: While India were working their way towards ascendancy in the Mohali Test yesterday, Yuvraj Singh’s father Yograj was going about his business at National Service Centre, his 45-year-old petrol pump in Sector 17.
Yograj does not watch his son play. He does not want to suffer humiliation which he admits copping before his son started playing for India. He is a controversial figure, forever in the news for the wrong reasons. But he has also played a leading role in his son’s development.
Being the one who introduced India’s batting star to the game, he was a hard taskmaster. But who can argue that his ways have produced results.
The 48-year-old Yograj played one Test for India — against New Zealand in 1981 — and figured in half a dozen one-day internationals before he withered away out of contention. Apart from representing Haryana at the beginning of the Kapil Dev era, he played club cricket in Mumbai for Mafatlal Sports Club.
MiD DAY caught up with him to speak on his forgettable cricketing past and the exciting present, which his son has contributed to, in India’s cricketing journey.
Excerpts:
Bid daddy! Yuvraj Singh with father Yograj
Pics: Yograj Singh’s album
Why I left cricket...
My father was 72 when I was born and I am the only surviving member apart from a sister. My father passed away in 1981. My mother was getting old too and I had to look after the property. It was here at this petrol pump that I made a decision on my cricketing career. I had to look after my farm, plough my fields. There was no one to look after my mother and I had to get married. It was my duty as a son to look after the home.
That wicket
I was bowling (for Mafatlal Sports Club) to Sunil Gavaskar in a Times Shield match against Nirlons in 1980. I kept looking at his face and recalled the days when I took his autograph during the National camp at Bangalore in 1974. The first ball I bowled to Sunny, he was beaten. He smiled. I got him caught behind by Chandrakant Pandit and that was the biggest thrill I ever experienced. I couldn’t sleep that night.
I impressed Sunny
I once bowled 10 lethal overs to Gavaskar in an inter-office tournament. He was dropped twice in the slips. During that innings, he came up to me and said, “You should be playing for the country”. I got him LBW and he said, “That was the quickest I ever played.”
After my father’s death, Sunny wrote me a letter urging me to return to cricket. I still have it. He offered to help me in any way possible.
Dad didn’t wait
I wish my father had lived for a few years more. I know people had a lot of dreams for me but I could not do it. I am very ashamed of it. But what I could not do, Yuvraj will do.
Gimme fuel! Yuvraj Singh’s hoarding and pictures don the walls of his father’s petrol station
We exchange notes
I never watch Yuvraj play in the flesh. I watch the footage and he exchanges notes with me about — footwork and other things. I always say ‘son, work harder, harder, harder.’
I am happy now that he is very, very focused. He will become one of the legends of the game.
Greg, you beauty
Greg Chappell’s entry is the best thing to have happened to Indian cricket. We need to discipline our cricketers, make them work hard and realise that the country is very important. Now, I don’t feel the responsibility on my shoulders. Before, I used to follow Yuvi a lot. I wanted to stay with him all the time but when Greg came in, things changed.
Yuvi will be a legend
Yuvraj’s best is yet to come. And when that happens, he will be a combination of Gary Sobers and Viv Richards. All teams know that if Yuvraj stays there for long, they are gone. I keep telling him to play along the ground. Sometimes you’ve got to check your shot. I am happy to see him going on the front foot and hooking like Viv Richards but he will mature and play it better.
‘The changed Yuvraj...’
Yuvraj now and Yuvraj three years ago are two different people. On the first day of this Test, it was raining and I call up somebody to find out who’s doing what. The message I get is that Yuvraj and Kaif are at the gym for the last two hours. I gave him a call at 9.30 pm. “I am off to sleep, Dad, I’ve just had my dinner,” he said. Very good. It’s 6 am the next morning and I say, “good morning, Yuvi. What are you doing? I am ready Dad, I got up at 5 am.”
Sonny days! A young Yuvraj Singh (left) with dad and younger brother
‘Yuvi has been through it all...’
I was very hard on Yuvi. I even threw a glass at him when he played a bad shot in the nets and I did not tolerate bowling no-balls in the nets.
Yuvi had to stand only 15 yards away from the bat for fielding practice. The other boys used to run away because the ball used to be hit very hard. Yuvi used to say ‘my hand’s broken’ and I used to say, ‘no problem, stick around. When you are fielding 30 yards away from the bat, it will be so simple.’
I used to wake him up at 5 am for conditioning even in winter. At times, he used to bolt the door and I would come yelling. There were times I used to break open the door and throw water on his face and make him get up.
No TV in our house but there were 100 bats, pads, plastic balls and the like. No holidays or picnics too… only cricket.
I have bowled to him at midnight and people said I was mad. I asked Yuvi, ‘your dad is very hard on you, right? He said no initially but agreed. I said, ‘when you grow up, you’ll realise I was right. He probably felt I was a butcher.
‘I owe Mumbai!’
It was (scribe) Makarand Waingankar, who got me to Mumbai. I was in Jallandhar, overweight and not played first-class cricket for three years. But he insisted I come along and stay at his house.
Ashok Mankad as captain of Mafatlal brought out the best in me. He was the best captain I played under. It would’ve been better playing for Mumbai but…
AuthorTopic: yograj and yuvraj (Read 1067 times)
April 07, 2011, 03:20:18 PM