Published: Oct 30, 2015, 01:49 PM (IST)
Edited: Oct 30, 2016, 05:00 PM (IST)
Born on October 30, 1977, Adrian Dimitri Mascarenhas had many ups and downs in his career, but will forever be remembered as a cricketer, who never reached his full potential in international cricket. On his birthday, Pramod Ananth lists a few interesting things about him.
1. Born to parents from Bharatha community: Bharatha is a caste in Sri Lanka, given to those who have migrated there from Tamil Nadu. His parents Malik and Pauline were both from the same community. Mascarhenas is of Tamil-Sri Lankan origin.
2. Studied in same school as few Australian international cricketers: Mascarenhas grew up in Perth and studied at Trinity College, which boasts of alumni like Simon Katich, Tim Zoehrer and Craig Serjeant. He however moved back to England in 1996 to pursue a career in professional cricket.
3. First player to get hat-trick in T20 cricket: Mascarenhas dismissed Mark Davis, Mushtaq Ahmed and Jason Lewry of Sussex to become the first player to take a hat-trick in the shortest format of the game in 2004. He finished the match with figures of 5 for 14.
4. Appointed Hampshire skipper: Following Shane Warne’s retirement in 2007, Mascarenhas was appointed the captain of Hampshire. He led the team to two T20 titles—one in 2010 and the other in 2012.
5. Hits five sixes off Yuvraj Singh: After impressive performances in the domestic circuit, Mascarenhas was called-up into the England squad when India toured in 2007. Mascarenhas hit Yuvraj for five sixes off consecutive deliveries in the final over of the Oval ODI. India eventually won the match thanks to excellent innings from Sachin Tendulkar and Robin Uthappa.
6. First English player to play in IPL’s inaugural season: The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) had not allowed centrally contracted England players to play in the IPL. Since Mascarenhas was not contracted he therefore became the first English player to play in the IPL when he played for Rajasthan Royals (RR) in 2008.
7. Outburst on Twitter: Mascarenhas took to Twitter to criticise Chairman of selectors Geoff Miller after being left out of the England squad in 2010. He was banned for 14 days at the beginning of the 2011 season and was fined £1000 by Hampshire and £500 by ECB after tendering an apology.
8. Retires at 35: Mascarenhas retired from all forms of cricket in 2013 bringing an end to an 18-year cricketing career, all of which, he spent at Hampshire. In all, he amassed over 12,000 runs and picked up close to 900 wickets throughout his career.
9. Turned to coaching: Mascarenhas at the latter stages of his career held player-coach roles with Hampshire, RR and Hobart Hurricanes after he secured ECB level-three coaching qualification degree. He is now New Zealand’s full-time bowling coach.
(Pramod Ananth is a reporter at CricketCountry. He has represented Karnataka table tennis under-15, and is a hardcore supporter of Liverpool FC. His Twitter handle is @pramz)
