Published: Oct 23, 2015, 07:00 AM (IST)
Edited: Oct 23, 2015, 09:33 AM (IST)
A second big retirement inside a week. A second close friend bidding adieu to international cricket. From a cricketing sense, I haven’t been more overcome by emotion in a long, long time.
Before he formally announced his retirement on Twitter, Virender Sehwag called me on Tuesday morning. When he called, we were both at a loss for words. One of the great things about cricket is the relationships you build, the bonds you forge. Runs and wickets and victories and losses are all fine, but it is the friendships that last a lifetime that are the most wonderful gains from playing this great sport.
In my three years away from international cricket, I haven’t really missed getting out there and having a hit. In many ways, I am glad I called it quits when I did, something reiterated by the happenings of the last week when, as I prepare for the All-Stars matches in the United States next month, my body protests loudly and vehemently! But I do miss the camaraderie and the banter and the leg-pulling, I miss spending time with my cricketing family that the Indian team always was.
Barely had I recovered from my chat with Viru than Zaheer Khan called me up. Obviously, the only subject we discussed was Viru. Memories came flooding back. And what wonderful memories!
[inline-quotes align=”left”]Viru told me, “I know you made 281 in Kolkata, and it was a special knock. You missed a triple century, you should have gone on to make a 300. But I know I will make a triple-hundred for India in Test cricket.”[/inline-quotes]
One of the first things that occurred to me after those calls was what Viru told me in early 2001. He had played no more than a handful of One-Day Internationals, and after a stellar show in Bangalore against Australia, we had moved to Pune for the second game. Viru had fractured his finger in Bangalore, but as we sat down for dinner in Pune, we didn’t know yet that it was a fracture. So Viru told me, “Bratha (he always calls me that, for some reason), I know you made 281 in Kolkata, and it was a special knock. You missed a triple century, you should have gone on to make a 300. But I know I will make a triple-hundred for India in Test cricket.”
I was completely flabbergasted. Here was this young lad, a few one-dayers old, not really close to Test selection because the middle order-was packed, talking about making a Test triple! I mean, was he for real?! I was not sceptical; I didn’t think he was being cocky or that he was talking through his hat. I was just amazed at his self-belief and self-confidence.
Less than three years after making that promise, Viru delivered it, in Multan in 2004. I for one wasn’t surprised. A few months prior to that, in Melbourne, he had smashed 195, one of the great knocks on Australian soil. As that innings came to an end, I knew it was just a matter of time before the 300 came. And I am not saying it with the benefit of hindsight.
To get a Test triple-hundred is no easy task, but I was convinced he could achieve that because he had the unique ability of scoring quickly and at the same time scoring big runs. You have to score fast and still have the temperament to play big knocks: he had both qualities. A lot of people think Viru doesn’t really care about his wicket, but he has a method to his approach. He understands where he can score runs and against which bowler. The moment he gets the ball in his area, he will make sure that he won’t lose a scoring opportunity. He had the confidence to play his shots from the word go. He would never ever allow the bowlers to dictate, whether he was in form or not. He had the ability to hit boundaries off a good ball. We were very fortunate to come into bat after he demoralised the opposition.
[inline-quotes align=”left”]A lot of people think Viru doesn’t really care about his wicket, but he has a method to his approach.[/inline-quotes]
His other strength was his uncluttered mind, and the clarity of his thought process. He would always play with the intent to score runs. But with experience, the one thing that really improved was his defensive technique, especially against the new ball. He was never a big mover of his feet but he had a still head, played very close to his body and with a straight bat, because of which he was able to play the new ball well. He would wait for width, and the moment he got a little bit of room, he would use his hands to great effect. He was blessed with wonderful hand-eye coordination.
Against the spinners, he didn’t believe in defence. His ego would be hurt if he defended a spinner. His first thought was to always hit a six. If that was not possible, he would look for a four. A single or a two was his last option. But again, with experience, he realised the value of having to play percentage cricket. He admirably tackled great spinners such as Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan because he had a unique mix of unconventional strokes and the ability to effortlessly rotate the strike.
My first tryst with Viru was in 1997-98, when he played for my team Indian Airlines as a stipend player. While my memories of that period are slightly foggy, I do remember that he was a one-dimensional player who looked to hit the ball with ferocious power. He had great hitting ability but not a good defensive technique; he then did well enough for Delhi to be picked for Rest of India in the Irani Cup under me, and for the India A series against Australia A in Los Angeles, when again, I was the captain.
The more I got to know Viru, the more he continued to amaze and astonish me. He wasn’t a huge man, but he packed quite a punch. But he was such a frugal eater that I really couldn’t believe my eyes. I am not exaggerating — he ate very little but maybe he got his strength from the amount of milk he drank. I don’t think I have seen anyone else relish drinking milk as much as Viru does!
And could he talk! There was hardly a moment in the dressing room when Viru wasn’t talking. He would joke around and his one-liners were legendary. He would talk about anything and everything, and would call things the way he saw them without mincing any words. He was honest and straightforward in all discussions, but the intent was never malicious nor was it directed to hurt people. He knew just one way, and it’s a way that has worked out just fine for him.
When he came into the Indian team, he was particularly delighted that people compared his style of batting to Sachin’s. He has told us that he used to watch Sachin a lot in his formative years, and made a conscious effort to model his batting around the big man, especially the back-lift. But once he started to open the batting in Tests, he figured that he would rather be his own man, and create his own identity.
