The Reservoir Of Energy
For 40 years of my life I’ve always wanted to get up early in the morning and go for a jog but have never managed to do so. I justify this to my friends in the evening by saying very inane things like, “I am not a very morning person.” The fact of the matter is that I just can’t push my mind to do that one activity which could have changed my life and given me the confidence that I needed. On the other hand, there is this man who for 24 years has pushed his mind to achieve what he did.
Sachin has always believed that every person has some reserve energy in their body which they can tap when they need it the most. He explains that several times when one is batting in very humid conditions like in Sri Lanka or Chennai, your energy completely drains out by the time one reaches 70 odd runs. This is the time when running between the wickets suffers but one needs to carry on for the team, else you may lose the game.
There comes a point when one is just done with it. This is the time he says, one needs to push the hardest and when you do it with all your might and show resistance to fatigue, new doors of energy open up. The point he makes is that the quantum of reserve energy in the body is way more than what one expects it to be. The harder the push the easier it is to tap into this reservoir. Marathoners believe in the same philosophy. Research shows that Usain Bolt, the fastest man on the planet operates at only 50 percent of his potential, so one can now understand the hidden potential of the human body and mind. The theory is that real fat burns only by the exercise one does after one is tired. The same applies to comedy, only when someone heckles and intimidates you from the audience is when you get the best lines. That is why I remember that even during his off days, Sachin used to wear his pads and practise in the sun in the middle of the afternoon. He explained, “No point practising in the shade when you are going to play the match under the sun.”
I often wonder what the state of journalism in the country would have been if there was no Sachin? He single handedly justifies the existence of 245 plus media schools in the country. During the course of his career, they have covered every organ and injury in his body. I believe there are certain injuries Sachin found out he had only because of the media.
The quantum of reserve energy in the body is way more than what one expects it to be. The harder you push the easier it is to tap into it.
— Sachin Tendulkar
Sachin’s Tennis Elbow has played a greater role in popularising tennis in India than the combined heroics of Sania, Mahesh and Leander put together. This despite them having won over 25 Grand Slam titles amongst themselves. My only complaint at that time was that an elbow had got more media attention than all the medical inventions of the 20th century. Kids of that generation thought that Sachin’s elbow was the only significant joint in the human body and this was affecting the way kids looked at Biology. Maybe we could upgrade our syllabus and have dissection of the elbow instead of earthworms to keep kids interested in Biology.
Control Your Ego, Control Your Destiny
I once gathered the courage and asked Sachin why certain sections of the sports media sometimes made statements like, “Sachin is not playing his natural game.” He laughed at my question and said that cricket is not played in one gear, you have to play it in different gears and that many times that is missed by the experts and viewers.
Sachin says, “It was during the Adelaide Test in 1999 where McGrath was bowling well. I knew that, so I decided I would just leave the ball for 5-6 overs because it is important to respect the opposition, which many people did not understand. You cannot win every session of play and that is something one needs to judge based on circumstances. So I let everything go. At the dinner table, Warnie commented that I had destroyed their game plan because the Aussies had wanted me to play a little aggressively so that there could be a possibility of inducing an edge.”
The next morning Sachin decided that he wanted to dictate terms and derail the Aussies. He decided to change gears so that he could make them change their tactics and throw them on the back foot.
“So I hit McGrath for 3 boundaries in the first over and changed the momentum of play which the Aussies were not expecting at all. I am sure after that most of us would have said, “This is how Sachin should play” not realising the sheer mind games that went on behind the contest.”
I guess sometimes allowing the storm to pass is very important before you get on the road to achieving your goals or you might just get blown away. Not allowing your ego to come in your way is also a challenge, as that could take you off course. Sachin had displayed similar discipline even in 2004 where he actually scored a double hundred in Sydney by eliminating all offside stroke play after the tennis elbow injury.
Sometimes your ego is your greatest enemy. Your ability to keep your ego in check will help you handle situations effectively.
3
My Way Is The Highway
The Sehwag Theory
“Bhaisaab spinner ko spinner batsmen banata hein! Agar usse aap ball spin hi naa karne do, aur pehli hi over me usse bahar pheink do woh zindagi bhar spin nahi karega.”
This was his response to a question I had asked Virender Sehwag about how he was the only batsman who could dominate the wily Sri Lankan bowler Ajantha Mendis during the Sri Lanka tour.
On further probing he replied, “I don’t consider a spinner as a bowler. I never did.”
Sehwag belonged to the new generation of cricketers who were naturally aggressive and build their own logic for survival. We grew up listening to stories about how Indian players in the 70s and 80s were often intimidated by their English and Australian counterparts. The results of liberalisation and a resurgent India were beginning to show not just on our economy but also in the way we started playing our cricket. Virender Sehwag or Viru as they fondly called him was one who most exemplified this change.
