I'm in a 7up commercial with Mahendra Singh Dhoni

shayolden

This is an excerpt from my India journal...

Then for what it possibly the oddest day of my life. Woke up at 8:00ish to check in again. (This has to be done before 9:00am every morning in some sick attempt to make us rise at a good christian time). So got down there and some dude approached me and asked if I wanted to appear in a commercial. He said I’ll receive Rs 500, and get to spend the day playing cricket in Mumbai stadium. I must admit it sounded pretty suss, he wanted me to get on the back of his motorbike there and then. It seemed legit so I went upstairs and got dressed came down and got on. We picked up another guy on the way, so the 3 of us on this bike arrive at the stadium. There, was 9 other dudes waiting. They explained they were shooting a 7up commercial and we were to play the Australian cricket team. Sweet I thought, finally a chance to play for my country, or at least play as my country. They filled one whole stand with Indian’s as a crowd and the commercial was being directed by some famous Indian comedian. So for most of the day we spent playing cards, with an hour or so spent filming with us fielding. I noticed how unaustralian our team looked, with most of our players being scandanavian. Then they needed a bowler. As the only one on our team who knew jack shit about cricket that had to be me. Then out came India’s wicket keeper and one of the worlds highest paid sports people, Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The crowd went wild and I had to bowl to him. So there I was in the Australian uniform bowling to one of the most famous cricketers in the world. It was the best delivery of my life! They gave us our Rs 500, told me the ad will be played in pretty much every country showing the cricket world cup to be played next month, (of which 7up is a major sponsor) and sent me on my way. How exciting, it wasn’t even a con.

Read more at http://sheldoninindia.wordpress.com/

julesa

that's fairly awesome. i wouldn't even know any of the cricketers. i'm surprised they didn't get brett lee in, they love his golden locks over there

Digital Drifter

I say, they got you pretty cheap.

Nice though.

Next thing you know, you'd be palming off unsuspecting ozzies as Bollywood extras. & getting a cut out of the action.

Move, move......

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Bigzero

Thats great news, and hope you look mean enough in the ad ! Let us see if you have the potential to fill the Aussie fast bowling ranks

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kidsan

what a great great story...that'll be one to tell the grandchildren (again and again)

But you havent told us what happened to your delivery to dhoni! did you make it spin like warney and remove his leg stump?? hope so!

Nick-H

A different day, indeed!

Hope you manage to get a recording of the resultant commercial...

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shayolden

well the actually bowl that they are using in the comercial was actually a fake, i had to pretend to bowl the ball, and pretend he hit me for six. (theres no way he could actually hit me for six hehe).

but on the delivery with a real cricket ball, he casually off drived me.

actually another funny thing i forgot to mention was when i ran up for the first delivery i got my footing wrong and pulled up. this sent the crowd absolutely wild. i just gave them a bit of a head bobble and got back to business.

good stuff!

ive scoured the net for the ad and havent been able to find it as yet, tho they said its for the cricket world cup, which only began yesterday. so hopefully in a few days it will be up, and ill post the link.

come on aussie come on, come on, come on aussie come on.

Digital Drifter

ummm....those guys are paid to scream for the ad with the instructions 'cheer when the bowler reaches the crease' no?

It's just that you slipped up the first time....

Yes? Or were you under the impression that YOU were popular?

shayolden

let me rephrase...

it was more jeering than cheering. if you are familiar with cricket you will be aware that a bowler pulls up from time to time before releasing the delivery and the crowd typically responds with a loud, low and humourous jeer.

the crowd were told to cheer when the director with the megaphone yelled cheer cheer cheer! this jeering was done unprompted.

let me have my 15 minutes. (-;

lonelyaztec

Congratulations to u !

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New-South-Welshman

Haha. I was with shayolden the night before, getting trashed at all these pubs around Bombay, so I know all too much how he was feeling the next day. I flew to Goa and he bowled a ball to one of the best new batsmen int he world. *sigh*

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shayolden

NSW it was terrible, I'd had 4 hours sleep after only having 3 the night before, and how many beers did we have that night? I was the last there so I missed breakfast, and on more than one occasion I thought I was going to spew. Felt much better as the day went on tho, 8 hours later I got back to the room and Ash that bitch was still sleeping!

soumya_mukherjee

We can hope to watch the commercial in this world cup.

Somehow the Australian team gets featured in those commercial with one Indian superstar. Remember the Visa ad where Sachin had to pay restaurant bill for the entire Austrailian team? Indian crowd these days consider Austrailia as the enemy number one, not Pakistan.

shayolden

Soumya,

I notice your avatar is the dark side of the moon album cover. Did you get a chance to catch Roger Waters in Mumbai? Thats where I was two days before filming the commercial. Was a pretty good show, loved the giant pig.

soumya_mukherjee

Yes I'm a die-hard fan of early Pink Floyd! But alas! I missed Roger in Mumbai, had to travel to Middle-East, returned only yesterday.

It's the second time I missed Roger, he was in Bangalore few years back.