Pinch Hitter

For my 'name' sake

Ganpat, Chandidas, Rasiklal, Omprakash, Devjibhai, Manohar, Ramlal, Musa, Ramesh, well all these are Cricketers who played Test matches for India. Never heard of such names is what you would wonder. These are middle names of Vinod Kambli, Saurav Ganguly, Dilip Doshi, Ashok Malhotra, Karsan Ghavri, Sunil Gawaskar, Kapil Dev, Munaf Patel and Sachin Tendulkar, respectively. Infact, Ramlal happens to be Nayan Mongia's middle name too.

I was always intrigued about these middle names. Why are'nt these middle names used? I know it will look odd if the commentators start saying "what a shot from Chandidass Ganguly". But there are some instances where the middle name sounds good. For example.

VRV Singh's full name is Vikram Raj Vir Singh, why not call him Raj Vir Singh.

In Prasad's name MSK stands for Mannava Sri Kanth. He could be addressed as Sri Kanth Prasad.

VVS Laxman is Vangipurappu Venkata Sai Laxman, why not address him as Venkata Sai Laxman or Sai Laxman?

And if the above names are a trend or a way of addressing then why is Sagi Lakshmi Venkatapathy Raju, addressed as Venkatapathy Raju, and why not SLV Raju? And Roger Michael Humphrey Binny as RMH Binny and why Roger Binny?

For those who argue that middle names are meant to be generally ignored, I would like to ask then why say Dinesh Karthik and not Krishnakumar Karthik? As, his full name is Krishnakumar Dinesh Karthik.

I would have probably addressed Kriti Azad as Kirtivardhan Azad or Ravi Shastri as Jayadritha Shastri or Ravishankar Shastri, though their full names are Kirtivardhan Bhagwat Jha Azad  and Ravishankar Jayadritha Shastri.

These are few full names of international cricketers:

Michael Edward Killeen Hussey, Adam Craig Gilchrist, Stuart Charles Glyndwr MacGill

Ricky Thomas Ponting, Glenn Donald McGrath, Matthew Lawrence Hayden, Shane Keith Warne, Stephen Rodger Waugh, Ramnaresh Ronnie Sarwan, Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards, Alvin Isaac Kallicharran, Clive Hubert Lloyd.

Except for Vivian Richards all of them use their first and last names. But why?

Alexander Richards looks such a rich name not that Vivian Richards doesn't. Donald McGrath - a combination of ‘White lightening' and the ‘pigeon'. Well this can be endlessly debated.

But I wish the commentators do some justice to the names because we pick the names and the pronunciations from them.