Yuvi by Waingankar Makarand

Author:Waingankar, Makarand [Waingankar, Makarand]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers India
Published: 2012-11-08T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

YOGRAJ SINGH

THE FATHER’S STORY

Are great men born great or are they made great? This question is relevant to the story of a father who saw in his son a born player. But for Yograj Singh, that was not enough. His son had to be the greatest cricketer ever to have walked the earth.

The story of Yograj is a strange one. It is a tale of the desperation of a man whose every breath was filled with the guilt of not having been successful in his preferred career. It is the tale of a man’s vision, and his obsession with this vision, which made him blind to everything else in life.

All Yograj knew was that his son was to fulfil the promise that he himself had belied. The son had to lessen the burden of his father’s past, and lay the ghost that refused to leave him.

Unfair though it may be to make your child bear the baggage of your own past, one thing is clear. Yograj succeeded in making Yuvi what he is.

Yograj Singh’s cricketing career had started off well. He was a contemporary of Kapil Dev. Both men were from Chandigarh and both were very good all-rounders. In fact, former India captain Col. Hemu Adhikari rated Yograj a notch higher than Kapil Dev. For the India U-22 team that played against England in 1977 at Nagpur, Yograj was chosen over Kapil Dev.

But after 1977, for some reason, Yograj lost his way and was out of cricket for a couple of years. When I watched him at the nets at DAV College, Jullundur, in 1979, he still looked a very good all-rounder, though he weighed not less than 95 kg.

In those days, I was writing for Sportsweek magazine. I happened to be in Jullundur for some work and had requested Ashwini Minna, the former Punjab Ranji player who had played with Kapil Dev and Yograj Singh, to invite young talent to nets at DAV College. As the nets were going on, Yog arrived, and without looking at anyone, bowled and batted superbly. Though he looked overweight, in terms of skill, he was terrific. On my return to Mumbai, I mentioned to Polly Umrigar, the chairman of the selection committee, that I saw great potential in Yograj Singh. On the committee were experienced cricketers like Ghulam Ahmed, Chandu Sarwate, Dattu Phadkar and Vijay Mehra. They were aware that Yograj hadn’t played much competitive cricket – in two seasons, he had played only two Ranji games – yet they picked him for the Board President’s XI to play the touring Pakistan team at Baroda in 1979.

In that match, Yograj took 3 for 29, including the wickets of Javed Miandad and Wasim Raja off consecutive balls. Subsequently, he was picked for the Indian team that toured Australia and New Zealand in 1981. But he failed to perform, and from that point on, he simply faded away.

It is against this backdrop that Yograj’s behaviour towards his son needs to be considered. In his

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.