Jhakas | Sanjay Jha
By a strange co-incidence, I was at Tendulkar's on Wednesday for a quick afternoon bite. Earlier in the day, over my morning cuppa of Green label, I had read about the mental vulnerabilities of one Andrew Symonds. Pleated hair, big mouth , beefy and brawny , intense eyes, towering frame; Symonds has a brutal, formidable physical presence. But it was his mind that everyone was talking about.
Including vice-captain Michael Clarke. Rumors abounded that Symonds was prodigiously peeved with the blonde-boy for having questioned his team commitment, adherence to basic disciplines and what-have-you. I guess no one can dispute that. But what was interesting was where and what was Symonds up to when his team deliberated on a serious " strategy" to defeat Bangladesh. Continue reading below
Apparently, the man India's off-spinner Harbhajan Singh had allegedly called by pre-historic evolutionary names, had only gone fishing.
At the time of writing, there is speculation in the air that Symonds will be dropped out of the Oz squad for the India tour. In fact, scribes also believe that Symonds might get into a trawler and chug away into the deep sea on permanent hibernation; maybe Clarke and the rest of the guys can join him to do a "blue-ocean strategy."
I don't know where this will lead to but already sharp instruments in the shape of deadly daggers are out; Symonds has been asked to see psychologists, psychiatrists and shrinks.
I looked at the glass-covered plaque where there was the legibly scribbled "Sachin, the man we all want to be!" It was a yellow-green sports jersey, and signed off with best wishes by none other than Andrew Symonds. I read it one, twice, and as I fleetingly kept getting diverted to it as I munched on some delectable Sachin's favorites, I couldn't but wonder at the irony of it all. Because hidden in that rather honest admiration of India's Little Master is an admission perhaps that not everyone is perfect. And that not everybody can be great.
It takes courage to admit that. And it also reveals humility and respect, an ability to recognize your own limitations, and acknowledging the greatness of others (even and especially if they are about your adversaries) .
Sure, Symonds like most of us, has chinks in his armour. He does react easily to even a mild provocation, probably reading too much into every little event or incident. But tell me, can we all claim to be personifications of perfection? He is an intense character, always under the incandescent heat of media spotlight; believe me, that isn't easy. But can anyone deny that in perhaps every from of the game, he is easily the most destructive batsman in the game along with Virender Sehwag and Kevin Pietersen?
That he has won many a game from nowhere for Australia. It takes mental toughness to do that.
I remember watching Symonds give an interview many moons ago, and he came across as a competitive tough bloke with his head on his shoulders, like most regular athletes are. He seemed keen to move on. I wonder, if right now, the Aussies are trying to dump him at the first flimsy pretext available because at least where India is concerned, post- the Bhajji Monkeygate affair, they consider him a diplomatic liability? ?
One of my all-time favorite movies is Crocodile Dundee set in the forests and farm-lands of Australia. As Paul Hogan, the crocodile hunter from Down Under is introduced to the New York jet set by his gorgeous city-woman, he literally looks like a crocodile out of water in a deep soup. She introduces him to her grand-mother dressed in Manhattanesque designer wear who is mumbling away incoherently to herself, looking lost and not to be found. Hogan enquires about her, and his fiancée tells him - "She has a problem. Therefore she is seeing a shrink."
And Hogan says: "Shrink, what's that? " She replies - "It's someone we talk to when we have a problem."
An amused, surprised Hogan reflects - "Back home in Australia, when we have a problem, we talk. We talk to each other, our friends and family. We have beer and we talk our issues over in a bar, we share, we just let it go."
I think the Aussies and Clarke need to do just one thing. Go fishing with Symonds.
