In times when meme-makers and trolls have the power to amplify any trivial slip-ups into epic blunders, social-media toxicity can leave the sensitive among cricketers scarred for life.
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Gujarat Titans skipper Hardik Pandya with Mohd Shami and CSK’s Mukesh Choudhary (R) during IPL 2022. (IPL)
Dear Readers,
It isn’t just the first letter of their names that connects cricketers Mukesh Choudhary, Mehidy Hasan and Mohammed Shami. This week the three were in the news for living a nightmare on the field. Choudhary and Shami in the IPL, Hasan during the Bangladesh vs South Africa Test.
It was a minor miss, not related to their primary skill, but that wasn’t a consideration for the critics. For a fleeting moment they seemed to have taken their eyes off the ball and, as luck would have it, that would prove to be the reason for their embarrassing fielding errors.
In times when meme-makers and trolls have the power to amplify any trivial slip-ups into epic blunders, the public humiliation of even an everyday missed catch can generate enough social-media toxicity to leave the sensitive among cricketers scarred for life.
Dhoni was seen consoling Mukesh Chaudhary after the youngster dropped catches vs RCB. (Screengrab/IPL)
CSK’s Choudhary and Bangladesh’s Hasan dropped the kind of catches that they would have held even in their sleep. Choudhary ignited anger for letting the ball through his wide-spread fingers. Not once, but twice. For a team that hasn’t had the best of starts in this IPL, there was outrage among Chennai fans.
The cameras on the field didn’t stop chasing the hapless Choudhary. They closed in on the badly-shaken rookie’s face. TRP-hunters would have prayed for a tear to drop. The CSK pacer didn’t know what to do, where to look. A smile would have been a PR disaster, a glum sorry face was the only option. One felt for the boy.
For Hasan, it was worse. Momentarily missing the ball in the backdrop of the crowd, he was clueless. As he searched for the ball, it hit him in the crotch region. He doubled in pain, and had to be stretchered out. But there was no sympathy. Hasan had become a joke, the sufferer in a slap-stick prank video.
Gujarat Titans’ skipper Hardik Pandya was seen shouting at Mohd Shami during an IPL 2022 match. (Screengrabs)
The Shami episode during the Gujarat Titans vs Punjab Kings game had an extra layer of intrigue. The Indian pacer didn’t drop a catch, he was blamed for not putting in that extra effort to move swiftly and scoop the ball while fielding at the fine-leg boundary. What made his embarrassment uglier was the lip he got from his IPL captain at Gujarat Titans, Hardik Pandya. A junior to Shami, both in terms of skills and experience, Pandya was throwing rank.
Having been hit for a couple of sixes in that over, the born-again all-rounder, keen to showcase his bowling credentials, was stressed. But that still didn’t justify his outburst.
Pandya should have factored Shami’s fitness record, fielding skills and stature before lashing out at him. Having made his first-class debut in 2010, Shami is an old-school pacer who believes that fine-leg is a resting place between overs.
Besides, India’s Most Valuable Pacer across formats is known for a heavy ball and those nip-backers from hell, not for Ajay Jadeja-like acrobatic catches running in from deep. Had the not-so-athletic Shami actually attempted the impossible, the odds of him aggravating an old niggle or suffering a new injury would have been high. Was it worth it? With the T20 World Cup round the corner, can India afford to lose its main pacer while making a desperate attempt to be part of an IPL wicket?
Coming from Pandya, a player often questioned for not giving his all when on national duty, this was rich.
Gary Kirsten is coaching Gujarat Titans in the IPL2022. (File)
Considering the IPL pressures and his inexperience, Pandya’s blow-up was expected. Maybe, he will learn with time. A chat with Gary Kirsten, part of the Gujarat Titans coaching setup, will help. The former South Africa batsman has been a keen student of the game with special interest in the science behind the behaviour of modern players.
Kirsten has often spoken about the mental strength and vulnerabilities of those who perform in high-pressure situations. In a podcast with his long-time coaching assistant and noted mind guru Paddy Upton, he narrated an incident from his playing days that shows the lack of empathy among teammates.
The story is from his playing days. Kirsten says it was the time when South Africa had an atmosphere of taking the mickey out of each other. The opener wasn’t a big fan of that culture. According to him, he always needed people to pump him since he was always hard on himself. Kirsten liked teammates who encouraged him and Hansie Cronje was one of them.
With this background, Kirsten talks about a pre-training warm-up game that he despised. He would say that often things would go out of hand. In the name of competitiveness, there would be cheating.
As part of this fielding drill, two sets of teammates were asked to hit stumps, those landing the ball on the target would win. Kirsten, that day, missed six times. A senior player from across the field shouted, ‘Hey Gazza, you will never hit the stumps.’
“It was intended as a jibe and bit of chirping in the competitive way in the game, but it had a deep effect on me. For me it was like, here was one of my guys, not backing, not believing in me. At that moment, you don’t say anything, you have a laugh and you go on with it. He (the senior player) probably didn’t think anything of it and if I went back to him today, he probably would have forgotten. But I can tell you the story with clarity 20 years later,” he says.
Kirsten talks about the lack of awareness among teammates about each other and who they are as people. “What are their vulnerabilities and what are the things they battle and have to deal with? There is a naivety about how we treat each other as people in a team environment.”
Sports is often celebrated for preparing the young to face the vagaries of life or storied for rationalising setbacks as stepping stones to success. But it can also be cruel, unforgiving and heartless.
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Sandeep Dwivedi
National Sports Editor
