Rahul always mentions that he sometimes was a victim of over analysis which many a times, bogged him down. The big problem is many batsmen analyse their game when they are playing badly. Instead you should analyse it when you are playing well. That would help you understand the kind of mindset when in form and help you recreate the mindset to get out of the bad phase. That’s why many players are superstitious about what they did when they did things right.
Rahul explains, “Taking your mind away from the game is one of the critical aspects in the switching off process. It helps recharge one’s batteries. Having off-field interests like reading and watching musicals helped me a lot because if I was alone in the room I would get tense, constantly thinking about the game. So spending time browsing in bookshops helped me relax in a big way and gave me a chance to know more about the world outside.” Rahul also credits coach Gary Kirsten for challenging him intellectually which helped him a lot.
The turning point in Rahul’s life came when ex-India cricketer Mr Hanumant Singh gave him a book which changed his life in a big way. The book was Johnathan Livingstone Seagull – a book about a seagull learning to fly. Rahul carried the book during his Ranji trophy days and his teammates from the North used to tease him saying “Ye seagull cricket khelna thodi seekhayega”. Rahul understood the impact of the book on him and as they say he clearly learnt to fly high.
His interest in reading not only helped him relax but also helped him in his cricketing life in a big way. One of the problems Dravid faced was his excessive sweating that was inhibiting him from making the big scores, especially when he was feeling very tired. This was obviously due to dehydration. In those days the Indian team did not have any professionals who could understand his situation. It was bothering him. This is where his reading habit helped him. He read about an Australian doctor, Dr Graham Bates, who had helped sportsmen like Patrick Rafter and Mark Webber overcome a similar problem. The next day, he called the doctor out of the blue and the rest is history. After an umpteen number of tests on Rahul, he finally gave him a solution called Carbolyte RD which changed Rahul’s life and helped him solve his problem for good. This solution is now available in Bangalore keeping in mind the amazing results it gave its most famous consumer. Similarly he once called Dr Sherry Colder, an eye expert who gave him certain eye exercises which helped him to a large extent and extended his batting career by a few years. Rahul explained, “As Indian cricketers we have always cocooned ourselves in our own world, but reading helped me reach out to the world outside and that made me a better human being.”
Reading and other leisure activites help players switch off from the game which is as important as switching on. Conserving mental energy helps one concentrate better. Sachin believes that as an international sportsman relaxing is not as easy as it sounds. All I can say is, for someone who sleeps 8 hours a day it is difficult to understand this, but then again the Master is always right.
5
Yuvraj’s Got Talent
Punjabis are naturally aggressive. At least 4 hormones will fall off if you touch them accidentally. Aggression is the backbone of their existence and chewing gum is their weapon of choice to show those emotions. So if you ever wondered what motivated those beefy Punjabi boys with apples in their armpits at discotheques to chew gum, you know that it is their way of underlining their presence. It’s quite similar to how lions mark their presence in a jungle. A “Singh is King” kind of a message.
The fact that the Indian Army consists of so many Punjabis makes one feel safe. The beauty of the aggressive vibe is that it is directionally proportional to the love and affection you get from them. The long and short of it is that their mere presence is intimidating to many.
Australians are to the world what Punjabis are to India. Yuvraj Singh’s presence on the cricket field signifies the power of a Punjabi. His swagger, stance and the way he takes strike is his way of showing his presence on the field. The one person who effectively did this before him was Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards.
Many people who don’t know Yuvi are intimidated by him and try and stay away from him. I was also a little wary because with people who have an aggressive demeanor, one is not sure what to expect. The fact that I used to imitate his walk and stance at cricket events all the time didn’t help either. The last thing I wanted was to be roughed up by him. Yuvi and Bhajji have the reputation of even throwing Sachin into a jacuzzi and once both of them wore scary masks and barged into the room of the Indian team’s video analyst who almost fainted with fright.
