claiming 22 wickets in seven matches in the Ranji Trophy[4] and winning selection for South Zone in the Duleep Trophy squad in the same season.[5]
He was selected for India-A side in a tour match against the visiting New Zealand side at Rajkot. He claimed one wicket in twelve overs after being restricted with a hamstring injury. He also missed five Ranji Trophy games in that season, although he still travelled with the side for away games. This led to rumours that an astrologer convinced him to take a break from competition to preserve his longevity in the sport, which Sreesanth categorically denied, maintaining that he was training only to regain his fitness.[3]
In November 2004, Sreesanth entered the record books when he took a hat-trick against Himachal Pradesh in a Ranji trophy game.[citation needed] He was selected to represent India B in the Challenger Trophy in October 2005, a domestic limited-overs tournament.[6] He performed impressively in that tournament, earning the Man of the Series award and being the leading wicket taker (7) with the third best bowling average.[7] This led to his selection to Indian team for the home ODI series against Sri Lanka.[8]
ODI career
Sreesanth was given the new ball[9] in the first ODI against Sri Lanka in Nagpur. After being punished early by Kumar Sangakkara and Sanath Jayasuriya, Sreesanth returned to claim his first two ODI wickets at the end of the match.[10] He was left out of the team and was later recalled for the fourth, fifth and sixth ODIs as coach Greg Chappell tinkered with the line-up. He was retained in the squad[11] but did not play in the 5 match series against South Africa, but played all five matches in the tour to Pakistan, recording a haul of 4/58 in the fifth ODI against Pakistani cricket team in Karachi. A good home series against the England in April 2006, in which he claimed 10 wickets at an average of 16.3, including a career best 6/55 in the final match at Indore (in which he was awarded the man of the match award [1]),[12] led to him subsequently being awarded a BCCI contract, in the C-grade in May.[13]
His disappointing economy rate led him to be left out of the ICC Champions Trophy squad of 14, with the beneficiary being R. P. Singh. He made an unexpected come back to the blue squad due to the injury to Ajit Agarkar later in the tournament. He was also out of the Indian ODI team for the England tour.
In the 2011 Cricket World Cup, Sreesanth was selected due to injury to Praveen Kumar. He was expensive in the first game going wicketless at 53 runs in 5 overs. He was selected in the final where he gave away 52 runs in 8 wicketless overs.
Spot fixing allegation and arrest
On May 16, 2013 Sreesanth was arrested on charges of Spot fixing during IPL 6 by the Mumbai police along with Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan, who play alongside him for Rajasthan Royals.[27][28] His father Shanthakumaran Nair initially alleged that Sreesanth's compatriots from the Indian team, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh had conspired against him and were responsible for his exclusion from the team.[29] In a press statement, Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar laughed off the allegations by Sreesanth's parents; "This is totally wrong. Dhoni did not put the towel in his trouser", he quipped.[30] Nair retracted his statement later the same day on TV and apologized for his outburst against Dhoni and Harbhajan.[31] Jiju Janardhan, another key accused in the spot-fixing, is believed to be Sreesanth's cousin and an under-22 Gujarat player. [32] On 17 May 2013, Sreesanth confessed to spot-fixing.[33]
Warwickshire
In August 2009, Sreesanth signed a deal to play for Warwickshire for the remainder of the English season.
Official warnings
Sreesanth is noted for his exuberant and emotional behaviour, especially whilst appealing for and celebrating wickets. He has been warned several times for indiscipline both on and off the cricket field, and frequently fined for violating the player conduct guidelines of the International Cricket Council. In October 2009, the BCCI issued a final warning to Sreesanth that any repetition of his code of conduct violations might result in drastic actions such as a ban from domestic cricket.[34] Subsequently, the Kerala Cricket Association also issued a final warning over repeated violations of their code of conduct after Sreesanth failed to turn up at the Kerala Ranji Trophy team camp in Kannur.[35]
In November 2009, however, after more than 18 months of omission from the national team, Sreesanth was recalled to the Test squad for the first two matches against Sri Lanka.[36] He replaced Ishant Sharma for the second Test in Kanpur, where his five wicket haul in the first innings of the match earned him the Man of the Match award and helped India to win the Test match by an innings and 144 runs.[20]
The name Sreesanth
Correct name
In the English-language media, Sreesanth's full name has been the source of some confusion. He has been variously referred to as "Sree Sreesanth",[37] "Sri Sreesanth",[38] "Shantha Sreesanth".[39] and "Shanthakumaran Sreesanth".[40] He has also stated in the past that he wished to be known as "Sree Santh".[41] In September 2007, Sreesanth said that his name was just "Sreesanth" and that the other variations were incorrect:
"It's Sreesanth. There is no Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, there is no S. Sreesanth. There was this function recently where they called me Sree Sreesanth, then Sree, and finally S Sreesanth. It's just Sreesanth."[42]
Decision and cancellation of name change
When his form slumped in 2006, Sreesanth had tried to change his luck by changing his name to Sreesunth, on numerological advice. He later stated that he was not going to change the name due to sentimental reasons. The word 'santh' in his name is derived from his father's name Santhakumaran Nair.[43]
Cultural depictions
- A character "Srikant" in the 2009 Malayalam film Daddy Cool resembles Shanthakumaran Sreesanth. The film was directed by Aashiq Abu and was a box office success.[44]
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