Career
Originally playing for Lancashire, Irani moved to Essex in 1994 and quickly gained cult status before he became captain in 2000, and is generally accepted to have done a decent job in charge, helping to bring through promising players such as Alastair Cook, Will Jefferson and Ravinder Bopara. His ex-captain and England team-mate Nasser Hussain was critical of Irani in his autobiography, Playing with Fire, but Irani remains a popular figure at Chelmsford to this day. After Graham Gooch stepped down as the club's head coach prior to the start of the 2005 season, Irani assumed some of these responsibilities in addition to his role as county captain.
In June 2007, he rejected a new contract with Essex and announced his retirement from first class cricket at the end of the 2007 season. He retired with immediate effect later that month. He has now taken up a permanent position at talkSPORT, where he co-hosts The Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast with former Scottish international footballer Alan Brazil. He also hosts The Cricket Show with Andy Jacobs on Sunday nights during the summer. His nickname on the show is 'penguin'.
He is known by many sports fans for an "Exercise" routine during an England One Day International. He was doing a warm-up while fielding, and unbeknownst to Irani, the Australian fans were imitating his routine behind his back. When he discovered what they were doing, he played up to the fans and became more pacey as to make the fans carry on even more. The camera panned on Nasser Hussein at one point, and showed him laughing at Irani. It is often replayed when Ronnie Irani is interviewed or is a guest at a show.
Read more about this topic: Ronnie Irani
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