That Yuvi was determined to put in a sterling performance during the tournament was obvious. ‘During the warm up, or the practice football sessions earlier, you could see Yuvi giving his hundred per cent. Even when it came to training with Ramji, Yuvi was meticulous. He never missed a single session. Nor did he miss any nets. The intensity that I saw in Yuvi then was different from what I had seen on any other tour I had been on with him.’
According to Ramji Srinivasan, the planning and training for the World Cup had started in 2010 itself in Sri Lanka, and Yuvi had shown extraordinary energy since then. ‘Yuvi, as usual, was very determined. There was nothing noticeable while he was training during the World Cup. He used to cough, but we didn’t think it was serious. He was doing all the work in the gym, SAQ [speed, agility and quickness], speed endurance work, Core, etc., in addition to his specialized fitness workout of at least five sessions a week.
‘Ranjib Biswal is spot on when he says that there was a look of fortitude in Yuvi’s eyes. One instance I would definitely like to highlight is his speed endurance work in Sri Lanka during our tour of 2010. We had speed endurance sessions after the day’s play. I still have the sets, reps, time, and the distance he covered during one of the sessions. Munaf Patel was at a great fitness level and was giving Yuvi company in his training. Being a pace bowler, Munaf’s workout schedule was much harder than Yuvi’s, but Yuvi was determined to do the session with Munaf. The workout was of a very high intensity, and Yuvi defied nausea and completed the course. He was floored after the workout but the point was that he finished it fully and effectively. I was stunned and my respect for him grew dramatically. That day I understood that his will to win was greater than his fear of failure. It left me with a feeling of awe and deep satisfaction.’
Having watched Yuvi from his U-19 days, Ramji recognizes that he is a fighter. Coming back to the training for the World Cup, he says, ‘It was specialized, and not like the generalized stuff they did prior to the World Cup. Specialized training need not be physically hard but it can be technically challenging. I am sure Yuvi was unaware of his medical condition. But sometimes ignorance is indeed bliss. And not knowing the real cause and effect of his condition put less pressure on him.’
Cricket is played more in the mind, and in extremely competitive situations like the World Cup, one’s state of mind becomes the key factor in one’s performance. Yuvi’s composure at this juncture must have played a signifcant role in his performance on the ground.
Perhaps looking for reasons to explain the change in Yuvi during the World Cup is a futile exercise. The only person who can provide the answers is Yuvi himself, though it’s equally likely that he is not entirely aware of them either. Not all decisions are made after chalking out a logical step-by-step flowchart. And not all actions and changes are the consequence of a particular cause. You just feel a pull from life and you allow yourself to get dragged along. This might have happened to Yuvi too. Be that as it may, what is obvious is that something in Yuvi had indeed changed, to allow him to put in a charged performance, such as had rarely been seen before.
Chapter Eight
THE FUTURE BECKONS
One thing is clear about Yuvi: he has courage, resilience and an undaunted fighting spirit. How could someone play and excel in the World Cup while being so dangerously unwell, is a question to which nobody has an answer.
And now that Yuvi is back on the field, how long will he take to establish himself in the Test side? To any cricketer, the number of Test matches he plays is more important than the number of pyjama cricket matches. How could Yuvi be an exception? At the end of a player’s career, it’s the number of Test matches he has played that matter. That’s what decides the worth of a cricketer.
It’s not that Yuvi doesn’t have the skills required to be a world-class Test cricketer. All he has to do is focus on Test matches, and the rest of the formats will be a cinch. As Sir Garfield Sobers said during his playing days, ‘The difference between a great player and a good player is that the great player rarely commits the same mistake twice and is always precise with shot selection. Good players tend to repeat the same mistake several times.’
Yuvi should get enough motivation by watching old footage of those two great left-handers, Sobers and Brian Lara. While Yuvi isn’t far behind in stroke play, it is in execution that he needs to put in a more meaningful effort. Nobody expects him to grind the bowlers. That was never his game and that is not going to be his game. At the same time, he must know that international bowlers are unlikely to give him any quarter because of his recent illness. They are armed with information and analyses, and they plan and execute their moves ruthlessly.
In the 1977–78 tour of Australia, Jimmy Amarnath was hit on the head by a bouncer from Jeff Thompson – those were the days when helmets didn’t exist. He fell and got up again and faced another bouncer. The attack became more fierce, and with no limit on the number of bouncers, Thompson kept bouncing him and Amarnath kept hooking.
Bishan Bedi, the skipper of that team, told me, ‘Even after Jimmy was hit on the head, he kept hooking, and that too on the bouncy Perth wicket. Never have I seen a more courageous batsman. Jimmy never ever ducked. He was getting hit, but he never flinched.’
