Grow up, Yuvi
Someone get a message across to Yuvraj Singh, please: the captain’s armband is not an uber cool accessory. It is not the ultimate chick magnet; nor is it a means to pump up your brand equity with the sponsors. It is rather a sign of the added responsibilities the wearer assumes — and it is conferred on those ready to assume those responsibilities and the hard work that goes with it.
Throughout season 2 of the IPL, Yuvraj was content to swan about as the captain while Sangakkara and Mahela ran the ship, both during the training sessions and on the field. Most times, he scrounged around at point with a distracted air, while the two Sri Lankans made the bowling changes, set the field, and did all that Yuvraj was supposed to do, but wouldn’t.
It was no wonder then that KXIP decided to officially confer the captaincy on Sangakkara this season, or that when the captain was benched for a game due to slow over rates, to have Mahela, not Yuvraj, stand in.
Yuvraj’s reaction has been to indulge in one massive sulk. One massive sulk too many, in fact. He has been lackluster throughout this series; yesterday, when for once his team looked somewhat competitive, his attitude contrasted oddly with the animation of his mates. For the entirety of the Mumbai Indians innings, Yuvraj strolled casually from position to position, displaying all the fervor of a misogynist at a sangeet.
It is not the first time, either — there was the earlier occasion when he felt he had been passed over for captaincy of the national ODI team, made some carping noises [aided and abetted by doting daddy] and generally stirred up bad blood.
“Attitude problems” is a diagnosis used too often in recent times, often with little or no basis. In the case of Yuvraj, though, that diagnosis is IMHO merited — and the treatment is a swift kick in the behind. The player has gotten too used to being considered a vital cog in the Indian limited overs and T20 machines — a fact that, he believes, gives him sufficient room to behave like a spoilt brat.
Maybe it did, till a couple of years ago. But maybe it is time for Yuvraj to look around him — at the half dozen or so young talents that are shining bright in the IPL arc lights. They’ve been batting better than Yuvraj and crucially, fielding way better than him to the point where Yuvi’s two USPs are no longer his to boast about.
When the batting bench was under-staffed, the Prince of Sulks could get away with riding his luck and playing the odd game-breaking innings once or twice a season to keep himself in the frame [when I brought up his name in a recent chat with friends, two of them were quick to go 'Remember his six sixes?']. That, I suspect, is a luxury he can no longer afford.
The question is, does he know it yet?
Its hard to see such wonderful talent going to head. He is one of the most brilliant players but yes his under commitement is obvious. My Wifey says Yuvraj nowadays reminds him of Arjuna Ranatunga and batting has nothing to do with this comparison. He is unfit is obvious from his shape and speed. Its an irony that Yuvi when he entered Int Cricket he made the Seniors look like old ladies…now an Jhunjhunwala makes him look like a grandmother.
Can’t KXIP drop him for the remaining matches? They definitely can’t do any worse than this without him. Also, if Zaheer could be dropped from the Indian team for attitude & fitness issues, why not Yuvi? Jatin, I liked the Ranatunga comparison:-)
Seriously, I would. Precisely for the reason you mention — how much worse can it get?
If you think from KXIP point of view, at least two players need to be axed: Yuvi and Mahela. Actually, Sanga and Mahela can be axed in rotation:-))
That might happen when Katich joins. Who else do they have as foreign players?
Success does strange things to people, some handle it well and remain humble, committed and in control like Sachin or Dhoni, but when players like Yuvraj behave the way they do, it has to do with a serious flaw in character, leading to questions on upbringing and education.
Right said! Yuvi is a talented cricketer, but a spoilt brat, and definitely has to do with upbringing!
Its fine to blame Yuvi for being lazy and careless but what about Mahela & Sangakarra ? Nobody has been talking about their horrid form and bad captaincy. Just because they come across as nice, intelligent men and don’t have that “bad-boy” image. Yes, Kings XI didn’t do well in the first 2 seasons and Yuvraj’s captaincy may not have been up to mark. But neither has Sangakarra done anything to justify his captaincy credentials…even with the Sl team. Repeatedly going past the over rate led to his ban and even his tactics have not been the smartest. In the Chennai -KXIP match…as a captain he chickened out and didn’t come out to bat in the super over. His loud appeals for balls pitched way outside leg stump are another matter.
