A contemporary of Rahul Dravid, Sujith Somasundar was part of Karnataka’s golden generation that helped the State scale great heights in the Ranji Trophy during the 1990s when three titles were won. Somasundar opened the innings, led Karnataka and while his career wound up, turned out for Kerala and Saurashtra.
Besides his Karnataka-stint, he played for India in two ODIs and represented Chemplast in the Chennai league. Once his playing days were over, he coached Kerala for two seasons. The former Karnataka captain also worked with Wipro, a five-year tenure which he describes as a ‘fulfilling experience.’
A cerebral cricketer, it was no surprise when Somasunder turned his attention to sport’s mental aspect, a base that distinguishes a great player from the average one. He read extensively and also undertook a certification course. “I got certified from an American sports psychologist Dr. Patrick Cohn. That’s when I knew that there is a science to handle various aspects of the mind. Attributes like confidence and focus are part of mental- toughness skills,” Somasundar says.
Somasundar points out how after a point, skills plateau out but the mind brooks no boundaries. “You do know that running a 100m dash in four seconds is impossible. Yes, the bar is being raised but you can only do so much because we all have our physical limitations but the mind is free and how you handle the mind, determines how far you go.
Mental-toughness Right now I am into mental-toughness coaching. As far as skills are concerned once you reach a certain level what differentiates a winner from a regular player is the mental conditioning,” he says.
When Somasundar talks about the game’s mental factors, his words carry the weight of his 16-year stint as a domestic cricketer and reflect his intellectual bid to understand the mind. The endeavour was fired up by his awareness that he didn’t do justice to his potential.
Somasundar’s first-class statistics — 5525 runs from 99 games with an average of 35.64 — point out to a cricketer, who had the talent but somehow did not push himself ahead. His two outings with India proved forgettable. “I allowed tough players like Steve Waugh do their mental disintegration bit to me, I got conscious, made mistakes. As an emerging player, I was extremely talented, please don’t mistake this as an empty boast because runs used to flow. Through all age-group cricket, I was regarded as someone who might play for India for long.
But I didn’t while Rahul (Dravid) did and he is a classic case of what a mentally tough cricketer can achieve. When I was dropped in my first season as a Ranji player, it was the first time I was ever dropped and I didn’t have the mechanism to cope with it,” Somasundar says.
It formed his rationale of finding ways to calm the mind and gave him the impetus to share that knowledge with fellow sportsmen. “You need these mental conditioning coaches because every sportsperson goes through the highs and lows. If they don’t know how to handle this, they won’t be able to perform to their potential. When you help talented sportspersons with the mental aspects, their performance improves,” Somasundar says and reveals that he is a mind-coach to former India and Tamil Nadu player S. Badrinath, who is turning out for Vidarbha this season. The two share a bond since their days together with Chemplast.
Currently working with Touche Golf as mind-coach, Somasundar is hoping to expand his repertoire. “I am working with talented young golfers now and I am looking at interacting with individual players, even teams and yes conducting guidance sessions with corporates,” he says.
Ask him about the toughest players he has seen and pat comes the reply: “Rahul and now Virat Kohli.” Somasundar hopes to add more numbers to that exalted group.
