boycs on yuvi
RK: All right, let's take the Boycs question of the week now and it comes from David in India.
David says: Hello Geoffrey, we saw what happened in the World T20 final where, in the eyes of many, Yuvraj Singh lost the game singlehandedly for India with his 21-ball 11. I read later on ESPNcricinfo in Sid Monga's article that "T20 as a format is cruel as it doesn't offer a player a shot at redemption, and it is easy to identify villains in this format and bury them."
Do you agree that the format is indeed that cruel, or is it just a case of a cricketer out of form? What is to blame more when a player like Yuvraj fails the way he did in the final against Sri Lanka - the format or the cricketer?
GB: Both. It is a difficult format. For me Yuvraj is a cricketer out of form, and he's not been the same batsman since his illness.
It shouldn't surprise people that he's not the same sort of player, but it does, because many people expected Yuvraj to come back and be the same explosive batsman who won three Man-of-the-Match performances in the World Cup.
Cancer is tough to get over. When a sportsman, whatever his sport, has a serious illness or a serious operation, it can take a long, long time to find that elusive thing you had before your layoff.
Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers added 66 runs, Royal Challengers Bangalore v Pune Warriors, IPL 2011, Bangalore, April 29, 2011
"There's not a lot to chose between them. It's personal preference but AB de Villiers has been around doing it a lot longer than Kohli" ? AFP
You can get 80% back of what you were fairly comfortably, with quite a bit of work physically in the gym and practice in the nets and a bit of cricket, but it's the other 20% which is so hard to get back.
I'll give you an example. Take Tiger Woods, a knee operation, a layoff, and what happens, he's not the same, invincible golfer. He's struggling this year. Nobody's frightened of his golf anymore. That aura has gone. He's very very good, but not great, invincible or special.
Now, when you come back after an illness in cricket, like Yuvraj has in the shorter form, the T20, the harder it is to find your form. Because any loss of confidence, you have less time to play when you get to the middle.
So it can be cruel. It exposes you, because if you've got any lack of confidence or form or conviction or positivity, you have no time to play yourself in. Every ball counts - 120 balls and you're expected to get more than a run a ball.
Personally, if he wasn't going to be required as a left-arm spinner - which I've seen him bowl very well and cause problems, but he wasn't used very much in the World T20 - and if that was the case then I would have left him out.
And not just the final, even the games before. Because I've always believed that T20 is a game where batsmen and bowlers need to be confident. There is no room for negativity because every player is under such enormous pressure.
T20 exposes any fears and frailties in your mind. And if you're unassertive, you're gone, and that's what happened to Yuvraj. A lack of confidence, lack of form, no timing, not sure if he should play this shot or that shot, and before you know it has happened, you've received a number of balls and you're poking around in the middle like a headless chicken.
And it gets worse in T20s. There's so much fear if you're not at the top of your game. I'd only pick players who are confident, positive, feeling good. And it's not just Yuvraj - don't just blame him for the final, maybe blame the selectors who picked him.
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