Opinion Bolt’s feat a lesson for India’s young talent gone astray

But not everyone who is gifted can take the attention and the kind of financial rewards Bolt does and remain unaffected. Young footballers in England and cricketers in India are excellent examples of that; of how reward can hold talent’s hand and lead it astray. Let’s look at an example.

On the 2nd of March 2008 Rohit Sharma,already a much talked about name in Indian cricket circles,scored 66 against Australia in a run chase in the first final of the CB Series.

He put on 123 with Sachin Tendulkar and it was apparent to anyone who had eyes that a special talent had arrived. He didn’t just hit good shots,he was calm,organised his innings with maturity and looked ready to play Test cricket. That was four and a half years ago.

Co-incidentally,that very day,India’s Under 19 players were in Kuala Lumpur playing the final of the World Cup against South Africa. India won it and the captain,Virat Kohli,a name known to only serious followers of Indian cricket,let his feelings go berserk. Wise people shook their heads gravely,worried about his attitude and,in a manner of speaking,put a little black mark against his name.

A month later they were in the IPL. Kohli,brash and with a swagger that seems ok for champions but not for 19 year olds; Rohit,charming people like Adam Gilchrist and Andrew Symonds with his ability. Rohit was the fast-tracker,the next big thing in Indian cricket,Kohli the petulant youngster lighting the fuse of his own destruction.

So what has changed? Rohit’s talent still makes your eyes pop out. When he plants his front foot down and is still able to swivel and pull over square leg against pace,you know you are in the company of someone special. But while extraordinary talent can help you take on the opposition,it can sometimes weaken your own defences. A couple of years ago Symonds told me Rohit was “lazy”,that he was looking forward to playing with him again and giving him a “x@@ox!!” because he was the most talented kid playing. Rohit seems to be losing the battle with himself the way some others before him did. As Rahul Dravid said recently there is a talent to hit a cricket ball and there is a talent to constantly challenge yourself,to get better every day,to focus on what is best for you,to do the hard yards.

Voice within

Sometime in the last four years Kohli realised that there was a virus within him. There was a rage hidden there that,if harnessed,could propel him upwards but which was in the process of demolishing him. I don’t know if the voice within him told him that (the voice within always tells us the truth,it’s only that we sometimes couldn’t be bothered listening to it!) or if someone grabbed him by the collar and sat him down. Whatever it was,a new Kohli emerged; someone who could hit the ball very well but someone who was,at most times,in control of himself and with a better focus on life. The battle with himself that Rohit was losing was the battle that Kohli was winning.

One day,very soon,Rohit will realise that greatness is not about possessing talent but about having the discipline to summon that talent whenever needed; a lesson that young Deepika Kumari would doubtless have learnt too.

That is why Usain Bolt won at London; because his training allowed him to summon that outrageous talent when he wanted it to. When that little,only little,wake up call came in Jamaica he listened to it but he had already done the hard yards to be able to recover.

He was the hare but he wasn’t letting himself sleep. It is a lesson that many in Indian cricket,even if at different levels of accomplishment,must learn.