The ice was broken when he and his team invited me to perform at the Yuvraj Singh Foundation fundraiser event in South Africa which was the beginning of a long friendship. His only feedback to me was, “Saale meri nakal jab tu utarta hein toh ek change kar le, mein chewing gum kabhi nahi khaata batting karte samay.”
Despite this in-born aggression and never-say-die attitude, the one thing that truly intimidates a native North Indian is his inability to speak English fluently. Kapil Dev is full of stories about the many times when cricketers from his home state Haryana would approach him for English speaking tips rather than fast bowling skills. To address this inadequacy, Yuvi recounted an incident when he as the captain of the Punjab team had introduced this rule that on every Sunday, the entire team would speak only in English. This was his way of ensuring that the language was learnt in a more interesting way. On the first Sunday of this language project, he realised that the entire team was listening to music on their headphones and no one was talking to each other. What was worse, during the game there was no communication between the bowler and the fielders or the wicketkeeper till it came to a point where a fielder dropped a catch. Yuvi was livid. But what happened after that made him burst out laughing because the bowler and fielder were talking to each other in sign language with the bowler enacting the dropped catch like a mime artist. They were more comfortable doing this than saying a few words in English which probably would have made Yuvi drop a few catches himself, unable to control his laughter.
Yuvraj had done the impossible: Stuart Broad looked like Stuart Little by the end of the over.
Over the last 10 years since I followed his career, I have never been able to get any nuggets of cricketing information from him as I realised that he doesn’t like to talk about cricket at all. Unlike other cricketers who love chatting about the game, Yuvi prefers playing the game and utilising his extra time in leisure activities with his buddies. So whenever I tried starting a cricket related conversation with him he would quip, “Yaar mujhse kuch sawaal mat puch! Mujhe bhi nahin pata kya ho raha hein!”
If a cricketer of the calibre of Yuvraj Singh says something like this, you are bound to laugh it off. But if you go deeper into the statement you will realise that there is more to it. If one was to ask Pandit Jasraj how a certain taan came out of his vocal chords or if you were to ask Amitabh Bachchan what was the cause of his intensity during the dialogue delivery of Agneepath you may not get a satisfactory answer. The reason being unlike idiots like me, they never spent time deconstructing what they did. They just did it naturally. It’s the people who are enamoured by their craft who actually try to deconstruct their genius by using complex words and theories.
Despite meeting him over drinks on several occasions, I’ve still not been able to get any pearls of wisdom from Yuvi. Yet, the next day he would go out and hit 64 runs off 32 balls. It made me realise that even Yuvi doesn’t know what he is capable of and his biggest challenge is to get himself out of his own way.
The one programme on television that he probably doesn’t watch is “India’s Got Talent”, because I can see that he hates the word talent. He has been a victim of the word talent much before Rohit Sharma did. Somehow I feel that both of them, in their mind probably want to shout out loud from the rooftops saying, “No I don’t have any talent, just leave me alone.” Sometimes being extremely talented has its flip side especially when you are going through a rough patch in your career.
/> Yuvi has an amazing topsy turvy story. He had a great start to his career; then he had multiple injuries before he made a successful comeback. An unforgettable Natwest partnership with Mohammed Kaif in 2002, struggles in Test cricket, 6 sixes in 2007, Man of the Series in the World Cup, cancer, loss of form again and finally a Rs 14 crore IPL deal to bounce back with. The one common line that every commentator and critic has said throughout Yuvi’s entire career is, “He’s got so much talent, but then why the inconsistencies?”
I was there when he hit Stuart Broad for 6 sixes in the 2007 World Cup. This was divine intervention. Who hits a fast bowler for 6 sixes when half the time batsmen are trying to open the face of the bat to get a single and go to the other end? Stuart Broad had started looking like Stuart Little by the end of the over. I thought Yuvi was as surprised as Stuart Broad was. I’m sure, no sane man will attempt to do this ever again in the history of cricket. I have still not recovered from the various angles of the sixes that he hit that day. It has probably had the same impact on me as when Madhuri kissed Vinod Khanna in Dayavan, albeit on the positive side. I asked Yuvi what was going through his mind and he replied, “I was hitting the ball and they happened to land out of the ground. Also I was hurt that 2 weeks back I was hit for 5 sixes in an over against England.” Come on! This couldn’t have been revenge.
