Not just another book review - Where should cricket belong in a cricketer's life?

I recently got my hands on Yuvraj Singh‘s book. Beautifully, coherently written – as you would expect the work of Sharda Ugra to be – the book intelligently touches upon the tumultuous and discouraging, albeit enriching journey that Yuvraj’s tryst with cancer and its dismissal was. Importantly, the book highlights a theme that very often goes underrated in the Indian cricketing fraternity.

Just where exactly ought cricket to belong in a cricketer’s life?

Not much has changed in terms of a not-so-average Grade-A-paid Indian cricketer’s media coverage and presence since the last time I wrote for Sportskeeda. As was the case three years ago, this set of Indian sportsmen is even today concentrated upon the most in every media forum available -print, online, broadcast – voluntarily or not. Admittedly, times have changed since we had to endure the utter tripe that India TV reports on Dhoni’s visit to the dentist and Aaj Tak’s “BREAKING NEWS” tagging of Dhoni’s surprise wedding used to be. But there is no denying that the Indian media remains fairly invasive of its cricketers’ lives – more so while critiquing their individual/collective performances.

In such an intricately messed-up scenario, Yuvraj’s revelations are as comforting to the average cricket-not-cricketer-fan as is Zaheer Khan‘s grasp on an old, reverse-swing-worthy cherry. The section in the book where he claims, “..cricket, went from being my life to becoming a part of it,” sums up perhaps everything that’s wrong with the workings of Indian cricket. The media hammered Dhoni when he withdrew from the Zimbabwe series in 2010 to take a break. Why? Is it absolutely mandatory as the national captain to place one’s role as a cricketer ahead of every other? The cricketer’s is, much like a banker’s, journalist’s or armchair critic’s, only a human body, and while this has nothing to do with his “right to choose” for himself, Dhoni’s choice itself, and the criticism he faced from the Indian media following it speaks volumes about our mindsets about cricket as a job (one we credit too much responsibility to).

Fans, media or mere watchers, we need to stop acting like the parents of our cricket team. Refraining from covering Sachin’s family vacations and rationally, not passionately, dissecting a loss won’t kill our glory as the patrons of a game we have globally taken to another level with our standards of playing (no, not the IPL. That’s business, not sport). Cricket is a profession, not a lifestyle, and maybe, just maybe if we took Yuvraj’s distinction of it being a part and not the entirety of his life, we’ll see that it’s easier to enjoy the players and their skills beyond all the numbers of ranking and W/L ratios.