Living on the edge

There were times when he lost his appetite for the exotic,wide-ranging menu at plush team hotels. The craving for his mother’s ghar ka khaana became insatiable,something he often told his folks back home while speaking to them between the umpteen games while on the road.

So when Raina volunteered to cook a dal-rice meal when he was home during his recent mini-break,his elder brother Dinesh said the family was pleasantly surprised by the culinary skills of one of India’s busiest young cricketers.

Caught in the blur of a modern Indian cricketer’s life,Raina,perhaps forgot to mention how he had tried his hand at cooking,a move necessitated out of his need to overcome homesickness.

“Suresh has been so busy for the past one year that he has hardly been able to spend any time at home. We miss him and he misses us too. For us,staying away from each other for long periods is difficult,” Dinesh,a teacher by profession,said. Hence,the family meal — a rarity since the Chennai Super Kings lad became a regular in all three formats of the game — was a priceless moment.

“We were pleasantly surprised that he had learnt to make dal. It is one of the ways of surviving when you miss home,” Dinesh said.

Just six days separate the end of the IPL,in which Raina’s Chennai lasted till the very end,and the start of the first and only Twenty20 International in Port of Spain followed by the five match one-day series,a period where he will be busy leading the Indian side for the second time in his career. The Raina family will see little of him over the next few months.

A never-ending journey

Since the start of the last edition of the IPL,Raina has been on the road constantly. He’s boarded an estimated 72 flights in between featuring in 109 match days,including Tests,ODIs,T20 Internationals,IPL and the Champions League.

He is one of the fittest players in international cricket,but it is a miracle that he hasn’t broken down over the past 12 months. It remains a wonder how Raina has escaped being a causality of the non-stop cricket circus,quite like the man he is replacing as skipper for the T20 and ODIs in the West Indies — Gautam Gambhir.

A cramp or a stiff hamstring,seemingly what the Chennai Super Kings batsman suffered while making an unbeaten 73 against Bangalore to help the franchise cross the line in a stiff chase in the first qualifying match on Tuesday,can affect the fittest of players. But the toll of unrelenting pressure that comes with playing day-in and day-out on the 24-year-old is potentially severe.

Gambhir’s predicament highlighted the danger that Indian cricketers expose themselves by participating in the overdose of the game.

He could have been Team India skipper in the upcoming series,but soon after he clutched his right shoulder in obvious discomfort following a throw from the deep to run Rohit Sharma out during the first elimination final on Wednesday,the captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders probably knew that it was all over for him,as far as West Indies was concerned. The origins of the injury though,can be traced back to the World Cup final.

Injury concerns

Gambhir has admitted that his “team needed him” to play,despite the fact that the diagnosis of his right shoulder revealed chronic muscle injury related to tendonitis. KKR’s team physio Andrew Leipus has recommended four-to-six weeks of rest in a report submitted to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on the eve of the game against Mumbai,but Gambhir declared that he wasn’t aware of the extent of the injury,even though he has been experiencing intermittent pain since the World Cup final over 50 days ago.

Through it all,Gambhir played 15 IPL matches and lifted his team to the top-four after they seemed forever relegated to the bottom rung. But having jeopardised his chance to lead the country only questions his ability to look at the bigger picture.

Gambhir though isn’t the only India player who wasn’t allowed to recuperate during the IPL. At last count,there are five IPL IV captains who won’t be playing the ODIs in West Indies — Yuvraj Singh (illness),Sachin Tendulkar,MS Dhoni (rested),Sehwag and Gambhir (injured). While Zaheer Khan too has been given a break following months of non-stop cricket.

Sehwag’s story runs rather parallel to Gambhir’s. The Delhi Daredevils skipper played 11 matches,but in spite of making 424 runs,he could not save his team from humiliation,nor could he stop the right shoulder from giving way.

The tear around his shoulder blade is a long-standing injury,incidentally picked up during the second season of the IPL and resulting in him being unfit to play in the World Twenty20 that followed immediately. Now out for up to eight weeks,he could also miss the Test series in the West Indies,and it isn’t clear if he’ll be fully fit for the high-profile tour of England.

Former Pakistan skipper and Kolkata Knight Riders bowling coach Wasim Akram puts the onus on the BCCI to prevent player burn-out.

“Top-line Indian cricketers are playing far too much. The itinerary is simply inhuman and the effects are already showing. Gambhir was playing in a BCCI-sanctioned event and was only honouring his commitment towards his franchise. Same with Sehwag. It’s a blessing in disguise that Delhi didn’t go the full distance,for it would have only delayed his treatment,” Akram said.

Insufficient care

Akram is right,for the five-day gap between the World Cup final and the start of the IPL meant that the champions were running on fumes. Gambhir’s plight indicates that the BCCI,which runs the IPL through its governing council,isn’t doing enough to ensure the best players will always be available when it comes to playing for the country.

It is known that the system of getting regular feedback from IPL team physios is in place,as BCCI secretary and member of the IPL’s governing council N Srinivasan confirmed. Yet,they were wrong footed by the Gambhir situation.

“It’s really hard for the players to say no to the IPL. As a professional cricketer,it is one’s responsibility to play. IPL has value for the BCCI,as it is a genuine cricket tournament and it is important to the Indian landscape,” says Stephen Fleming,the current CSK coach.

It is not the first,and surely not the last time,that the elite players may fail to exercise prudence when it comes to managing their bodies. Gambhir and Sehwag have paid the price for injured limbs,and also ensured that soon-to-be-leader Raina will bear that much more responsibility on his tired shoulders in the Caribbean. As of now,like in the past 12 months,Raina’s much-needed break and time with his family,will have to wait.(Inputs from Wajiha Shah)