I guess it is difficult being Yuvraj because at one moment your career is on a high and the next you are suffering and the ball is not even touching your bat. How does one live with such uncertainty? Is life seeking a balance from Yuvi because it gave him a lot of things that normal people didn’t get? How does one stay sane when there is chaos in the mind? It’s like getting a 100/100 in Math in your prelims and yet failing in the finals. This is bound to immerse you in fits of depression and that is the reason Yuvi can’t deconstruct himself and his abilities like normal cricketers can. He is truly a Miracle Child.
Angad Bedi, actor and son of the legendary Bishen Singh Bedi and one of Yuvi’s very close friends said, “Iski problem hein ki isse sab jaldi aa jata hein. He was a top skater when his dad threw away his skates, he was a superb tennis player, he is a superb cricketer, every girl in the city wants to date him, when he hits the dance floor girls will take their eyes even off Ranbir Kapoor.” This I have seen personally. Such is the rustic charm of Yuvi that once I saw 30 girls from 15 countries at Yuvi’s party. 80 percent of them were from non-cricket playing countries like Latvia, Estonia, Germany and France. He has made cricket popular in countries which even the ICC was unable to break through.
Yuvi is a child and everything he does has a child- like quality. Circumstances made him into a cricketer and the talent that he had, made him into a champion. Angad recounts that once during a low phase Yuvi had decided not to touch the bat for 2 weeks. When one day he entered Yuvi’s house during this period he saw Yuvi looking at the TV screen and making sounds which replicated a ball hitting the bat on the sweet spot. He was actually visualising the sweet spot in his mind. This might sound bizarre but that process was helping him get his mind back to the playing field.
Recognising Talent
One of the most important things about talent is its acknowledgement and providing it the support it needs. Here is where the captain of the team plays an important role. The person who cracked Yuvraj Singh was Sourav Ganguly. Yuvi says that Sourav Ganguly backed him and Viru and that gave them enough confidence to feel secure in the cricket team. Yuvi still recounts that it was in 2000 that he started feeling confident enough to say that he belonged in international cricket but the confidence to perform abroad came at the Natwest Trophy in 2002. He and Kaif had no idea that they would be able to achieve England’s score of 325 runs as India was already 120-5. The stadium was empty and everyone thought it was all over. The victory was snatched out of the jaws of defeat and that’s what made it special. What is clear is that when a team has talented individuals like Yuvraj Singh who are not sure of what they are capable of you need a good leader to handle them.
MS Dhoni’s greatest strength was to actually recognise and manage the abilities of his players. This is evident from his recent success with CSK and the Indian cricket team. Interestingly, MS Dhoni’s talent was recognised by Greg Chappell. Kiran More, who was then the chairman of selectors, recalls an incident about how Greg recognised MS Dhoni’s abilities. During a practice session, Chappell was having a discussion with Kiran More about the future of Indian cricket. At that stage, MS had been in the team for less than a year. Whilst the discussions were on, both of them saw MS do his drills and he seemed the happiest to do all the tasks that were assigned to him. At one such moment when MS did something spectacular Greg looked up to Kiran and said, “I know one thing for sure, that boy there is going to be the future captain of India.” Despite his personal man-management flaws, he did recognise a future leader.
I mentioned this to Rameez Raja and he said this trait of identifying talent was something their captain Imran Khan had in plenty. Recognising talent in a person is one thing, backing him during tough times is another. Pakistan went into the 1992 World Cup after a string of average performances and Inzamam who Imran had picked from nowhere, he also had not been in the greatest of form. In one of the team meetings Imran said that Inzamam would play all the games. This didn’t go down well with Rameez who eventually confronted Imran during a jogging session. He said, “Imran bhai I know Inzi is a good player but I think you are overstressing his importance and that is affecting the senior players.” Imran ran for a bit and looked at Rameez and said, “Mark my words…Inzamam is the man who is going to win you the World Cup.” Rameez was stunned by his statement and when it actually happened he realised the greatness of Imran’s leadership.
