This post is in response to a question that one of our Facebook fans, Nina Afrillia posted and which was seconded by another regular contributor Golden Falcon. Nina’s question is: I was just wondering not all KXIP boys can speak in English, and we’ve got many Australian players. How do they comunicate with each other??? Well, here is the Andar ki Baat.

It is true that the dressing room is multi-lingual and the question of communication is a very pertinent one. But then when you have a group of enterprising cricketers thrown in together, breaking the communication barrier can be a lot of fun too. It must be pointed out that all of the Indian players do understand English even though some may not necessarily be comfortable speaking in the language. Quite obviously, the Australian and South African players and staff are much worse off with their Hindi , and that leads to a lot of fun.

First the serious stuff. With Coach, Captain, Bowling Coach and Physio all being Australians, communicating strategy, training and coaching tips effectively is of prime importance. Though most of these discussions happen in English, none of the Indian players faces too much of an issue here as the talk revolves around cricket, and they are always able to piece together the information. Additionally Assistant Coach Vikram Rathore, players who are comfortable with both Hindi and English and the rest of the Indian support staff is actively involved in ensuring that things are properly understood and not misinterpreted. And believe me, even if the only language you understand is Quechua, you would still be inspired by an Adam Gilchrist pep talk. The content is always worthy of being remembered to the grave, but skipper Gilli also has the ability to fire you up with the passion in his voice and the intensity of that much-respected look.

Beyond cricket talk though, there is an unplanned yet serious effort to Indianize everyone from foreign shores. Introduction to regular everyday words like Shukriya and Namaste was completed long ago and now language training has proceeded to serious levels. It is common to see David Hussey calling out Jaldi-Jaldi (quick-quick) to people who are trickling into the team bus close to deadline time and if you ask David Miller if he wants to go shopping for sunglasses, he’ll quickly shoot back Chalo Chalo (Let’s go). Ryan McLaren is another one rather keen on picking up as many words and phrases as he can while India veteran Adam Gilchrist can surprise any lady by telling her Tum bahut khoobsoorat ho (You are very beautiful). No one would be surprised to know that many of the Hindi (and Punjabi) that is learned and taught cannot be reproduced here but you would be well advised not to abuse any cricketer from any country in choice Hindi or Punjabi as you would be easily understood.

Accent is the other noteworthy aspect of verbal communication and the barrier is bridged with glee by players from both sides. Listen to Piyush Chawla say Let’s go Boise (boys) when he imitates an Australian accent and you would start calling him Peter Charles. On the other hand, Gilli after posing for a gazillion picture requests usually turns to us and says Saar one fotto pliss (Sir, one photo please) like a perfect Indian.

There are other forms of communication too. Praveen Kumar can say everything with his expressions and the occasional hand gesture while Mandeep and Bipul do a lot of their talking in songs. Give them half a chance and they perform duets, often focusing their attention on one person. On the way to Indore, they told Tim Brennan our physio, that they fell in love with him when they first saw him through a popular Punjabi song. Tim grinned and nodded and even danced a bit was not too excited when somebody translated the words to him.

In some closing news on the topic, team manager Col. Mehta prefers communicating through crisp, clear SMS or neatly tabled and type written sheets which leave little doubt for misinterpretation. Bhargav Bhatt and David Miller have completely overcome any language issues by becoming best friends forever with Bhargav having given the name Pappu to Miller, who gladly responds when called  by it. Also by the end of the IPL trainer Adrian Dias will have mastered Afrikaan from Security in-charge South African Dino Gangaram.

On a personal note, though I consider myself fairly proficient in Hiindi, I am left stumped in Indore when a local policeman prevents me crossing a barrier by saying Hamare varisht adhikaari iski anumati nahi denge. (My senior officer will not give permission for this). Clearly, we don’t speak the same language