The BBC Sport website recently billed Andre Nel as ‘cricket’s craziest man‘, and there is no shortage of evidence that Andre is indeed a bit odd, but the sport is hardly short of competition for such a title.
Even amongst Nel’s South African team-mates, there is Neil McKenzie, who (although he is now over it) used to have some of the strangest superstitions I’ve ever heard of.
Whilst most cricketers are a little superstitious (even Kevin Pietersen always puts his left-hand pad on first), others, like McKenzie, take things a little further. The legendary wicketkeeper, painter and dog-breed namesake that is Jack Russell is a case in point. Jack was, for example, a big fan of Weetabix, but only when it had been soaked in milk for precisely 12 minutes.
A little further back, there was the celebrated eccentric RJO Meyer, although he is never known to have taped anything to a ceiling, or having claimed to have an alter-ego called Gunther ‘who lives up a mountain in Germany‘.
The annals of Wisden are full of this sort of thing, but even your average eccentric has to take his hat off to the likes of Nel, McKenzie and Russell. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to check that all the toilet seats in my office are down…
Gunther isn’t crazy, he’s my brother.
I would like to deny any connection with Andre Nel, or with Jrod.
If I told everyone I had an alter-ego that played cricket for South Africa, everyone here in Germany would think I was mad.
[...] Shepherd, perhaps best known for his superstitious and celebrated aversion to the ‘Nelson’, is, like Bird, much missed by many who grew [...]
[...] From South Africa’s point of view, the main news is that Steyn is injured, so Andre Nel will be playing, in a gift to cricket bloggers everywhere. [...]
[...] March 25, 2009 by A P Webster Andre Nel (and, presumably, Gunter) has retired from international cricket. Cricinfo describes him as “a rambunctious and wholehearted cricketer“. The BBC have in the past given him the accolade of “cricket’s craziest man“. I would describe him, after careful consideration, as ‘properly mental‘. [...]