Love at first sight with newcomers, no patience with match-winners

When we had played pool in Colombo in 2001, he had flung his cue stick and walked out after losing a close game. But as partners at table-tennis in Lahore in 2004, there had been friendly, jovial high-fives even as we squandered a big lead against two of his team mates.

Rude and brash from a distance, loud but cool from close quarters, I’ve always been confused if Yuvraj is ill-mannered or just someone who is easily misunderstood because of his trademark Chandigarh-boy bravado.

It’s so much easier to analyse Yuvraj, the cricketer. In terms of raw talent, he’s perhaps the best I’ve seen — except my early memories of Viv Richards and a couple of matches in which Brian Lara and Kevin Pietersen were at the top of their game.

Over the years, it seems India hasn’t formed a clear opinion of Yuvraj either — not just as a person but even as a batsman. On one day, they proclaim he is the next Garry Sobers. On another, they say he is in the XI only because he is the ODI team’s vice-captain.

But more than our confusion, Yuvraj himself must wonder why India blows hot and cold towards him.

The last three seasons have shown up a strange phenomenon in Indian cricket. We’re quick to applaud a new batsman who scores 30-40 runs in every alternate match — Rohit Sharma, S Badrinath, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina in his old avatar — but somehow have no patience with proven match-winners.

Players who look like stereotypical one-day cricketers — dogged, eager, quick between wickets, humble — seem to get a much longer rope from critics than flashy, attacking batsmen such as Yuvraj who look brilliant when they are in full flow and silly when they get out. Perhaps it’s something about their flamboyance, or just the weight of expectations, that leads to mercurial reactions.

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