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Welcome
back, Hardik.
Even if
you weren’t 1/10th of the cricketer, even if you could just catch and field and
were a bits and pieces all-rounder, it would be good to see you back.
But you
are more than that. You flew in, and then you flew - what a catch that was.
There is something about you, who knows, maybe even you don’t know yet what it
is, but there are those that do.
Which is
why, after Kohli, Rohit, MS, Bumrah, your name was inked in indelible marker to
make that formidable India XI for the World Cup.
Yet your
name went missing. Just as every voice that could have made a difference went
missing.
It took
Rahul Dravid to speak up for you, in an equal measure of sanity and
understanding.
And with
that, somehow, things appear to have been sorted for now at least.
Perhaps a
lesson for all cricketers: do not expect much from the administration. It’s
beyond them. It reflects in the way the BCCI has been run, and far worse, how
it fails to be run - with the added discomfort of a prop called the Committee
of Administrators (CoA).
Were
things better in Srini’s time?
So, you’re
back, Hardik. How does it feel? Like you got out of jail?
No, you
don’t have to answer that. You don’t have to answer anything.
You are not
answerable.
That’s
what they wanted, and that’s what they should get.
Hardik
Pandya has gone missing. In finding Hardik Pandya, again, India has lost him.
How hard
we try and alter people. To make them suit our definition of what they should
be like.
Great,
Hardik Pandya is palatable now. You will see him as we have seen him for a
while, pokerfaced, answering questions, so deadpan, when it’s only Manjrekar in
the post-match.
Somehow,
Manjrekar has drilled Pandya far more than Karan Johar ever did - in each
interview, he has probed, skilfully, trying to eek something out, something
about the other Hardik Pandya.
But that
was cricket. Hardik Pandya was on his guard. His eyes still, almost lifeless,
his demeanour almost solemn, as if Manjrekar was singing a dirge.
That dirge
which Karn Johar sang, camouflaged with a sexual surge.
Johar was
his friend, buddy, this was Bollywood, not cricket; Hardik Pandya wasn’t a
cricketer, he was so much more, Black Elvis had just entered the building.
Part 2
A while
back, Hardik Pandya posted a video on twitter of his homecoming from an
overseas’ tour - he surprised his father in the middle of the night, waking him
up. A stunned father hugs his son, frantically.
It’s a
dramatic video. Hardik Pandya was dramatic. His father seemed dramatic too.
There are
bits and pieces that people have seen of the Karan Johar interview. There seems
to be plenty of hearsay too. I did watch the video, a few days after it went on
air.
If
anything, it was largely tactless of the two cricketers. Even naïve. Such a
rarity on air, these days. Everyone is tutored enough to be the next Sushmita
Sen.
These two,
they would’ve made it beyond the swimsuit round. But not much further.
Part 3
On January
28, 2019, on his return, Hardik Pandya bowled his full quota of ten overs. In
42 innings so far, this was the 11th occasion that he had bowled all
10 overs. Two caught keeper dismissals, Pandya was pitching it up.
That not
even player of the match, Mohammed Shami bowled his full quota, was a sign from
the captain – we are behind you, Pandya.
Part 4
It’s way
too early to look at Pandya’s numbers and make sense of him as a cricketer. But
in him, is India’s genuine search for a cricketing all-rounder. That’s how
serious Indian cricket is of Hardik Pandya.
That Kapil
Dev’s name continues to be thrown in tandem with his name, is not an accident.
In 11
Tests so far, Hardik Pandya already has a Test century and a five-for. He
scored a Test 50 on debut, a Test century in his third Test. His 112 off 96
balls earned him Man of the match.
His
match-turning spell of 5/28 at Nottingham was sealed with a run a ball 50. But
those are just numbers. And with Pandya, they will, for a while, continue to be
only a small part of the story.
Just as,
India invested long term in Rohit Sharma, and is now served tons for fun, there
is a deep squinting far-away look at the horizon for this 25 year old’s India
future.
After
Hardik Pandya sat on that Coffee Show, much of that promise was being ripped
into – it may have been politically incorrect, even foolish, but none of that
was, arguably, to do with cricket.
That he
was on the show as a cricketer was not by accident either. He was not there as
the painter who reds the town. But Johar’s batteries were all charged for ‘Gimme
Red’.
What else
do you expect on a Johar show? It’s not by accident either that a Bollywood
icon claims to be a virgin on his show.
Anything
goes. It’s just that these two cricketers, didn’t know better. It’s not as if
either Pandya or KL Rahul will become saints after this incident; but don’t be
surprised if they
sound like
car nerds in their next interview-shoot. Maybe they will do an entire interview
where car will be a metaphor for something else. With Queen’s ‘I’m in love with
my car’ playing alongside.
Part 5
Here are
two hugely successful guys in their mid-20s, with 10-12 years best of making
the most of their gifts and talents.
Let’s back
them. Let’s be their strength. If you love the game, know what it is that makes
you love it – it is players like Hardik and Rahul that make those repeated
curtain calls to the clamouring of crowds, after those mighty sixes – they are
to the manor born, they are to the IPL born.
Whichever
team they go to, and by the looks of it, Pandya won’t go far from the Mumbai
Indians, will be enrichened by their funky town cricket.
They are,
by virtue of their skills, flair, approach to the game, a toast to the game.
Not just
the IPL, but who knows, to all formats. Which is why, in spite of Rahul’s
repeated and often baffling failures, one Test series after the other, there is
that glimmer of hope that he will come good. He too is a long term investment.
Part 6
But if
this is how BCCI treats their long term investments, why grudge the bulls and
the bears? In the aftermath of the Johar episode, the BCCI had pulled out of
the Pandya-Rahul investment. It is a matter of both shame and regret. Which is
where the Supreme Court and the CoA come in. The Pandya-Rahul affair is a
pointer to a stinkier mess. It didn’t work well before the changes. But it’s
far worse now. By tying the BCCI arms and legs, it’s Indian cricket that’s
being kicked in the gut.
Part 7
Hardik Pandya
was born on October, 11. Under the same sign as Sehwag and Gambhir. With a
strange balance, comes an even stranger outspoken word and world way.
Try to
curtail him at your own peril. And if you do, don’t be surprised that you may
do more harm than help. Nurture him. He could win you more than the odd cup.
More than the world?
Part 8
This
should have been written much earlier. But it did seem almost premature to
write it before Hardik Pandya’s return to the Indian side. Personally, I did feel
bad for him, almost anxious for his career. In a way, the thought that we may
not see Pandya play again for India, made me value him more than I ever had
before.
Let’s
lighten up now. Here’s to Pandya going red in the head for the fourth ODI.
First published here