Even Mahela last night was trying his best to get out and eventually succeeded in running himself out. And when KXIP was coming back into the game…he chose to give Bopara the ball in the 19th over instead of Pathan or Chawla. KXIP lost the game right there.
Granting all of that, how does that excuse Yuvraj? My concerns as a cricket fan are predominantly Indian — getting Yuvraj fit and firing is important for me; the two Sri Lankans are not.
Bang on target, the form of the SL players is not of a concern for an Indian cricket fan.
Looking at Yuvi play yesterday , my thoughts were about players like Manish Pandey or Uthappa. These guys have been playing well and deserved a place in the T20 squad. But it goes to players like Yuvraj , who likes a petulant kid,sulks over a candy.
I think you have missd the point. Losing form or making errors in judgement is part and parcel of the game. But, losing interest and wearing the don’t care attitude on the sleeves is not.
Yuvraj-bashing is a cottage industry not without reasons. He’s a favourite punching bag in my blog as well but when you manage to get over that bristling feeling which he generates in onlookers, you realise how important it is for a player with potentials to have a mentor. Such a waste of talent!
I could not agree more, he needs to be dropped from the team right now and maybe then kings XI will start doing a little bit better!!
Actually, Yuvi’s decline in his fielding shows his attittude. Under Ganguly’s captaincy, he used to be one of the very best in the world. When I see him now, he is pathetic, one of the worst fielders at that time, Ganguly, throws himself around even now, evenif unsuccessful at times as ever. I guess he always needs someone bold enough to kick his butt. Thats really pathetic!!!! He should have been in KKR (Ganguly can handle his attittude) or MI (Sachin will handle him like Jayasuriya).
Couldn’t agree more. For India to become a truly world class side, this is one of the issues that should be tackled urgently and strictly. No one should be picked in the national side if he has an attitude and commitment problem. Its high time that we move away from reliance on personalities rather than the team itself. Kick Yuvraj out untill he mends his ways.
While his fielding has been nothing to write home about, I was shellshocked by the way he got out yesterday. It was like he was still doling out those Karbonn mobiles given to spectators between the games for catching dollies. I am still in two minds, on whether it was a deliberate attempt reflecting his frustration or has he completely lost it. I definitely see Rohit sharma getting a lot of games in the T20 W-cup, if yuvi’s form continues this way
If he gets out to the shots that he has been in the IPL, he has no business making it to the WC team to the Caribbean. He was hardly interested in leading his side even last season and has no reason to sulk over it.
This Yuvraj bashing is quite disgraceful and just shows how Fickle minded we Indians really are.Here is a genuine cricketer who even when he is out of form has at least won 1 match (Punjab’s Only win) singlehandedly.
I cant bear people bashing Yuvraj and praising Sanga who along with Jaya are possible among the Worst 20/20 players ever.Crawling around taking singles when you need 10 runs an over is the brilliant tactics of Sanga.And the whole earth blame Yuvi.
Poor Guy.
Maybe a good a look at the statistics, since T20 WC 2007 (in South Africa), of Mr. Yuvaraj Singh would be very interesting and revealing !! So will is performance study in IPL (3 seasons). he reminds me of “bumble bee” in his performance on the field. One thing is for sure: he would not have found a place in the Australian team, based on his current attitude and performance. That patent intolerance to “indiscipline” and “attitude” is what makes that team what it is today !!
forget the little ‘uns who are gunning for his spot…just compare him to sachin. he is miles fitter than yuvi.
don’t use IPL as the benchmark to judge an international cricketer. just for his track record as an India player, he deserves to walk into the team. These talks are frivoulous. Suddennly Robin Uthappa is seen in the same league as Yuvraj. Wow.
“When the batting bench was under-staffed, the Prince of Sulks could get away with riding his luck and playing the odd game-breaking innings once or twice a season to keep himself in the frame”; reads very nice but is factually incorrect.
lets take it point by point:
1)
Indian batting in the last decade or so has never looked under staffed. that description fits the bowling department, but not the batting dept. not when the troika of sachin, saurav, rahul + sehwag and later dhoni joined. the last of them to join the team was dhoni in 2004/05. thats 5 yrs back. so i dont what era Prem is talking about when he talks abt an under staffed batting dept. if anything, with the likes of rohit sharma and yusuf pathan in the current batting line-up, it looks under staffed now more than ever.
