'I'm the best entertainer in the world'
Dave Mohammed explains his various celebration routines, talks about what he bought with his Stanford money, and the other sport he's good at

Dave Mohammed indulges in perhaps the most staid celebration of his life • Jewel Samad/AFP
The first time was in the StanfordTwenty20 in Antigua, when I took off my shoes [after taking a wicket]. It was a great feeling for me. I knew my supporters would love to see it again as they seemed to enjoy it.
When a guy is not reading spin, he's got to stay in his crease. Why are you coming down the wicket? Otherwise I'm going to take off my shoe and make a phone call: "Somebody call you down the wicket?"
I just sleep on it, imagine what I'm going to do when I get a wicket, and when I go there I know exactly what to do.
No, no. If she is cooking, she sometimes burns the food watching me bowl. She will throw away pots and pots of food just to see me bowl, and how I'm going to celebrate. She always pushed me to enjoy my cricket.
The alligator roll. Then there is one where I sit on the pitch, tap my head, tap my chest, tap my feet. I call that "tic for tac" - you don't know what's happening so leave the ball alone.
I believe I'm the best entertainer in the whole wide world. I grew up really, really tough, but it's not a rough time for me at the moment. And I like to enjoy it.
Yes, I'm the last child in the family. I suddenly turned 30 this October 8! I grew up without a dad and it was really tough for our mum to send us to school and support us. But right now what we are doing as big man and big woman - we support she back. She got to take her rocking chair now and relax and enjoy watching me on the TV.
My biggest gift for her is my love for her. You know, some parents nowadays let their kids go astray, but mum always protected us. So once you show your parents love, you will get all God's blessings.
I shoot some pool. I'm very good at it. Any time you want to challenge, just test me! I haven't seen a challenger so far, so I'll keep it up.
I bought my first house - must get a roof over the head, buddy. I bought a nice SUV jeep too.
"Chris Gayle really can't celebrate like I do. I got to bring him to my pace"
When I was smaller I liked to play in the water and catch fishes, and I loved to play with the little tadpoles. And people would keep saying "Hey, you like playing with the tadpoles", and that stuck with me.
Hmm… sounds familiar. What did he do?
I never met him. In the Caribbean we never had a specialist spinner come and coach us. Only Terry Jenner came, around 1996, and worked with youngsters. He took it upon himself to help out and develop and make something out of us. He was a like a father to me.
The older heads always tell me: be strong, go strong, keep strong and nothing should pull you wrong to be what you could be until your last ball. What that means is, always keep going.
The first time I bowled to him in Trinidad, he had no clue what I was bowling. I was too fast with the wrists - he took some time to read it. He always tells me I have far to go and don't give up.
He really can't celebrate like I do. I got to bring him to my pace.
Each one of us is a good because we are soca boys. Everybody has a little shilling in their waist. If we have a cent, we got to have a five cent. If we have a five cent, we need 10 cent. If we do have 10 cents we must have a dollar. That's how the Caribbeans enjoy their music. If you rock your waist to the left side it is a cent, to the right side is five cent, to the back is 10 cent, and front is dollar, dollar, dollar.
Nagraj Gollapudi is an assistant editor at Cricinfo