To interview Virender Sehwag was one of the great pleasures of being a cricket journalist. Behind the earthy wit and impish repartee was a man of complete conviction. Sehwag spoke much like he batted. Uncomplicated. Free flowing. Uncluttered.
I interviewed him last about a year ago. We walked on the lawns of the Sehwag international school he has set up in Jhajjar, a dusty town in Haryana. It had been nearly two years since he had last played for India. He wasn’t holding out hope for a recall. Yet, there was no rancour. No grimacing. No regrets.
“So you will be ok, if you don’t get to play for India again?” I asked.
“Yes, whose loss?”
“I am asking you,” I mumbled.
“I am telling you,” he retorted with a smile.
This wasn’t an arrogant swipe. It was an embrace with reality. Sehwag knew he had floundered. He recognised his spot was lost at the back of a string of underwhelming performances. By asking “Whose loss”, he was merely stating what he saw as obvious.
There was little to gain for the team from a batsman unable to reproduce the pomp of his past.
There was little merit in him returning to the Indian dressing room based on reputation, but a shadow of the sparkling player he once was. Here’s what he said when asked if his powers had declined.
My approach is the same. Yes, I am not able to give the kind of performances that I used to. If I score runs I score them quickly, if I get out, then I get out quickly.
– Virender Sehwag
There again was a snapshot into the innate honesty of his method. Sehwag had learnt one way to play the game. It had served him well. He wouldn’t abandon the formula despite its diminishing returns. To the very end, he would play like Virender Sehwag. He could not pretend to be anyone else.
It was an illuminating insight into a unique mindset. Blessed with rare ability, Sehwag was determined to never let his cricket be dour. He could fail. But he wouldn’t forsake the foundation of his pursuit.
You should be happy in your life. Cricketers are worried about their milestones, worried that I should score 5000-10000 Test runs but I am not fussy, I am not like that.
– Virender Sehwag
The cynical among us could argue Sehwag’s ways betrayed a lack of ambition. Could much more have been accomplished if only he cared more? Perhaps. But then, perhaps, he cared for other things.
For joy. Enjoyment. For that indescribable feeling of striking five and a half ounces of leather ferociously with a piece of willow. Hearing an audience in raptures. Whistling a melody while unleashing carnage.
Does it make a difference if I score 8000 or 10000 runs? Not in anybody’s life. Even if I make 10000 runs, who will be happy? Only me, maybe? Because people don’t care. It is about individual satisfaction.
– Virender Sehwag, Former India Cricketer
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