A 19 year old burly left handed batsmen walloped Glenn McGrath for a straight four , a lazy flick and another straight four. The world sat up and took notice and there were immediate questions about who the boy was, who batted fearlessly against the Aussies scoring 84. It was none other than our Punjab da Puttar, Yuvraj Singh.
Trained by his dad Yograj Singh and at a later stage, Bishen Bedi, Yuvi, as he is popularly known, soon became one of the mainstays of the batting line up in One day internationals. What followed after that must have made the roller-coaster creator proud! Many cricket experts made fun of his batting style and technique (remember Boycott?) and that he could never ever play cricket that mattered the most - Test Cricket. He even proved them right through a series of crazy disastrous performances but in One days, he was always there. He was groomed as a cricketer by probably the best Indian captain ever, Sourav Ganguly and was extremely fortunate to have played alongside the big 4 of Indian cricket. He eventually did play tests and scored some memorably hundreds but he was known for his exploits in the shorter format.
There was a period (close to a couple of years) that started at the 2007 20-20 World Cup when Yuvi could do no wrong. He had hit 6 sixes in an over, was a crucial cog in the Indian 20-20 line up that won the World Cup and terrorised most nations , specially England at home when everyone else was struggling. He was regularly seen on TV either on ads or umpteen interviews or on Awards night ,dancing away with Shahrukh Khan. His captain (Dhoni) said that he stood out when compared to Tendulkar. He could do no wrong. But life , as they say , is funny. Just when things seem to be totally in control, you realise they aren't !!!
IPL came, he just couldn't captain well nor play. There were regular questions about his attitude and commitment . The media always (I mean always) put up pics where he was only seen partying wildly. He made stupid mistakes like calling Tendulkar a Grandfather in the media. He behaved poorly in a match against Sri Lanka with the Sri Lankan crowd. He was dropped from the test squad, there were injuries, there were regular linkups with actresses and supposedly even had an altercation with a journalist. Suddenly there was this massively built cricketer (punjab ka sher as many people referred to him!) who had performed consistently well for close to 7-8 years or more, and now was made to look like a mere mortal.
I always wonder what goes through a player(in a more generic sense, a human being!) when they have seen the peaks and suddenly have to face the troughs. Life is pretty much like a mine field especially for public celebrities - you step on a mine and boom, the media and the known and the unknown enemy( More of the unknown enemy in another blog post but for now, lets just say that its not wise to trust everyone you think you can trust!) rips your mental framework apart. Slowly, incidents are blown out of proportions, things play on your mind, everything cascades into something double or triple of what it actually is and the celebrity is almost given a public burial !
From a similar situation, our man had to fight back. Did he ? Yes !!! One of my first observations was after the IPL auction this year when Punjab dropped him and Pune team picked him. In a press interview, he said that he had nothing to comment about the auction and he was there( wherever the interview happened) to play for India.
Even when the World cup started, his traditional No 4 position was someone else's and there was probably the least spotlight on him coz' not many expected him to play well ! The Sehwags , Dhonis, Tendulkars and Kohlis figured in every interview, ads, pre-match and post-match interviews and our man was in the background,working hard to be part of the team.
He has worked very hard on his bowling to add to his batting and fielding skills as was evident in the run up to the World thup and even during the games so far where he has bowled really well. What has been most impressive is his batting. There seems to be a calm and composed ( mature is probably the right word ) outlook and has played well in every game where he has had a chance. Its probably too early to say if he is going to be the Chupa Rustum this World Cup ( Don't jinx his performances!) but I must say there is every indication of that happening!!! Lets wait and watch how things shape up for Yuvi and Team India but in the mean time ,I can only say this - Chakde Phatte Yuvi!!!
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