For me Viru was a man who knew no fear and showed no emotion. He did things not because he was meant to but because he liked doing them. Viru never got out because of any super bowling skills, he did so because he got bored with the state of affairs. The last time Sehwag moved his feet was when he was 2½-years-old. But on the whole, he has done more for Indian cricket by not moving his feet than many people have done by moving their entire bodies. Experts have always recommended that batsmen should get their feet to the right position but his philosophy was a little feudalistic—“the bowler has to bowl at the right place, as a batsman I will not move”. Who can argue with whether or not his feet moved; the ball certainly did once it left his bat.
For Viru, batting was an outlet for the frustrations he used to gather while not at the crease. His facial expression when he scored 0 or a 100 was more or less the same. It didn’t seem to matter much to him either way. I have always wondered how a man playing international cricket could remain this unaffected. Even if he raised his bat after a 100 it was as if it was a ritual and something he had to do and given a choice he would do it even if he got out on a duck.
Sehwag redefined the job of an opener. Years ago, when we were learning to play the game we were told by our coaches that an opening batsman’s main task was to see off the early overs when the ball swings a lot and reduce the shine of the ball for the middle order batsman. Sehwag’s philosophy was to make the ball old himself so he could enjoy the fruits of his own labour.
Over the years of knowing Viru one realised the method in his madness. He always mentions that his aggressive game was a role he defined for himself, he knew if he had to make his mark among the Sachins, Rahuls and the Gangulys he had to take a different path for the same goal. Thanks to Sourav he was given a clear mandate for which he feels indebted all the time.
Sehwag is Ghajini; he even forgets the format of the game he is playing.
An incident I remember is when he got out early in a match in New Zealand in 2009 and as soon as he entered the dressing room he snacked on a sandwich and washed it down with a cup of tea as if nothing had happened. John Wright once said that S
ehwag’s ability to forget the past is what makes him a genius. To me Viru is like Aamir Khan’s character in Ghajini who suffers from short term memory loss, because one gets the impression that he even forgets the format of the game that he is playing. Eckhart Tolle’s book The Power of Now spoke exactly of this philosophy. It said that if you are in the present then the baggage of the past and the fear of the future simply do not affect you. Sehwag played and lived in the moment.
However, sometimes Viru’s aggression bordered on the illogical. I remember asking Sachin how he handled Sehwag while opening the innings with him. He said that it was rather tough initially because if you would tell him, “Viru tu iski bowling ko cover pe khel”, he would come back and say, “nahi paaji isse mein midwicket pein marke dikhata hoon”. Being the wise man he is, Sachin changed his strategy over a period of time and would tell him the opposite of what he wanted him to do and then wait and watch. As planned Viru would oblige him by doing the opposite which was actually the right shot to play! What was very clear was that Viru backed his own abilities all the time and that was essentially the secret of his success.
Viru was never worried that a spinner would take his wicket as he had figured out his own methodology to tackle them. With Mendis his theory was that if his little finger went up it would be the one that went the other way. Once he figured that out, life got easy and he hit the ball wherever he wanted. Mahela Jayawardene picked this up a little late in the 2008 series and then advised Mendis never to bowl that ball to Sehwag. Even as other batsmen were struggling, Sehwag had massacred the Sri Lankan bowling attack.
“A batsman has to make mental notes about the bowler and keep updating them in his database,” said Viru.
Unlike Mendis, however, Viru was unable to find the right approach to tackle Muralitharan. During a team meeting, Sachin explained to the batsmen that one needs to watch the thumb for Murali. If you see his thumb you know it’s a doosra. Viru then started focussing on the thumb but that didn’t work for him and neither was he able to pick the rotation of the spin. So Viru ignored conventional wisdom and decided that no matter what he bowls, he would hit him over covers, come what may.
I found this logic a little weird. On further probing, he said that if he missed the ball he wouldn’t be given LBW to Murali because he spun the ball a long way and therefore this strategy worked perfectly for him. Nobody in the team dared to argue with him, however absurd it sounded. When I heard this theory from Viru I was perplexed because it completely defeated the theory of read the ball and then play the stroke. Viru said, “Sirji goal sab ka ek hota hein, run banaana, magar har kisika tarika alag hota hai.” I guess I couldn’t argue with that.
High Risk, High Return
For fast bowlers, Viru’s philosophy was to hit them where it hurts. If Anderson’s strength was the in-swinger, then he would try to hit his in-swingers for fours. Only then could he dominate and destroy his confidence. With Dale Steyn, he wanted to ensure that he hit his out-swingers for boundaries initially or otherwise he’d never bowl straight which is where he wanted him to bowl. “It’s high risk but then I always thought that’s the best way to win matches,” explained Viru.
He elaborates, “During a game in 2010 against South Africa in Eden Gardens, I had decided that I would finish Steyn and Morkel in the first 5 overs. So I hit 2 boundaries in the first over of regular out-swingers which was Dale’s strength and then I hit Morkel for 4 boundaries of the back of the length deliveries which was his strength. Then next over I hit Steyn for another 4 boundaries. The game was won then itself. In the next match I tried the same aggressive strategy, but this time Steyn got the better of me as I nicked one to the slips. During such occasions, your strength actually becomes your weakness. The aggressiveness which worked for me in the first innings was exactly the reason I got out in the second innings. At the end of the day a batsmen has to score runs so it’s important that you follow your instincts. When it works it looks good, when it doesn’t, the typical comment is “Sehwag is so irresponsible”.”