If Yuvi reworks his approach to the game, like many others have done after reaching the wrong side of thirty, he can still be devastating. He has been playing international cricket for more than a decade. He has made a tremendous impact on international cricket, especially with his six sixes in the 2007 T20 World Championship. But does he want his fans all over the world to remember the man who hit Stuart Broad all over the park, or the man who scored a brilliant match-winning century against South Africa’s deadly fast bowlers on their soil in a Test match?
Time and again, Yuvi has said that he wants to say goodbye to the game after playing a minimum of hundred Tests. He has played 37, and there are 63 to go. It’s true that because of a packed middle order in the Indian team, he hasn’t been able to cement his place in the Test side. But now that he is the most experienced middle-order batsman other than Sachin Tendulkar, all he has to do is spend more time with Tendulkar and learn as much as he can from him.
Yuvi is the same age in 2012 that Tendulkar was in 2003. He has shared a dressing room with him, chatted with him and eaten with him. Didn’t Tendulkar go through hell with potentially career-ending injuries? How has he managed to stage a comeback? Yuvi witnessed that too.
The Duncan Fletcher formula of batting that has been praised by several former England batsmen may perhaps help him sort out a few technical issues. If the formula could help Michael Vaughan and Nasser Hussain, it can also help Yuvi fine-tune his technique.
Yuvi has a minimum of five years of cricket left in him, provided he does what an international cricketer needs to do – stay focussed. Money and fame cease to be motivating factors at some stage in one’s life. What one then strives for is stature that is permanent and cannot be tarnished.
Yuvi has enough time to get there. And more than enough motivation and skill. I have no doubt that with the kind of hard work and diligence he is capable of, he will finally achieve what he so dearly wants – an immortal place in the history of the game he loves so much and has given so much of himself to.
Yuvraj Singh: The Figures
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
• Born on 12 December 1981 in Chandigarh
• Left-handed middle-order batsman and left-arm slow spinner
• Son of Test cricketer Yograj Singh (India Test cap No. 152)
FIRST-CLASS CRICKET
• Played Ranji Trophy as an opener for Punjab against Orissa at Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali, 7–10 February 1997, in Super League Group A and was dismissed on 0.
• He made his first-class cricket debut at his age of 16 years and 57 days when he represented Punjab in the Ranji Trophy at Mohali, 7 February 1997.
• His career best knock came in Duleep Trophy when, playing for North Zone he scor
ed 209 against South Zone at Nahar Singh Stadium at Faridabad in 2001–02.
• His other double century – 204 not out, was hit in the Irani Cup fixture at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur in 2010–11. His 204 came in 302 min, 194 balls, with 28 x 4s and 5 x 6s. His first 100 came in 121 balls, with 17 x 4s and the next one in 192 balls, 28 x 4s and 5 x 6s
• He holds the distinction of scoring a century in both innings of a Duleep Trophy match for North Zone against East Zone at Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali in 2003–04.
• He played his first first-class cricket match (Ranji Trophy) at Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali, 7 February 1997 and at this very Stadium, he also played his first Test v New Zealand on 16 October 2003.
• All of his three centuries in Tests were hit against Pakistan – two in Pakistan and one in India. His career highest score of 169 was hit at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru in 2007–08.
• He participated in the County Cricket Championship in England, playing for Yorkshire in 2003 for 145 runs at the average of 14.50 with two half centuries in seven matches.
TESTS
• He earned India Test cap No. 247 in the season 2003–04, when he made his debut in the second Test against New Zealand at Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali, 16–20 October 2003.
ONE-DAY INTERNATIONALS
• He made his debut in One-Day Internationals against Kenya at Gymkhana Club Ground in Nairobi on 03-10-2000.
• His 13 centuries in One-Day Internationals include six hundreds which were hit in less than 100 balls:
1. In 64 balls, when he made 138 n o in 78 balls with 16 x 4s and 6 x 6s against England at Rajkot on 14-11-2008
2. In 73 balls, when he made 103 in 76 balls, with 10 x 4s and 3 x 6s against England at Margao on 03-04-2008
3. In 82 balls, when he made 117 in 95 balls, with 17 x 4s and 1 x 6 against Sri Lanka at R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on 03-02-2009
4. In 85 balls, when he made 102 n o in 85 balls, with 9 x 4s and 4 x 6s against Bangladesh at Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka on 11-04-2003
5. In 88 balls, when he made 131 in 102 balls, with 10 x 4s and 7 x 6s against West Indies at Kingston on 26-06-2009
6. In 99 balls, when he made 107 n o in 93 balls, with 14 x 4s against Pakistan at Karachi on 18-02-2006
• His best bowling figures of 5 wickets for 31 runs were against Ireland in the World Cup match at Bengaluru on 06-03-2011
• Five balls of his 6-ball over were hit for a six by England tail-end batsman Adrian Mascarenhas at the Oval on 05-09-2007. It was the last over of the match in which 30 runs were scored, which is a world record of most runs in the last over of the match.
