If you are a cricket fan, tracer bullet is a term you have certainly come across in television commentaries. And, interestingly, the man who popularised the term is Ravi Shastri.
While the cricket pundits and grammar Nazis have so far failed to find out the exact meaning of the term, ‘tracer bullet’, Shastri has finally revealed what it exactly means.
In a chat with Gaurav Kapur on his show, ‘ Breakfast with Champions ’, Shastri has said: “It is speed. It is something that rockets of your back when you fire a bullet, the speed it goes. Similarly, it is a shot that comes out of the bat with tremendous power and hits the fence like a tracer bullet.”
The current head coach of the Indian team has also spoken about the challenges of his present job. Having been a cricketer and a commentator in the past, Shastri feels that this job has the maximum pressure. “Playing was great fun. There was immense pressure but there were ten other people to help you out. Broadcasting was great fun, and the pressure was zero. This job, of all three, has the maximum pressure. Your life in the face, there is no skirt to hide behind. There is no loo to run to. Take it on the chin and move on. Job satisfaction, when a team does well is unbeatable. I love challenges,” Shastri has said.
Car-nama
Walking down memory lane, Shastri has also revealed that the Audi A6 car, which was given to him after the World Championship final in 1985, had to be changed as the original car — which was to be given away as a prize — was damaged due to celebrations by the Indian cricketers. “They had to give me a new car because they had made a mess of the car. There was champagne on the seats. I never sold it. It was the country’s car,” Shastri has revealed.
'Punctuality is paramount'
In a free-wheeling chat, Shastri has also spoken about being punctual and has revealed an incident when Indian team left for the stadium leaving behind its star player Sourav Ganguly as he was late. Interestingly, Shastri was the team manager then, and the team was touring Bangladesh. “I take pride in being punctual. It is a great quality. In our team, punctuality is paramount. The bus leaves at nine, it will leave at nine. Only once I had to take the bus early in Bangladesh in 2007. In Chittagong, we were supposed to leave at nine and it got to nine. I said, ‘let’s go’. The local managers and all said, ‘ Dada nahi aaya ’ (Dada hasn’t come yet). I said, ‘ Dada ayega gadi mein. Chalo .’ (Dada will take the car. Let us leave). After that, whenever we left for practice sessions, Sourav was always 10 minutes before. Punctuality is very important in team sport,” Shastri has said.
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