'I promised to phone AB de Villiers' - Tabraiz Shamsi reveals the reason behind his shoe-phone and magician celebrations

South Africa spinner Tabraiz Shamsi is known for his unique kind of celebrations after picking up a wicket. He never fails to surprise his fans when it comes to pulling out a special celebration and has been in trouble due to it as well. Shamsi pulling on the mask after picking up a wicket during the MSL was banned by the ICC. However, it hasn’t stopped from celebrating his wicket.

The chinaman bowler has come up with the shoe-phone and magic celebrations since then keeping himself and the fans entertained. He also revealed an interesting story stating the reason for celebrating his wickets in unique ways. In one of the domestic games, Shamsi had planned a batsman’s dismissal with AB de Villiers who wasn’t in the playing XI and had promised the latter to phone him if he was successful in his plan.

To his credit and delight, Tabraiz Shamsi managed to get the batsman out in the same way and then came the shoe-phone celebration which went viral. He also responded to the criticism he always faces over his celebrations and said that he just wants to make memories and his focus is always in his game.

“Lot of people think I am not focussing on my game but only on my celebrations. But, it is just my way of making memories. Shoe-Phone celebration came from umpires as they go upstairs to the third umpire when they were in doubt. Also, I remember a Titans game where I was speaking to AB de Villiers about dismissing a certain batsman, we discussed the plan to dismiss and it actually worked out.

“AB wasn’t in the XI in that game, I promised him if I get that batsman out, I will phone you,” Shamsi said while speaking to CricTracker in a live session on Instagram.

I wanted to become a magician, says Tabraiz Shamsi

The 30-year-old also opened up about his magic celebrations where he takes out a piece of cloth and then turns into a stick which looks like a magic wand after picking up a wicket. He performed the trick for the first time in the MSL’s inaugural season and it became a routine occurring since then. Speaking about the same, Tabraiz Shamsi revealed that he wished to become a magician during his younger days.

“Coming to the magician stuff, I really wanted to be a magician when I was young till the age of 16. Later, the game of cricket took over and I started taking the game seriously, so I couldn’t practice more magic tricks. That’s been one of my hobbies, it’s something I enjoy just to see the amazing faces when they don’t understand what’s going on,” he added.