Thread by @RandomCricketP1

THREAD

What does success actually mean?

This was a question I was left wondering about after I read a small piece of conversation between Alastair Cook and Yuvraj Singh in Cook's book recently. Yeah, not two names that are found in the same sentence too often. But hear me out

Cook and Yuvi played against each other a fair bit in the late 2000s and early 2010s and so there was a sense of familiarity when the two of them met in 2015 to play an MCC T20 tournament in Dubai. Cook had just gone past the 10,000 run milestone in his Test career. A major feat.

But only a few months ago, his ODI career had ended rather unceremoniously as just before the 2015 World Cup, he wasn't only removed as a captain but also done away with as a batter. He hadn't done too well, winning no ODI series with the team in two years until his sacking.

But in Tests, Cook had flourished from the day he took guard for England when he scored a century against India on debut in Nagpur. Nobody could ever raise a question about his prowess as a Test batter and success followed as a skipper too for him in the red ball format.

Where was Yuvraj's career at this point? At crossroads. From being the Man of the Tournament in the previous World Cup in 2011, he hadn't even found a place in India's squad for the 2015 World Cup. In fact, he hadn't been even close to the ODI setup for 2 years at this point.

His last T20 innings at that point was the one he had played in the 2014 World Cup Final, which had completely turned a him from a T20 hero to a villain in the eyes of many Indian cricket fans. And the Test career, after its many starts and stops had stopped long ago in 2012.

But to Alastair Cook, Yuvraj was still the winner of T20 World Cup and 50 over World Cup, tournaments Cook hadn't even managed to participate in his career. For him, Yuvraj was the guy whose 6 sixes had immortalized him, and a man who had IPL teams breaking the bank for him.

t was in this context that this little conversation transpired in May 2015. After congratulating him for crossing the 10k mark, Yuvraj some time later, out of the blue, told Cook, "You'd go down the record books as a legend of cricket." To this, Cook writes, that he

half-jokingly replied, "Well, you're laughing all the way to the bank."

Yuvraj's replied. ‘I’ll swap it all, to have your Test career.’

If you know the trajectory of Yuvraj's career, this statement, tucked away somewhere in an English cricketer's autobiography, hits you hard.

And it makes sense, because Yuvraj was nothing less than a prodigy, a once in a generation player, who everyone around him touted to be the next big thing. And while he did achieve so much in white ball formats even before cancer struck, because of the amount of potential he had,

the stat of mere 40 Tests against his name played over a 9-year period just seems so wrong. One can only imagine how difficult it must have been for him to come to terms with his unfulfilled Test career. He waited so long in the queue behind Sourav Ganguly, even opened in Tests.

But not too long after Ganguly vacated that middle order spot and he became a regular in the Tests, Cancer set his start and stop career further back. Just imagine being in his shoes.

And probably that's why the statement.

Even Cook was struck hard by that statement. He writes,

"The finality of the statement took me back. He didn’t qualify it by saying he would swap an awful lot to have my set of numbers. He was all-in. His comment wasn’t really about me. It was a reflection on the status of the most traditional form of the game, by a player whose

wealth and reputation were formed during the IPL revolution."

It's such a tiny little conversation but given the context, it tells so much about the nature of sports and the celebration of cricketers for their 'success'. It's quite possible that the feats that we celebrate

some athletes for aren't even in their list of goals for themselves. And lesser mortals like us can only wonder how does it feel for celebrated and decorated athletes to not have met the lofty goals that were set right at the beginning of the journey. Besides, irrespective of the

glam and attention associated with T20 cricket which completely sucks us in, Yuvi's statement probably tells that despite the glitz and money T20 brings, for so many cricketers, even today, the thrill of conquering the longest format remains unparalleled. Yuvraj kept playing

First Class cricket for Punjab till 2019, long after he was done with his India career in all formats.

A similar story was that of Michael Bevan, one of ODI cricket's most celebrated finishers but someone whose hurt on not making it big in Tests teased him till the end of his

career. Had written a thread on that two years ago.


Yuvraj's photo in the first tweet was clicked by Pal Pillai.

Ps - ICT fans, if you could pick one, which Yuvi you would want, a Yuvi with 10k Test runs or the Yuvi we got with his white ball glories?

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