50 things that happened since Ashish Nehra's International debut
The Indian selectors have recalled pacer Ashish Nehra for the upcoming T20I series against Australia. This created a buzz among the Indian cricket fans, as the veteran pacer is 38 years old and still managed to make a national comeback.
The left-arm pacer made his International debut on February 24, 1999, when India took on Sri Lanka in a Test match. Since then, he has represented the country in 17 Tests, 120 ODIs and 26 T20Is, taking a combined total of 235 wickets across all three formats. A lot of things have happened since Nehra Ji, as he is fondly called by the fans, made his international debut.
Let us take a look at some of the interesting things that have happened since the Delhi bowler received his India cap.
#1 Seven different players (Mohammad Azharuddin, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Gautam Gambhir and Inzamam-ul-Haq, for Asia XI) went on to captain Ashish Nehra.
#2 The T20 format was introduced, got international recognition, a biennial World Cup was introduced and six editions were played.
#3 Sourav Ganguly was made India's captain, led the team well, gave up captaincy as one of the best Indian skippers before MS Dhoni was handed the role a couple of years later. He won all the possible trophies before stepping down as India's best captain ever.
#4 Indian team changed their jersey 14 times.
#5 The head coach/interim coach of the Indian team changed 10 times.
#6 MSK Prasad made his international debut, played a handful of matches for India, retired from all forms of cricket, held an administrative role in HCA, became India's chief selector and eventually picked Nehra in the Indian team.
#7 When Nehra made his debut, none of the Indian batsmen had scored an international 250 in an innings. Now, numerous Indians have scored 250 in Tests and Rohit Sharma went on to cross the landmark in ODIs.
#8 Test cricket was graced with Bangladesh's presence soon after Nehra's debut; they have played over 100 matches so far and the ICC has now also given Test status to Ireland and Afghanistan.
#9 Sachin Tendulkar scaled 8000, 9000, 10000, 11000, 12000, 13000, 14000, 15000, 16000, 17000 and 18000 runs in ODIs.
#10 Sachin also scored a total of 10625 runs in ODIs and compiled 61 International centuries.
#11 Sanjay Bangar made his international debut, retired from all forms of cricket and was appointed as the batting coach of the Indian team.
#12 Virat Kohli progressed to secondary school, represented India in the under-19 age group, led the Indian team to the title in the under-19 World Cup, graduated to the senior team, cemented his place in the side, became the skipper and is now captaining Nehra.
#13 All the players who made their debuts before Nehra announced their retirements, making him the senior-most international cricketer at the moment.
#14 MS Dhoni made his first-class debut, rose through the ranks, became an Indian player, was given the captaincy role, won the World T20, World Cup, Champions Trophy, stepped down from captaincy as India's best captain and had a biopic.
#15 Nehra's maiden international wicket, Marvan Atapattu became Sri Lanka's captain, resigned from the post, retired from all forms of cricket, coached teams in Singapore and Canada, became the head coach of Sri Lanka, stepped down and became a mentor for a Karnataka Premier League side.
#16 Afghanistan started playing cricket, rose through the ranks, qualified for World T20, qualified for World Cups, became a Test playing nation and now are a full member of ICC.
#17 All his bunnies from the historic India vs England 2003 World Cup clash retired from cricket.
#18 Virender Sehwag made his debut for India, played for 14 years, won the World Cup with Nehra, announced his retirement, opened a Twitter account, became active on the platform and is backing Nehra's comeback there.
#19 Shahid Afridi announced his retirement and made a comeback on numerous occasions.
#20 Game of Thrones became a TV series, was aired for the first time and completed its seventh season recently.
#21 Roger Federer didn't know what it felt like to win a Grand Slam when Nehra made his debut. Now, he has won 19 Grand Slams and, like Nehra, is still playing.
#22 Rafael Nadal became a professional Tennis player, won 16 Grand Slams and numerous ATP Masters titles.
#23 LeBron James made his NBA debut, won three titles, three MVPs and is still playing.
#24 Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi became professionals, scored 1191 goals and won 9 Ballon d'Ors between them.
#25 India started winning Olympic Gold and Silver medals at individual events. They had won only Bronze before Nehra had made his debut.
#26 WWE World Championship changed hands 87 times.
#27 Real Madrid had 15 different managers.
#28 Chelsea had 16 different managers.
#29 Alan Shearer's 15 million pounds was the costliest transfer fee then. Recently, Paris Saint-Germain signed Neymar for a whopping 198 Million Pounds.
#30 Arvind Kejriwal was still a common man back then, became a politician, was elected as the Delhi CM, resigned after 49 days, contested the elections again and became the CM for the second time.
#31 From being a BJP party member, Narendra Modi became Gujarat's Chief Minister and later, India's Prime Minister.
#32 Rahul Gandhi entered politics, became Congress' youth wing leader before getting the Vice-Presidency post in the party.
#33 Steve Jobs created Apple iPhones. He passed away, but the brand is still going strong, and has released 16 different versions of his creation in total.
#34 Nokia 8210 was the most popular mobile phone and cell phones were not popular in India. Now, every Indian, except Nehra, has at least one mobile.
#35 Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and several social networking sites were launched.
#36 Real Madrid spent approximately 900 million pounds on transfers.
#37 Michael Schumacher won five consecutive Formula 1 titles with Ferrari, retired, came back, retired again, met with a freak accident, went into a coma, came out of it, but is still living under artificial support.
#38 Floyd Mayweather won 11 major world titles, retired thrice (2007, 2015 and 2017) and made a comeback on two occasions (2009 and 2017).
#39 Sir Alex Ferguson finally retired.
#40 Pakistan had 15 different ODI captains.
#41 Manchester City got promoted to the Championship, moved to the Premier League, got relegated to the Championship, got promoted to PL again, got new owners, spent over a billion and won the English Premier League twice.
#42 Zinedine Zidane moved to Real Madrid from Juventus for a world record fee, won all the trophies he could as a Real Madrid player, won the Euros with France, retired from the game, was appointed as coach of Real Madrid Castilla, was made Real's first team coach Carlo Ancelotti's assistant, won a Champions League, went to manage Castilla again, was appointed as the Real Madrid manager, won all the possible trophies he could win as a Real Madrid manager and became the first manager to win the UEFA Champions League twice in two seasons.
#43 India beat Pakistan in World Cups on nine different occasions and took the overall head-to-head in the tournament to 11-0.
#44 Arsenal fans trusted in Arsene Wenger, won the Golden Premier League, went trophy-less for almost a decade, stopped believing in Wenger, started Wenger Out slogans, flew an aeroplane with a Wenger Out message and are still firm in the manager leaving the club.
#45 Liverpool are still trying to win the Premier League.
#46 South Africa choked in ICC tournaments on 23 occasions.
#47 John Cena made his WWE debut, won the WWE title 16 times and became a part-timer.
#48 The average waiting time at Silk Board junction in Bangalore increased from 3 seconds to 298 minutes.
#49 Neymar became a famous personality, opened an Instagram account and posted 394,737,379 photos on the social media platform.
#50 Leonardo di Caprio featured in 99,754,377,356,420 memes about him not winning an Oscar and then managed to win one.