From skating rink to cricket field, the Yuvraj story

When Yuvraj walked into the field at Nairobi Gymkhana with Indian colours, one couldn’t help but recall an incident which may have shaped the career of this 20-year-old.

It happened at a camp in Patiala when Navjot Singh Sidhu just happened to tell his friend Yograj: “Yog paa, your son is lazy. He can’t play cricket.” Angered at his father’s humiliation, Yuvraj said: “Dad, I can play cricket. I will play it now.”

It wasn’t easy, for Yograj was a tough task master. At times, Yuvi would wish he could go back to his “own world” but then, what about the promise? “That time, I just wanted to play the game. I didn’t think about playing for the country, I never thought I was that good,” Yuvraj recounts the early days of grind. “Dad would bowl at me for hours, show me video tapes and when any of the Indian cricketers came to our home, I would listen to them.” Coming from an affluent family meant Yuvraj could get the best possible facilities. There is a cement wicket, with small lights, and the father-son duo do knock for a while in the evenings, sometimes even at night.

When dad would be busy with his Punjabi film assignments, there was coach Sukhwinder Bawa to help him. “When he started, he would play his strokes and then throw away his wicket. He also was a poor fielder, and at times wanted others to field for him. “We had to make him mentally strong. He started going to the gym,” Bawa says.

Today, Indian coach Anshuman Gaekwad doesn’t stop praising Yuvraj’s fielding. “He is one of the best fielders that I have ever seen. Coupled with his ability to hit the ball hard, Yuvraj should be groomed to take up the number five/six spot,” Gaekwad feels.

Listen to what former India skipper Dilip Vengsarkar had to say when Yuvraj was making waves in Under-16 cricket. “He is the best young talent that I have seen. His hitting reminds me of Sachin Tendulkar,” he had told this scribe once in Chandigarh.

Yuvraj, like his father, was a typical Punjabi lad, strong and well built. “That was an advantage. I could bowl fast (he started as a left-arm `fast bowler’) and could hit the ball harder,” Yuvraj says. Friend and fellow junior Punjab player Sanjay Dhull would get some bowlers and bowl for hours at Yuvraj.

“He would simply blast us, but we kept bowling at him. At times, others forgot they too had to practice but we knew he was special,” says Dhull.All of a sudden, after a season or so in junior cricket, Yuvraj was pitted into the man’s world. His Ranji Trophy debut, at the age of 16, was a nightmare and he was lost to junior cricket again, for three years or so.

There, he learnt the art of compiling big scores. Triple hundreds and double hundreds flowed from his bat and tales of Yuvraj’s big-hitting soon spread.

This year was special for him. He was the Man-of-the-Tournament in the Junior World Cup (Under-19) at Sri Lanka, which India won, pushing him further into the National limelight. An India cap was a mere formality. Now, he can tell his father: “I have done it for you, Dad.”