• He earned the Player of the Tournament Award in the World Cup 2011 in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, after playing 9 matches scoring therein 362 runs @ 90.50 and claiming 15 wickets @ 25.13 runs apiece, and also earning Player of the Match Award in four of the 9 matches of the World Cup.
• His all-round performance of a half century and 5 wickets in the same match is also one of the best all-round performances in the World Cup matches of 2011 – 50 n o and 5 wickets for 31 runs v Ireland at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on 06-03-2011 has been the best all-round display in the Tournament.
TWENTY20 INTERNATIONALS
• 70 is his highest score in the Twenty20 internationals made against Australia at Kingsmead in Durban on 22-09-2007 (World Cup)
• 3 for 23 is his best bowling in Twenty20 internationals – against Sri Lanka at Mohali on 09-12-2009
• He has to his credit, the record of the fastest half century in Twenty20 internationals – 50 in 12 balls with 3 x 4s and 6 x 6s in his knock of 58 (in 16 balls, with 3 x 4s and 7 x 6s) against England at Kingsmead, Durban on 19-09-2007 (World Cup)
• He holds the world record of hitting all six balls of an over for a six – off Stuart Broad of England, off whose six balls, he hit six sixes scoring 36 runs at Kingsmead, Durban on 19-09-2007 in the World Cup of 2007 in South Africa.
INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE
• He played for Kings XI Punjab as their captain in 2008 (15 matches), 2009 (14 matches in South Africa), 2010 (14 matches) and for Pune Warriors India in 2011 (14 matches).
• He performed two hat-tricks in the IPL tournament of 2009 in South Africa:
1. Playing for Kings XI Punjab, he claimed Royal Challengers’ Robin Uthappa and Jacques Kallis off the 5th and 6th balls of the 11th over and Mark Boucher off the 1st ball of the 13th over of the innings at Kingsmead, Durban on 01-05-2009.
2. In another match against Deccan Chargers at Johannesburg on 17-05-2009, he claimed Herschelle Gibbs off the 6th ball of the 11th over and Andrew Symonds off the 1st ball and Venugopal Rao off 2nd ball of 13th over at New Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg on 17-05-2009.
Photographic Insert
The author with young Yuvi in his Chandigarh house.
Yuvi with his younger brother Zorawar Singh
With his grandmother
Newborn Yuvi in the arms of his grandfather
At the age of four
At his father’s film shooting location
With his father and grandmother
In his grandmother’s lap
Skating at their Chandigarh house, with his grandmother With his father and grandmother in the background
On his way to six sixes in an over against England’s Stuart Broad at the Twenty20 World Championship in 2007
Celebrating as Shahid Afridi misses the stumps in a bowl off, giving victory to India after the match was tied during the ICC Twenty20 Cricket World Championship between India and Pakistan at Kingsmead on 14 September 2007 in Durban, South Africa.
Bat close to the body, defending the rising delivery on the backfoot against England during the fourth day of the second cricket test match at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, central England on 1 August 2011.
Bowling during the Cricket World Cup match between India and Ireland at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on 6 March 2011.
Rejoicing with the team after winning the final of the ICC World Cup 2011 against Sri Lanka at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
Posing with the ICC Cricket World Cup Trophy, the Gateway of India in the backdrop, on 3 April 2011 in Mumbai.
With the men in blue at a press conference after the World Cup win in 2011. (LtoR) Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Yuvi and Piyush Chawla
With his mother Shabnam Singh at a press conference on 7 July 2012 in New Delhi.
About the Author
MAKARAND WAINGANKAR is one of India’s most widely read cricket columnists, best known for blending meticulous research with his own experience of a life lived on the cricket fields of India. Journalist, columnist, researcher, talent-spotter and administrator, he wears a multitude of hats, each of which fits snugly on his head. He launched the Talent Resource Development Wing (TRDW) on behalf of the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) in 2002 and the TRDW has since been responsible for taking many small-town players to the national stage, including current India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. In fact, seven such players were part of the 2011 World Cup winning team. Makarand has also been CEO of Baroda Cricket Association and Consultant to Karnataka State Cricket Association’s academy.
First published in India in 2012 by Harper Sport
An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers India
Copyright © Makarand Waingankar 2012
ISBN: 978-93-5029-579-3
Epub Edition © December 2012 ISBN: 9789350299432
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Makarand Waingankar asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this book.
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Cover design Arijit Ganguly
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