2) “Odd game-breaking innings”: How does that account for back to back centuries and back to back man of the series in ODI series’ in the last 3 seasons?
so that is factually incorrect as well.
most big chases over the last 7-8 years have revolved around yuvi’s success/failure to control the middle/end of the innings.
Prem is right about a lot of other things:
1) he seems disinterested/sulking: we all presume its because he has been removed from the captaincy- that may be the case, or may not be;
2) he looks unfit: YES.
3) he’s no longer among the great fielders of the mediocre fielding side that we are: YES
players that were selected on the basis of great IPL seasons: rohit sharma, goni, yusuf pathan. havent we been disappointed enough to see them under perform in the India colours.
and dint we realise that IPL cannot be the bench mark to determine who’s great/good /ordianary. notice how all the IPL teams were thrashed by the champion teams from other countries in the champions league.
to judge a consistently strong performer on the basis of 6 failures in a cricketainment event is a bit of a WEAK argument.
ok I an apology to Prem, because he’s just questioning Yuvi’s attitude and not his place in the Indian team. a lot of the comments i read after reading the article talked abt those things, and i mixed up the two.
but i still feel Prem was not justified in describing/under describing Yuvi’s significance in the Indian team over the last decade.
Quite true. I think he fails to grow up. Dont think he will be in the team in a couple of years. Talent gone waste due to attitude. I think story of many in India.
Agreed! They need to hire an ass to kick this ass on his ass.
Yuva is a good cricketer. He always has a better attitude than sachin. He never thinks about his individual scores. Never wasted a single ball for making his own fifty or century. He always enjoys to contribute for indian victories. In IPL 3 sachin seems to be in good form. If he is really playing for indian victories then why he is refusing to participate in WC20. This really shows 2 things. 1) He likes money more than cricket. 2) He likes his records more than indian victories.
Yuva will get man of the series award in this WC2020. He has all abilities to achieve this. stay and watch….
R u joking? you must be a yuvi himself or one of his family member to say that he has better attitude than Sachin. How many one-day innings do you remember other than one where he and kaif led India to victory against Eng? how many t20 innings he played to led us to win other than that 6 sixes an over inning. even in t20, I feel gambhir is way better than him. he is way below on 30 as avg. in one-day and i can’t even talk about test matches. I don’t understand why doesn’t his family talk to him about his attitude. I should also say that i feel that he is a way good talent to be wasted like this bcoz of his attitude. I am comletely agree with author.
hahahha I dont like saying this to people generally cause everyone is entitled to their opinion… But my friend you are indeed a Moron… If you honestly believe waht you said that sachin is selfish and only plays for money and has an attitude problem.. Hmm and Yuvraj is the shining light.. Please stop watching and playing cricket, you have no understanding of the Game or People.. The whole cricketing world is on one side and you are on another.. Find a hole and jump in it… Make sure its deep and dark there.. I could try and argue why you are wrong, but you will not understand it… Remember find,hole, jump,
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha………….
Good joke…
Just can’t stop laughing….
You have great potential to be a cricket critic…..
Either you live on the the moon or suffer from amnesia or just want to draw comments or plain loony
Is his attitude having a bad influence on the team and making it difficult for Sanga to motivate the rest.
The guy needs proper kick on his backside – has needed it for a while but got away with his tantrums because he is the bosom buddy of a certain mahendra singh dhoni. Throw him out of the team in all formats, leave him out for a year and watch Yuvraj become serious (or lost to the game). Atleast we can try out another youngster in this egoistic man’s spot.
Though I am an admirer of Yuvi for his batting talent and sweet golf swing of the bat a.l.a Brian Lara, his attitude had always been questionable. I could never forget the incident in the first IPL when he did not bother to remember name of his own team-mates. Such an attitude might be acceptable from a team member, but certainly not from a team leader and smacks of arrogance and condescendingness. Now his form also taking a nose-dive, his arrogance is only making things worse and deserves to be given a “Rest” from international cricket.
