And so it worries me that some wonderfully gifted young men believe that being rude and demonstrative is the path, or indeed the essential ingredient, to success. Zaheer Khan learnt it the hard way and when we were in England the most noticeable aspect of his cricket was how relaxed he seemed in his delivery stride. There was a calm about him that allowed him to send the ball where he wanted it to go. When you beat the bat or get the batsman out you don’t have to tell him you have won.

He knows. But Zaheer needed time in the wilderness to understand himself. He realised that the ball speaks a thousand words and it is something that a Sreesanth or a Harbhajan must understand. Cricket is unlike other reality shows where singers must know how to dance to win and judges must learn to be rude. That is scripted mayhem, it produces a fleeting acquaintance with fame and success; even those two qualities, as we now learn from the glamour pages, aren’t always related.

Sreesanth must learn to bowl five great outswingers in an over, Harbhajan must tease and tempt and torment.

And they must ask themselves if the best way to do that is to be in the face of the opponent. The answer might just be yes though evidence from the deeds of most great men suggests it might be no.

Far too many young players are displaying distracted minds. It doesn’t help that far too many rewards are being thrown at them, far too many microphones thrust in their faces, far too many cameras focussed on them.

... contd.