At some point the fork in the path appears before every sportsman. Does he play to the gallery? Or does he play to his strength? In the movies and in slapstick, and occasionally in politics, the two paths might seem to merge. In the more real world of sport, the competitor must choose. It might seem an easy choice on the face of it, surely to win you must play to your strength, but the more you look around the more you realise that there are takers for either path.

I think some of India’s players chose the gallery to their strength in the games against Australia. They were seen to be aggressive but that isn’t the same thing as being aggressive. I think the drama descended to being churlish sometimes but worse still, in trying to create the illusion of aggression, a couple of young men didn’t quite play to their strengths.

They gave television channels a lot of footage and used up a lot of newsprint. Instead, they could have given their side a better chance of winning. Sport is best played when the mind is calm and the intent is aggressive. It is a very rare sportsman that can rave and rant and focus on the job at hand.

John McEnroe might come to mind and for all his genius there is a school of thought that believes he underperformed. And Glenn McGrath’s mind was calm more often than when the whirlwind blew through it. The most aggressive Indian cricketers I have known are Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble and between the three of them I cannot remember one instance where the opponent had to be taunted, where the finger had to be wagged, for a result. They could play and they won matches for India.

... contd.