In God We Trust
Over the years one common trait I saw among people who were very talented was that they were more superstitious than the less talented ones. But generally, I have found that sportsmen are religious and spiritual and I have corroborated this fact with many of them. I think uncertainty and insecurity is what brings God into the picture. Praying to a force boosts confidence while chasing impossible targets and the thought that someone beyond this realm is supporting you gives you the strength to achieve those goals. Praying as a concept also gives you the feeling of being in the moment. The problem is when you are an atheist, in times of trouble you tend to feel alone or helpless. I’m sure if the likes of Holding, Marshall, Garner and Roberts were bowling at you in the 80s, even if you were Einstein you would have turned into a believer.
Paul Collingwood told me a story about South African batsman Neil Mckenzie which gave me an idea about how superstition can actually make sportsmen do irrational things. In one of the matches Neil’s colleagues played a prank on him and hid his bat before he went in to bat; they actually taped the bat to the ceiling of the dressing room. Suddenly a wicket fell and Neil had to go in to bat and he realised that his bat was missing and amidst the commotion he found that it was taped to the ceiling. After a lot of fretting and fuming he managed to get it and went into bat. Interestingly he got a hundred that day. Can you believe it, for the rest of his career he ensured that his bat was taped to the ceiling of the dressing room before he went in to bat. This may sound irrational but that’s the way it goes.
The other thing we observe are the emotions sportsmen display on the cricket field all the time. Even the nonexpressive Rahul Dravid threw his cap when the Rajasthan Royals lost to Mumbai Indians in IPL 2014. Over my years of research, and talking to cricketers and sportsmen in general, I realised that the sheer physical and mental investment one makes in sports coupled with the need for victory makes you do these things. If as a cricketer you have not eaten dessert for 10 years to remain fit and you drop a simple catch or get a wicket then when you express yourself it is far more visual than what an accountant would do after getting the balance sheet right. Also a cricketer facing a mediocre day in office can cause national ignominy which never happens to commoners like us.
The standard advice I have seen senior cricketers or commentators give players is “Enjoy the game”. Over the years I have tried to figure what that means, do people not enjoy the game? Do they hate the game? What is the essence of this statement? So here is the answer for all sports lovers to understand. It means that one must try and discover the joy of playing the sport, the reason why you started playing the game—that very emotion. It could also mean that one must stick to the basics. The moment you start playing anything competitively, the whole universe starts complicating your mind and in this process negativities and bad manners seep into your system, thereby confusing your brain. Therefore to deactivate yourself from this web is possibly the meaning of “enjoy your game”. So easy but yet so difficult, especially if the recipient of this is a young emotional player who has been saddled with advice. Dinesh Karthik once said, “The only thing under your control is your technique and what you can do, the rest you leave it to the Almighty.”
As a true blue Punjabi kid Yuvi shies away from showing his softer side, but we saw that candid moment once when he hugged Sachin after winning the World Cup in 2011. It was Sachin who had advised Yuvi, when he was going through the toughest moments in the dressing room, to do his best to win the Cup for that “one special person” in his life. Little did Sachin know that, that special person was Sachin himself.
6
A Spinner Can Also Be A Cassanova
If 20 years back someone had suggested that Elizabeth Hurley would date a spinner, I would have roared in laughter even as I rolled on the ground. Don’t forget that Sharmila Tagore married a batsman, Amrita Singh dated Ravi Shastri only after he hit 6 sixes, Reena Roy married Mohsin Khan inspite of him being a Pakistani batsman. Would Neena Gupta have ever dated Larry Gomes instead of Viv Richards, despite his Lionel Richie like looks? I doubt it. If Shoaib Malik was only a spinner there was no chance Sania Mirza would have even glanced at him. These were the stark realities of life as a spinner.
How Sachin Destroyed My Life: but gave me an All Access Pass to the world of Cricket Page 5
