Lost Generation

Ishant’s sudden departure meant the coach had about two and a half hours to kill at the ground,sufficient enough time to mull over how quickly the situation had changed since Ishant made his senior team debut. The wide-eyed gawky teen of the past that used to bend his back for more than three hours straight during training,had changed more than he could imagine. “I was shocked,a fast bowler’s body doesn’t even get warmed-up in these many deliveries. Even if he wanted to concentrate on just line and length,it was too short a workout. Gone were the days when he used to practice for 2-3 hours daily at the nets,” Sharavan says.

Few days later as the IPL commenced,Ishant was to shock the Kolkata Knight Riders bowling coach Wasim Akram. Going by his recent comments,it is apparent that Akram too wasn’t impressed by what he saw at the KKR nets. “When I was involved with the IPL,I realised that the bowlers were happy bowling just 3-4 overs in the nets. I was amazed. Softies is the word to describe them. They are also spoilt and don’t believe in working hard,” Akram said last week.

Akram’s statement triggered a collective nodding of heads by coaches,especially those credited with training present day young stars since an early age. Ishant’s team mate Virat Kohli’s spare-the-rod-spoil-the-child coach Raj Kumar Sharma had recently slapped his pet when he got dropped from Team India,allegedly on disciplinary grounds. “He was always hard working, even when he came back after winning the under-19 World Cup. But all that changed after the IPL and its glitz and glamour. I had to be stern with him,” he says.

Another member of Team India’s brat pack,Rohit Sharma,managed to avoid the embarrassment of his coach Sanjay Gaitonde’s snub — he snubbed the coach. “I tried talking to him,but maybe he didn’t like it,” Gaitonde says.

But aren’t former players,who missed out on the gold rush,as a rule cynical and childhood coaches overtly possessive? Even if they are,the career graphs of young players are an unbiased indicator of their fickle form and fitness. To be fair to the young millionaires,pulling their ears or giving them moralistic sermon on the ills of easy money is just skimming the surface of a deeper problem,if not barking up the wrong tree.

Financial high
The likes of Ishant,Rohit and Virat reached their cricketing puberty when the game touched an unprecedented financial high. If they are spoilt,it’s because the system indulged them. And in case they are lazy,it’s because of the system that doled them easy money for little effort. Former India opener and close watcher of junior cricket WV Raman softens the blow. “There are many distractions provided by the system itself. I won’t call the ‘softie’ and ‘spoilt’ statements as accusations,it’s but sheer anxiety on the older generation’s part,as chances are that the youngsters might lose their way,” he says. “Even the most matured men would have found it hard to make the right choices in the present scenario.”

Take Rohit as a case study. He made his international debut at 20 without playing a Ranji game. Within months of wearing the India blue,he was part of the World T20 winning team. ODI success in Australia added to the hype around him. He got his second feel of a packed stadium,standing ovation,wild celebration and big pay day when he was part of the winning IPL franchise (Deccan Chargers). In a space of three years,Rohit has a fleet of luxury cars,flats with fancy Mumbai addresses and a bat branding that Sachin Tendulkar made famous. All this without playing a single Test.

‘Easily satisfied’
Those close to Rohit say that he has achieved material comforts that were way beyond his dreams. “At times he didn’t even have the Rs 250 needed to enroll at an academy. On his first away tour,his mobile phone bill was about Rs 40,000. While in Australia he booked his second car just on a whim,” they say. Digging deep to achieve golden results makes no sense when one acquires the Midas touch overnight.

In the Indian dressing room,youngsters become part of group discussions about car prizes,property deals,business ventures and agent commissions. Once in a while,the young entrant even beats the high spending senior,like it happened recently when Ravindra Jadeja made an announcement that he had recently acquired a pet horse. For young Indian cricketers,there aren’t many prize tags that intimidate them. In such a scenario,the probability of cricketing goals taking a backseat is high. National senior and junior coach Lalchand Rajput says that at junior level,all soon-to-be-graduates display the hunger to make it big. “After that it depends on individuals. There are many who get satisfied easily,” he says.

Robin Uthappa was one among them. “I lost my way after the 2007 World T20,my work ethics suffered and I started taking things for granted. I started believing that I don’t have to walk the extra mile and things will come to me on platter. By the time I realised I was wrong,the damage was done,” he says.

Even in the past eras,when obscene amounts hadn’t yet hit the game,the inability to handle fame had seen several curtailed cricket careers. Just ask Maninder Singh: “You can lose your way when everything comes easy. There are always people around who keep you on a high pedestal. It’s easy to get carried away,I am talking from my own personal experience,” says the one-time spin prodigy,who faded after early promise.

But the complexity of the present times is such that even living the fools’ paradise isn’t a risky proposition. Mediocrity too is rewarding as it has an important role to play in raising half-baked stars to undeserving heights. That’s the reason a Manpreet Gony is mobbed by fans and Siddharth Trivedi is invited to cut ribbons. Unlike in the past,a national team snub too isn’t quite the end of the story. “The options are multifold. One can opt to be a T20 cricketer and can get the same kind of money and attention that a top Test star gets,” says Raman.

Other priorities
Laziness is certain to creep in when the incentive to bowl four overs in the evening is not very different from toiling all day in whites flannels. Ex India stumper Nayan Mongia believes that excelling in all three formats isn’t a priority now. “They have to just choose from one format and can still enjoy the benefits. That’s why there’s not much hunger in the youngsters,” he says.

Interacting with under-19 cricketers during the junior World Cup gives an idea about the genesis of the “spoilt and soft” phenomenon and the system that encourages it. As soon as the agents start to swarm the venue to woo the young kids into signing meaty contracts and endorsements,the transformation begins to unfurl.

In the initial part of the 2008 under-19 World Cup at Kuala Lumpur,Kohli would hide his tattoo from newspaper photographers,fearing that his coach back home might come to know about it. After he led India to the title,Kohli’s giant poster with the tattoo enhancing the mean look on his face hung at Connaught Place. The boys-to-men transformation signals the end of innocence. Their exteriors portray physical toughness,but as Akram says,the inner ‘softness’ never changes.