Former England cricketer Chris Broad, who is also a known former match referee with the International Cricket Council (ICC), revealed that his son Stuart Broad, the England fast bowling great, once threw his gift into the bin, as it was a jersey signed by Yuvraj Singh, the ace Indian batter.
This was after the 2007 T20 World Cup, which India won and had defeated England in one of the crucial matches. In that match, after Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir had ravaged the England bowling attack, Yuvraj Singh twisted the knife further.
After a heated altercation with Andree Flintoff, Yuvraj vented his fury on the young Stuart Broad, hitting him for six sixes in an over and completing a 12-ball fifty.
However, his father used typical British humor to scold him further, and he now recalls that the gesture was not 'appreciated' by Stuart.
“He didn’t appreciate my gesture after he was hit for six sixes by Yuvraj Singh. I got Yuvraj to sign an Indian shirt and gave it to him for Christmas. Apparently, he opened the present, saw it, and threw it in the bin. I think he had a bit of a sense of humor failure over that," Chris Broad told The Telegraph.
Broad didn’t have a very good T20I career, but retired last year as one of the all-time greats with 604 wickets in 167 Test matches.
Broad, an opening batter himself, lamented that his son did not reach his full potential with the bat, scoring 3662 runs with one century but averaging only 18.03. Broad even shared a hilarious anecdote.
“Once he asked me, out of the blue, early in the season, to go into the nets at Trent Bridge and throw him some balls, and we had an hour working together, and he went out and scored a few runs for England.
In the press, he said, ‘Yeah, it’s been great, and I’d like to thank Paul Farbrace for helping me with my batting.’ Hello? What about your good old dad? And I did mention it to him, and he said, ‘But politically, I’ve got to say the right thing.’ I’m sorry, no, you don’t. So that was a bit disappointing. But I did try; I did say to him, ‘I can help you with your batting.’ But he would go, ‘No, I’m not interested, Dad; I’m a bowler. I’m not a batsman. I get that. But he could have been so much better,” Broad said.
