Shreyas Iyer said he had no clue how he had landed with the nickname Sarpanch Sahab, but said he was recently stopped on the road and told by 5 Punjab youth that if he pulled the IPL title for Punjab Kings they would name the nearby road after him.
In a fun interaction with Preity Zinta, who asked him how a Mumbai boy who went to Kolkata wound up becoming a Punjabi, and earned the moniker of Sarpanch Saab, he said, “This tag of sarpanch saab (Zinta said it somehow felt organic), Seriously I have no idea. No clue how I got this name. I think it came from the management. They gave me this tag…and it’s just tagged along.”
Iyer is the biggest Tamilian pulled by Punjab as their own, since their multiple Nationals winning state basketball coach, the late Subramanian Sir.
Iyer also recalled a funny incident associated with the name Sarpanch. “Whenever I go out in Punjab, when I went out in Chandigarh and out of the hotel, they say Sarpanch Saab ek picture le lo..so those incidents have happened.”
In one such, a group of fans declared with typical expansive Punjabi emotion they would name streets after him. “When we were coming back from the ground in our innova. They saw me sitting in the car at signal, so this car with 5 guys came and they said Sarpanch Saab iss saal jeeta dena. Yaha ka ek rastaa aapke naam kar denge,” he chucked.
