‘IPL youngsters return to glamour-less Ranji and get confused’

They feel that if these great cricketers can drink and party and still play such good cricket,why can’t we? They forget the many hours of practice and sacrifices that have been made by the greats to reach the level they have.

The youngsters return to the Ranji setup and don’t see the glamour and the glitz,and in a way,get confused. They try to be different personalities and end up losing their identity. The sad part is that in many cases you see it affecting their cricket,with the bad habits having entered their system. They find the atmosphere in the first-class dressing-room not stimulating enough without the same money and presence of world-class cricketers. The boys tend to go through their motions more than working harder on their games.

I’ve experienced it first hand in the Mumbai dressing-room as well as in other domestic teams across the country. One or two performances in the IPL and they think they’ve arrived. And after the IPL season,you will hear them speaking in weird accents,buying designer wear,fancy cars,expensive watches and what not. I have no problem with them earning a lot. But they don’t seem to have the maturity to know where to spend it,especially the guys who come from very humble backgrounds.

I’ve also noticed that after one decent season in the IPL,their attitudes change completely towards even the senior players in their respective domestic teams. It’s almost like they demand respect from us. Like they expect that we go up to them and show our respect rather than following the natural order of things. They want to be treated like divas.

They stop mingling with the juniors in the team,and start living in their own world. There are two guys I’ve seen go through something similar in the Mumbai dressing-room. In the long run though,I’m confident that they will realise that their priorities are wrong and probably try and mend their ways.