Clean bowled

After Rohit Sharma posted a photo of Rishabh Pant’s untidy hotel room, four ex-cricketers spill the beans on their cleanest and messiest teammates

Kiran More, wicketkeeper, 1984-93

Syed Kirmani was the tidiest. Everything was clean with him, and he would also take his own time packing his kit bag. Mohammad Azharuddin was also tidy and, of course, Kiran More, too. Some of the boys were scared of me. As for the messiest, it has to be Navjyot Singh Sidhu and Chetan Sharma. There is a story about the 1987 World Cup. We were staying at the Taj Palace Hotel and one day Kapil [Dev] saw that their clothes and plates of food were lying all over. He told them to not come for practice till they called housekeeping and got the room cleaned.

Paras Mhambrey, swing bowler, 1996-98

Vinayak Samant was the tidiest of the lot in the Mumbai Ranji team. He was the wicketkeeper and would always keep one glove on top of another, and his bats were neatly lined up against the wall in rows of three or four. He always kept the area he stayed in tidy. But Zubin Bharucha was the untidiest. He was the opening batsman and when he came back in, his clothes and socks would be lying all over the place.

Yajurvindra Singh, all-rounder, 1977-79

Sunil Gavaskar’s room was always the tidiest. We were roommates during the 1979 World Cup tour in England and, like with his batting, he was always meticulous about everything he did, including putting things in their right place. In fact, whenever I wanted to annoy him, I would put things out of place. That was my way of showing my anger at him. Kapil Dev was the untidiest, because he would throw his sweaty clothes in any direction of the room. It wasn’t bearable at times, but the fellow had bowled so many overs that you felt sorry for him.

Raju Kulkarni, fast bowler, 1983-87

It was a different scenario in our time. Your hotel room was a sacred place and part of prayers, superstitions, etc. All rooms were kept tidy, with God’s photos and religious books near your bed. The best part was to share your room with legends, idols who you admired all your life. You could watch them really closely - their habits, approach to the match, way of relaxation and so on. Can you imagine sharing a room on your first tour with Sunil Gavaskar or Dilip Vengsarkar! Dilip had a habit of getting up early and making tea for his roommate. And Sunny used to read most of the time, and would get ready in 10 minutes. There are really so many memories we have from our hotel rooms.

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