Making of an enigmatic cricketer
There are four themes or occasions in Yuvraj Singh’s life which invariably will be talked about time and again — his big role in India’s two World Cup triumphs, the six sixes off England pacer Stuart Broad, the inability to carve a permanent place in the Test team and his victory over cancer.
And the four are the focal theme in senior journalist and sports administrator Makarand Waingankar’s recently released book on the swashbuckling left-hander, titled Yuvi. Yuvraj’s fight with cancer, however, has an overriding presence in the book.
The book will leave the readers asking for more as Yuvi turns out to more an account by the people close to him and little of the cricketer himself. The 143 pages in the book offer a glimpse of what went into the making this enigmatic cricketer. And devoting 40 pages to statistics meant that the readers were devoid of a couple of more stories from the India cricketer’s life.
For someone who has literally known Yuvraj right from the day he was born and was very close friends with his father Yograj, the author could have delved deeper into the mind of the 31-year-old.
The book will be able to strike a chord with disciplinarian parents because that is how Yuvraj’s childhood unfolded. Filled with regret of being an underachiever in the sport, Yograj pushed his son to the limits which translated into getting up five and going to bed by 10, hitting 500 balls a day et al.
Yuvraj’s career choice was drilled so much into the youngster’s mind that when he won a skating event as a 12-year-old, the skates were thrown away and were replaced by a bat.
Yograj takes pride in making Yuvraj, the cricketer, and believes if he had followed his father’s regimen, he would not only amassed 30,000 international runs and 30 centuries by now but would have also cemented his place in the Test squad.
Possibly, he reckons, in the way Sachin Tendulkar has gone about his business in the two decades-plus of his cricketing career.
But his 10 hour a day during 10 years of training also took the son away from the father. So, when Yuvraj’s parent separated, Yuvraj decided to side with his mother Shabnam.
Shabnam’s role play in the growth of Yuvraj was minimal before the separation because she did not quite endorse his father’s dictatorial ways.
But post divorce, Shabnam gave Yuvraj the freedom which he yearned for all those years. The chapter on her explores the way she has stood by Yuvi in the good times and of course the bad times, like a rock, especially during his fight against cancer.
On many occasions, like the chapter on technique, the author has displayed the mindset of a coach, a motivator guiding his understudy which could have been done away with a few more quotable instances.
The pictures of a young Yuvraj, which not many would have seen before, one of which is with the author, are a welcome addition.
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