Caught At Point: Suryakumar Yadav must be criticised, but not subjected to unbecoming taunts!
Suryakumar Yadav must be criticised, but not subjected to unbecoming taunts! with some fine performances as one hopes in the IPL, the same fan that can’t bear Sky at the moment will submit him to shining stars and lights in a few days from now.
Surely, Suryakumar Yadav isn’t the most popular man going around in international cricket at the moment.
If anything, he has more potshots coming at him- and perhaps every hour- than there are missiles falling in what is called a disputed land or territory.
It’s easy to evade criticism when you score a duck. Happens all the time. Actually, happens to the best in this sport.
We’ve seen them all take the long, much dreaded walk back to the pavilion seconds after they’d only just walked in.
It’s happened to the great Sunil Gavaskar. It’s happened to lord Tendulkar. Dravid’s been guilty of it as have been the Sehwag’s, Ganguly’s and Laxman’s.
But it becomes a whole different matter altogether when you score consecutive ducks.
The anguish of fans- and as seen in this case- turns into trenchant criticism when you score golden ducks.
On his part, Suryakumar Yadav is guilty of scoring not just three consecutive ducks but in getting out for a first ball dismissal in each of his last one day international innings.
It shows he’s clearly out of form. And maybe out of sorts even. This, after all, isn’t backyard cricket; this is playing international cricket for one of the strongest stables in the global game.
There are expectations all the time when you’re part of a strong, winning team. And they are even more so and maybe unjustly in that way when you represent a team so powerful and consistent as India.
But what’s clearly made the sky of scathing criticism fall on Sky here is that he’s proved himself to be a world class performer.
We’ve seen him for a while now. We’ve seen on a number of occasions how he transformed India’s fortunes from a state of listlessness into a position of sheer strength at the back of his batting genius.
He’s done things that have transfixed the viewer on to the game akin to a piece of iron clinging to a magnet.
But that he collectively lasted for no more than three odd deliveries in the recently completed series against Australia also tells us more than just his own failings with the bat.
Perhaps it tells us about the collective psyche of the social media clinging fan than it merely says of a batsman who’s captured the imagination of the world through sheer wizardry and awe.
If there was such a thing as the time to take cognisance of the amount of vitriol that rests in the heart of the cricket doting fan as also lavish praise, then it’s now.
Surely, the fan demands entertainment. And more often than not, he and she gets it. Liberal doses of it, in fact.
But what we mustn’t forget and remember to appreciate is the simple underlying truth that at the end of the day, our cricketers, regardless of them being superstars in our eyes, are human.
They will falter. They will fall. But they’ll also rise if they have the talent.
It’s all part of Cricket; it ebbs and flows.
A batsman like Suryakumar Yadav, who it ought to be remembered, is meant to make the white ball cricket walk a long mile, will rise back up.
Yet, what’s bewildering- for really no other word would suffice- is that when all of us are sound enough to understand that to err is human, then why don’t we get it?
What is being achieved by directing lewd comments and hate to Suryakumar Yadav at the very time where he’s clearly down in the dumps?
Surely feeling let down by someone whom we attach much respect and tie hopes to is normal. It’s as normal as one team being dubbed a winner and another, the losing side at the end of the day.
But what’s unnatural is to chain a very talented batsman to a line of seemingly endless fire.
When you’re an international cricketer, it is a given that you’ll have few a bad series’. It’s not a question of ‘if’, but ‘when’.
But does some responsibility of knowing what to say and to what extent not rest with the fan too in an age where forget the big monies, but huge pressure too rests on the player?
Perhaps it’s not a no brainer exactly to say that what Suryakumar Yadav needs now is some understanding. He must be given some space.
What he can be spared are the hurting opinionated bullets that are as unsparing as that bowl of poison chalice.
A wise man once said, when it doesn’t work, give it time.
The choice, however, rests with the Indian fan. Can he give himself a break from remarking something unnecessarily on an out of form batter and get a breather?
Maybe, with some fine performances as one hopes in the IPL, the same fan that can’t bear Sky at the moment will submit him to shining stars and lights in a few days from now.