[inline-quotes align=”left”]The more I got to know Viru, the more he continued to amaze and astonish me.[/inline-quotes]
Whenever I walked into his hotel room, I have always seen him watch his batting on his iPad. There would be a big smile on his face as he watched himself decimate the bowling. “Bratha, see this shot I played” or “Bratha, that was good!” were common comments as he enjoyed his batting. That’s how Viru saw himself forever — as an entertainer, as someone the fans come to watch because of what he brings to the table.
But he also considered himself an entertainer whose job was to set up victories for his team. I have never seen him sulk on getting out — whether he was out first ball or for 99 or made 300, his demeanour would remain the same. And if he did get off to a flier, like against England in 2008 when we were chasing 387, he would come back to the dressing room and say, “maine mera kaam kar diya, ab aap log jitao team ko” (I have done my job; now you win it for the team).
Essentially, he is a simpleton at heart, a simple man from a simple, unpretentious family. For all his batting style, he is totally devoid of flash and bling and flamboyance as a human being. He is extremely helpful to older cricketers, peers and youngsters alike. He goes out of his way to help them out, and he does so quietly and without fuss or publicity. It is impossible not to be drawn to him for his simplicity and for the goodness of his heart — a heart of gold, caring and giving, even if bowlers around the world may not see it in the same light.
I was of the strong opinion that Viru should not open in Test cricket. When we went to England in 2002, Sourav told him ahead of the first tour game in Southampton that Viru’s only option to get into the Test eleven was as an opener. I distinctly remember telling him not to open. I recalled my experiences as a Test opener, and how I did not relish moving up from the middle order to the top of the innings. His prompt reply was, “I want to play for the country and the only position I see at the moment is opening. I love challenges. This is a challenge, and I am looking forward to it.” True to his words, he made a brilliant 84 at Lord’s in his first Test as opener, then went to Nottingham and got a hundred in the second Test. Was I surprised? Of course not. I had obviously seen him make a spectacularly dominant hundred on debut in South Africa, when he tore into a strong bowling attack. Is there something Viru can’t do? I don’t think so.
I have been thinking long and hard about his best knocks, and believe me, it is not easy to come up with two or three, when each innings was an epic in itself. But one of my particular favourites was his 151 in Adelaide in early 2008. A lean spell in 2007 meant he might be out of the Test side, and wouldn’t have been on the flight to Australia but Anil Kumble, the captain insisted that he wanted Viru in the Test Team.
If I remember right, Bhupinder Singh Sr was one of the selectors during that time, and he had gone over to Kotla to watch a Ranji Trophy game involving Delhi. By his own admission, Viru was struggling to put bat to ball, and Aakash Chopra was batting quite fluently, so Viru actually told Bhupi to not even consider him for the Australia series. But Anil wanted Viru in his team, though he couldn’t be accommodated in the playing eleven for the first two Tests.
[inline-quotes align=”left”]They don’t make them like Viru anymore, they never will, they never can.[/inline-quotes]
After playing his part in our famous Perth win, Viru showcased a facet of his batting few had seen before in the second innings in Adelaide. The Test was still in the balance, Rahul was out with an injury and we could have lost the game had we been not careful. Viru batted with a care and caution not necessarily associated with him. Between lunch and tea on the final day, he played more than 60 deliveries, and didn’t hit a single boundary. It felt great to watch this knock, which for me was equally brilliant as all his breathtaking assaults.
My other favourite is when he carried his bat in Galle, also in 2008, while making a double-hundred. That was the series in which Ajantha Mendis and Murali troubled us all, but Viru was in the zone, in a class of his own. He not merely kept them at bay, but he toyed with the two of them. He played with a straight bat and very late while most of us played early to Mendis. While we tried to play him like an off-spinner, Viru played him like a medium-pacer who bowls a wicket-to-wicket line. He wasn’t taking a big stride but waiting for the ball to come. And the way he played Murali through the off-side was special. He would go deep into the crease, open the bat-face and hit him through the covers, playing against the turn. To play like that against Murali requires a lot of class. It was an excellent exhibition of skill and temperament against two quality spinners, an innings up there, the very best of all time.
Time, of course, catches up with the best of the best. Viru, essentially a player with strong hand-eye coordination, had problems with his vision in 2011. He tried out contacts and glasses, but nothing seemed to work. He was seeing the ball a fraction later, and that was a big problem for him because his game was based around picking the length early. Especially against the quicker bowlers, he began to have issues, and post 2011 he wasn’t quite the same batsman. It wasn’t until 2013 that he found the right lens to help him in his cricket. As I complete writing this piece, in his first match after announcing retirement from international cricket, Viru showed how good a batsman he can still be by scoring a century in the royal city of Mysore.
Viru leaves the game richer with his electric and uncomplicated presence. He will be sorely missed in the international scene and IPL, but technology has ensured that he is still only a few clicks away. They don’t make them like Viru anymore, they never will, they never can.
(VVS Laxman, CricketCountry’s Chief Cricket Mentor, remains one of the finest and most elegant batsmen in history. He was part of the iconic Indian middle-order for over a decade and a half and played 134 Tests and 86 ODIs. He tweets at @vvslaxman281)