Practising The Madness
Viru used to ensure that his routine was perfect. “I knew which pad to wear first, when the thigh pad would go on and finally by the time I wore the inner pad, my concentration would peak.” He made sure his practice was divided into a 60:40 ratio, where the 60 was when he batted like it was a serious net session and during the remaining 40 percent he would practice his aggressive strokes, like the inside out shots and the walking outside the off-stump flick.
Many people would question his batting style in the nets. His explanation to them was simple. “Real matches are not like the nets, in a match when you have 8 fielders on the off side there is no option but to play this flick shot.” He played that shot successfully against the Australians in Melbourne 2003 to get to his century despite the off side field being cramped with 8 fielders as a pressure tactic. It wasn’t about the hours spent in the nets but the quality of practice and match preparation which worked in his favour. When one actually analyses what he is saying, it’s clear that the madness we saw on the ground that day was actually practised in the nets before. I relate this to Woody Allen’s line, “The best impromptu lines are the ones which are rehearsed the most.”
Even for a world class batsman like Viru who built his life on domination there were days when the aggression backfired and that’s when he got important lessons from senior cricketers. As a dominating player one is always bordering on being overconfident and getting ahead of one’s limitations and that happened when he was playing down the order in a Tri-Series game against South Africa in 2001. In his mind he had thought he would hit Kluesner and Pollock easily and therefore he took on Kluesner and hit him for a four and got out the next ball when India had to make 40-50 runs in the last 10 overs.
“Sachin and Srinath were livid at my dismissal,” remembered Viru.
Sachin asked Viru that evening, “Do you even think of what’s going to happen?”
Till that time Viru had no idea what visualisation was so obviously he said “No”. That was the day Sachin told him about the science of visualising things before he went into bat.
Viru says, “There are essentially two moments, the current moment where you are batting and the future moment. If you visualise the future moment, the current moment becomes easier. From then onwards I started thinking of the situation beforehand which helped my batting a lot and with the help of Ramki, the video analyst, I was able to see videos of bowlers, how they bowl the out-swing, the in-swing, and what they do while bowling the slower one. The key lesson is that when you visualise the future moment you reduce your anxieties thereby helping you face the current moment more effectively.”
A batsman essentially has to remain focussed for just 25 seconds per delivery, so why do I need to meditate for 15 minutes? — Sehwag
If visualisation was tough, meditation was tougher for Viru. He realised he couldn’t meditate for more than a minute, it was just not his thing.
Ask Rahul and Sachin about their experiences with Viru at the other end of the pitch and their stories are full of fascinating insights about him. While they were trying hard to focus on the game at hand, Viru would be whistling and singing between overs. Viru’s logic was that his mind was always full of negative vibes and random distracting thoughts like, where he would hit the ball in the next over or the over after that. Psychologists suggested that this was a common problem faced by all cricketers and that meditation would help. Unhappy with the suggestion he figured out his own mechanism of coping with the problem by singing songs and whistling which helped delay his negative thoughts and concentrate on the next delivery.
Viru’s explanation: “I couldn’t meditate more than a minute. It was just not my thing. I also figured that a batsman essentially has to remain focussed for just 25 seconds per delivery, so why do I need to meditate for 15 minutes? I just need to be able to meditate for 25 seconds each time and if I can do it consistently over a period of time I am sorted.” It was br
illiant logic, focus for 25 seconds at a time and then fill the spaces with whistles and songs!
So here was a master who had found his own path whether it came to practising, meditating, or attacking bowlers. He was someone who had his own theorem to crack the cricket equation. When Greg Chappell was the coach of the side I could feel that there was a sense of discomfort between them on tours, the team looked very unhappy. In a way Greg Chappell was like Viru, a man who had his own school of thought and his biggest mistake was he tried to impose his methods on someone who had his own methods. Raju Hirani cannot impose his views on Aamir Khan, he has to work with Aamir Khan’s views, value add and make sure Aamir does the best he can. Obviously I understood this, Greg didn’t because it seemed that Greg wanted to be the boss. On the contrary Gary Kirsten and John Wright always took the back seat and that is why they were successful coaches.
John Wright used to ensure that even during lunch and tea breaks during a match he did not interfere with the team and used to get out into the field with the reserve players and do fielding drills to avoid meddling with the team.
From the Indian coach’s perspective, it was always a 50:50 situation. If Viru played well, you usually won and if he didn’t then you had to rely on the middle order. Unfortunately for India when he played well everyone else also did and when he didn’t, others too failed. It was as if Sehwag represented the mood of the team and therefore his contribution to Indian cricket is no less than Madhuri Dixit’s to Indian men’s happiness quotient.
Interviewing Viru has always been great fun. I once asked him how life had changed with success and stardom and he said, “Before me Najafgarh was known for its violence, now it is known for Virender Sehwag.” Though frankly, most bowlers across the world would think that both are one and the same thing.
How Sachin Destroyed My Life: but gave me an All Access Pass to the world of Cricket Page 3
