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The Rediff Interview/ Mohammad Azharuddin

'I am now all ready to play some good cricket'

Sachin Tendulkar is doubtless a great cricketer. But perhaps we were somewhat hasty and less than fair in dumping Mohammed Azharuddin as India's captain just because we lost the World Cup. In our desperation to win, are we becoming bad losers like Pakistan and Sri Lanka? Or is Azhar actually past his prime? Pritish Nandy meets the former India captain, and attempts to find answers:

Will it be difficult for you to now play under Sachin?

Not at all. I have at least two full years of play left in me and I will be quite happy to spend this time playing for India. It does not matter who I play under. What matters is playing well for India and winning. Now that I feel absolutely fit, with this new shoulder which the doctor says can only get better and better, I am all ready to play some good cricket. It does not matter under whom and where.

Do you agree that the burden of captaincy adversely affected your game?

No. Otherwise, I would not had such a fine track record as captain. Most of the records I hold, as a batsman and fielder, scoring more runs than anyone, getting some of the best catches, were achieved during my tenure as captain. India won many matches with me as captain. But cricket is a strange game. Sometimes you play well. Sometimes you don't.

My own game also goes that way, I do not know why. I try to be more consistent but if you see my scoring graph you will see that (from the very beginning) it has always been that way. I do very well for a while, then not so well. Then, again, I swing back. I guess this is not unusual in this game.

What went wrong with the World Cup?

Not much. We played well but the first few defeats hurt us badly. By the time we found our true form, we were out. But, to say the truth, we did not play badly. Yes, we could have been more consistent. But you can always say that in retrospect. About any tournament, about any series.

The Indian team, by and large, is a good team, a fine team. We have nothing to worry about. Except maybe consistency in performance. We are not always predictable: that is the problem.

Not leadership? As some of the veterans of the game are complaining, and some of the critics? That your body language is all wrong? You are not aggressive enough?

Not at all. It is easy to run down anyone. It is easy to say that my body language is faulty, I am not aggressive. But I must be judged by my performance, my victories. Not by the kind of theatre I enact on the cricket field. I am not that kind of captain. I do not wear my emotions on my sleeves. I do not make faces for television cameras. I try to lead my team with dignity and understanding.

My job is to win matches for India, not earn kudos for making faces before the cameras. In any case, I am not a very demonstrative person. I lead by example. That is the way I am made. I cannot change myself to please those who have retired years ago and have no understanding of how the game has changed since then.

Do you think one day cricket needs a different kind of captain than Test cricket?

No. We are a very adaptable team, good at both. We can change our style easily to meet the needs of the game we are playing. People can say anything they want but going out on the field and playing the game is a very different kind of experience. Comments come easy. But playing cricket is getting tougher. We have to learn how to adapt. And the Indian team, if you ask me, is quite adept at that. We do not have to learn anything from older players. We can respect their point of view but, as far as the game goes, we have to go out there and win it. We cannot depend on the opinion of others.

What was actually wrong with your shoulder?

I had this pain for the past eight months. It did not restrict me from playing as such. But I had to miss four matches because the pain suddenly became acute during the triangular series being played between India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. I had to take injections to set it right.

What happened?

Some wear and tear of the acromio clavicular joint which protects the rotator cup. So they had to scrape it off. My shoulders are now completely new. It had nothing to with the rotator cup itself. That is in perfect shape. The arthroplasty has now ensured that my shoulders are like new. As time goes on, the doctors say they will get only better and better and better. I must have hurt myself at some stage. I have played so much cricket all over the world that it is difficult to say which hurt and where it took place. But the pain used to keep coming off and on. That has gone now.

How long did the operation take?

One and a half hours. After that I have been doing physiotherapy and I now I am about to start weights. It normally takes a bit of time for the operation to settle down. It is four weeks now and things are almost normal. The recovery has been fast and being a sportsman makes it that much easier.

Were you afraid that the shoulder would have given you more trouble later?

Yes, that is why I did this surgery as a precautionary measure. If I had delayed it till September or October, I could have missed the whole season.

Why did you go through a baddish patch during the World Cup?

I think I did fairly well in whatever positions I went in. At times I went in with four or five overs to go. But you are right in the sense that I did not do well in the two matches that actually mattered. Against Australia and Zimbabwe. But that always happens. You cannot predict in cricket. You cannot expect to score all the time. Otherwise, quite frankly, I was hitting the ball well. I was not struggling. It is just that runs did not come as easily as they could have.

Not that you were not aggressive enough?

I have always been aggressive in my mind. Maybe I do not show it enough. The public likes cricketers who flaunt their aggression. I do not. If a captain has a lot of confidence in his ability, he does not have to show it. Look at the captaincy of people like Steve Waugh, Hansie Cronje, Mark Taylor and even Ranatunga. They never jump around or show off their aggression. Their battles are on the field and in the mind. Only the media in India feels this way. The outside world never makes comments like this.

India has some of the world's greatest players today, players who could make it to any World XI effortlessly, but somehow they never seem to weld together into a strong fighting machine. Why? Is there a leadership flaw?

No, I do not think so. Our leadership is fine. So is our team spirit. We won a lot of matches last year, sometimes coming out of very tough situations. The truth is we play a lot of cricket. So sometimes our bodies tire out. Sometimes our mind. But the main thing people must realise is that in cricket sometimes even the best team has to lose. You cannot expect to keep winning all the way. This is a game, after all.

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