Warne nicknames Menaria after anti-malarial drug

Rajasthan Royals captain Shane Warne's nickname giving exercise of his players can boil down to hilarious proportions as Ashok Menaria gets his name from an anti-malarial drug which the Australian brought with him in India and sounds like the youngster's surname.

Each of the RR players has been known by a nickname since the first edition of the IPL and Warne, who had difficulties in pronouncing 'Menaria', gave the 20-year-old player's name 'Doxy' which came from anti-malarial drug Doxycycline.

"Like in the first edition of the IPL, he (Warne) has nicknamed the players and formed groups of three each with a leader for every activity of the team. It helps in infusing confidence and leadership quality and sense of responsibility among players," Menaria said ahead of RR's IPL match against Pune Warriors here tomorrow.

"I have been nicknamed 'Doxy' and the story behind is; because he was scared of Malaria, when he first met me he jokingly asked is it Menaria or Malaria. When Shane came here he brought a lot of medicines, mostly Doxycycline. So, I was named 'Doxy' after the drug," Menaria said at the match-eve press conference.

He praised the legendary Australian for being able to extract the best out of his players and said there was no language barrier between them and the captain.

"Shane encourages us to express ourselves in Hindi only and it was then translated to him. He says that it was his fault that he does not know Hindi," the youngster said.

Menaria, who was India captain in the Under-19 World Cup in 2009, said his best moment so far has been the prized wicket of Mumbai Indians captain Sachin Tendulkar whom he foxed into stumping in his side's last IPL match.

"Since my child hood I have been dreaming of Sachin and it was like dream come true for me when I got a chance to brush shoulders for with him. I had not thought about his wicket but had planned to try and contain him by bowling wicket to wicket. He is like god of cricket and I couldn't have asked more than that," said the left-arm spinner.

Asked if there is any plan to keep Pune Warriors captain Yuvraj Singh quiet tomorrow, Menaria said, "It would be decided later that what we plan for the flamboyant Yuvraj Singh."