There is no doubt that Yuvi needs to get fitter. He has a beer belly nowadays, and that shows that he is not working enough on his fitness.
The way I see it, it is the coaching staff and management that is to blame for the debacle of Punjab. Here’s why:
1. Yuvraj is not captain material. He may want to be be captain but he is not fit to do so. That should have been made clear to him right at IPL 1. He is a great brand ambassador and he will fill the stands. Take away the pressures of captaincy and let him focus on his game. He should be made to understand that. The stick will not work with Yuvi, the carrot always does. Feed his ego. What has hurt him is the way he was stripped of captaincy and the person it was handed to.
2. Sangakarra is a great captain but here his judgment is clouded by his friendship with Jayawardena. There is no way that Shaun Marsh should have sat out a single game so Jaya could play. A jet-lagged Marsh is any day better than a fully awake Jayawardene in T20.
3. If Sanga couldn’t play, then Yuvraj should have been captain. Jayawardene is not the Sri Lankan captain because he can’t handle the pressure. If Yuvraj was the captain his ego would have been slightly assuaged and for all you know he would have turned in a decent performance.
4. For all his lazy attitude, Yuvraj remains the only batsman in the line-up who can win a match on his own. Now that Marsh is there, the pressure eases off, but someone has to dangle the carrot in front of Yuvi.
5. The owners of the team should stop talking in public about selling majority stake in the team. It shows that they are not serious about a long term committment. If they don’t care why should the players? Mohali may be a good stadium but the stands have never been full. if Yuvraj doesnt perform, the numbers will reduce further.
6. We saw what happened to Kolkata after an Australian coach tried to screw around. In Australia, it works because their domestic system creates a back up of very competent players who can step up if the stars dont perform. Our domestic system is not good enough to create a Mitchell Johnson who can fill 80 percent of McGrath’s shoes. So treat your players right and they will perform.
7. Moody should understand that Reetinder Sodhi is a better player than Karan Goel. He can bat, bowl and is a livewire in the field. But Moody was not present for the training camp. What sort of an idiot coach is that?
8. Sreesanth should play. His last game, his figures read 3 overs, 20 runs. Not bad at all.
And to those who think Yuvraj is better than Sachin. Reall?? Get a life. If Yuvraj was half as mature as Sachin, this problem would have never arisen. He would have been batting like the star he is and Punjab wouldnt have been in so much shit. He would have been complimented on his professionalism.
First Yuvraj needs to reduce weight then his attitude
I don’t think there is any need to panic about Yuvi right now … he needs a motivation to play good which he gets while playing for his country … ipl definitely doesn’t motivates him at all … even when he had a poor run at ipl 09, looking bored as well, he performed really well at t20 wc, looking purposeful and motivated … i don’s think its about his ego as well though I well be wrong.
You know, for some strange reason I am actually feeling sympathetic to Yuvi. His attitude as you describe, has been consistent for most of his career. So its not like he became a bad boy over night, and neither is he going to start behaving dignified like Sachin over night. I think it comes as part of the package, and the fact hat he is not considered captaincy material in any format, for any team must be hard for a man who had big dreams. All said and done his attitude has never been as terrible as that os some one like Sreesanth, whom we still tolerate.
Injury is laying him down big time, and perhaps that’s why he is so fat and not the same fielder any more. Perhaps, just perhaps, it is possible that this man is going through genuine physical pain, and not actually plotting at letting his team down as it has been portrayed across sections of the media.
I have never found his attitude good enough, and hence have never been a big fan, especially in tests.. But that didn’t matter when he was consistent in ODIs and hitting 6 sixes in T20s, and actually showing improvements in tests in the recent past.
May be some time off to take care of his injury and get fully fit would do him wonders, and his record for India in ODIs and T20s, is still terrific. KXIP are not going to win any trophy anywhere even with a fully firing Yuvraj, so it’s also a question of the other team members contributing.
Come on folks, whether you like him or not, show some support to the 6 sixes man! India needs a fit and in form Yuvi for the shorter formats of the game.
Cheers!
Vasu