Predictions in cricket can be like the weather forecasts. There are some thoughtful and some amateurish predictions by people who love to foretell. Whoever thought Yusuf Pathan would one day play for India and take top bowlers apart at will? Not even his family would have imagined because his strokeplay always had that element of risk like Sandeep Patil's.
In 2001 when Yusuf was in the West Zone academy of the NCA at Mumbai, he hit one short ball from a medium pacer over the scoreboard above the corner of the west and north stand of the Wankhede stadium into the adjacent University pavilion.
He continued to play such shots at the Motibaug Palace ground sometimes hitting monkeys or peacocks in the bushes in the vicinity. Not a day passed when all the balls could be retrieved.
Sandhu was right
But when as Baroda coach Balwinder Singh Sandhu saw this kind of hitting in 2006 he had prophesied that Yusuf is the only player in Baroda who would make it to the top and bowlers would have to hide from him. By that time Irfan Pathan had made his mark in the Indian team.
The association thought Sandhu had exceeded his brief and didn't renew his contract. Hasn't Sandhu been proved right?
Sandhu's successor in 2007 was Ashok Mankad who found fault with Yusuf's attitude though it was he who had promoted Sandeep Patil from number 10 to four in the Mumbai team in 1978.
Yusuf continued to be in and out of the Baroda team. Paras Mhambrey took over from Mankad and Yusuf blossomed. Later in the first edition of IPL, Shane Warne got the best out of him. A star was born.
Handle differently
A player of Yusuf's calibre needs to be handled differently.
Bookish coaches found fault with his grip and technique (they did that with Tendulkar too after watching his low grip) but such players adapt themselves to situations with their strengths. Yusuf candidly says “If the ball is in my range, I will hit it out of the ground.”
Before the 1979 World Cup Sandeep Patil was in similar form.
Once in the ‘A' division of a local tournament he hit 26 sixes in one innings and some of the lofted shots landed either in the sea or on the Marine Lines road, a clear 120 yard hit. But he wasn't selected for the World Cup.
In 1982 Patil hit Bob Willis for six fours in one over when he scored a century. Before that he had hit 174 against the likes of Dennis Lillee and Len Pascoe.
Sometimes predictions can also embarrass others.
Former Australian fast bowler Rodney Hogg who took 41 wickets at an average of 12.85 in the Ashes of 1978-79 made a prediction about Shane Warne in his column in The Truth newspaper that Warne would take 500 Test wickets much before Warne even played for Victoria.
Hogg was sacked and the newspaper reportedly apologised to readers for misleading predictions made by their columnist.
When Warne ended with 708 Test wickets, Hogg said, “I was wrong. He got 208 wickets more”.
Yusuf Pathan has proved critics wrong. To him a ball is meant to be hit and his hand-eye coordination ensures the ball goes in the direction he means to hit.
It's time Indian cricket encourages such players and stops measuring them with technicalities.
