By IANS
New Delhi : The tri-series in Australia saw a different Santhakumaran Sreesanth. Gone were the stares and on-field celebratory antics like the war dance after hitting South African fast bowler Andre Nel for a six.
The fiery pacer was uncharacteristically subdued and calm during the recent Commonwealth Bank One-Day Series in Australia.
It was the fear of being banned by the International Cricket Council that tempered Sreesanth down.
Sreesanth was booked a number of times last year, and the Kerela pacer said he wanted to avoid one more offence as that would have kept him away from at least three Tests.
“I had to control myself, because If I had crossed the line one more time, I could have been banned up to three Tests or some ODIs, So I am careful now and keep that in mind whenever I take the field,” Sreesanth said.
“I realised that there is a thin line between foolishness and bravery.Every time I felt like saying something, I would quickly go back to my run-up,” said Sreesanth speaking at a promotional event of Luminous Power Technologies.
Everybody wondered how could a player, who got involved in many verbal volleys and was hauled up by match referees, keep his calm when others were losing their cool in the torrid summer Down Under?
Sreeesanth said that it was hard to control his aggression, but meditation helped him to get over it.
“I thought that my name in ‘Santh’ and I have to be one. It was very tough to control myself. Meditation and ayurveda helped me.”
Sreesanth’s on-field behaviour was praised even by Adam Gilchrist, who said his transformation was exemplary and both teams should learn from the way he behaved.
Sreesanth, though, feels that he has just learnt to express himself in other ways.
“It is not that I am not aggressive. I did stare a bit in Australia. I am still aggressive with my bowling. I have changed the forms of aggression and trying two or three different ways to express myself,” he said.