Ravi Shastri, who?

“Ravi Shastri? Who is he?” a woman journalist from an international news agency asked this correspondent on seeing a card bearing the former India captain’s name.

When cricket weds glamour, it even attracts those who can’t differentiate short-leg from long leg – including scribes who don’t cover sports. Unlike cricket fans, such people don't know anything about former cricketers and their exploits.

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Former India skipper Ravi Shastri became a victim of such an identity crisis at Cape Town during an IPL do.

“Ravi Shastri? Who is he?” a woman journalist from an international news agency asked this correspondent on seeing a card bearing the former India captain’s name.

When told that Shastri is a former cricket star, the woman retorted, “I don’t know him.” It was a repeat of a similar incident two decades ago during the Champion of Champions’ playing days when he once expressed the desire for a date with the glamorous Argentine tennis star Gabriela Sabatini.

Sabatini, when asked about this quipped, “Who is this Ravi Shastri.”

Asked about this second incident of ‘identity crisis’, Shastri laughed and said it was just a coincidence.