Shah Rukh Khan apologises to commentators Aakash Chopra, Parthiv Patel and Suresh Raina as he indavertently walks in on a post-match chat after the KKR vs SRH match on Sunday (X/ImRaina)
On Sunday, after Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) knocked off the 160 run target set by Sunrisers Hyderabad, Shah Rukh Khan did a lap of honour at the Narendra Modi Stadium. Inadvertently, he walked in front of a post-match TV show. When it appeared that King Khan had interrupted the chat, he apologised and hugged the commentators Aakash Chopra, Parthiv Patel and Suresh Raina.
The photographs of the incident that have gone viral speak of the star’s respect for boundaries. As the co-owner of the team, which has had a splendid run at the current edition of the IPL and is now in the finals, the Badshah of Bollywood has been with the “boys” in their joys and disappointments, often doubling up as their cheerleader and running victory laps, blowing kisses and waving at crowds. About a month ago, when KKR lost to Rajasthan Royals in a match full of ups and downs, he couldn’t hide his heartbreak. His eyes were fighting in vain to hold back tears. But seconds later, he was congratulating Jos Buttler, the architect of RR’s last-ball win. Then, in his post-match speech, he told the players, “There are days in our lives, in sports especially, when we don’t deserve to lose. And there are also days when we don’t deserve to win. But days are like that, which turn things around. I think today we didn’t deserve to lose. All of us played extremely well… GG (Gautam Gambhir, KKR’s mentor), don’t feel down”. The impish grin and twinkling eyes were back.
In a version of the game that demands instant results and often fosters responses bordering on ruthlessness, blurring the lines between commerce and cricket, the KKR co-owner is among those rare ones to appreciate that there will be days when nothing will go right. And, also there could be more bad days than good ones. There’s more than his characteristic warm-heartedness to it. It’s a mark of professionalism to let people who are meant for the job do it without fear of micromanagement by those who control the purse strings. In a YouTube conversation with R Ashwin, Gambhir recalled a conversation with Khan in 2011 when he joined KKR: “I don’t like anybody telling me how acting needs to be done. I am sure you will not like someone telling you how cricket needs to be played”.
It’s perhaps incidental that the conversation between Ashwin and Gambhir took place after the heated social-media debate on limits that team owners and corporate honchos should maintain while interacting with players. But Khan’s respect for the professional player appears even more prescient after the viral video of Lucknow SuperGiants owner apparently pulling up the team captain K L Rahul went public. “In the seven years of me captaining, we had not (for) spoken 70 seconds about cricket. He had never asked me a single question on cricket in those seven years,” Gambhir told Ashwin.
Gambhir led KKR to victory in 2011 and repeated the success in 2014. He was a leading light of two World Cup winning teams. Gambhir has also seen failures: He stepped down as captain of Delhi Daredevils – the team he joined after leaving KKR – midway in IPL 2018 citing poor performance and failure “to lead from the front”. As a cricketer he was always known as a fighter. On the team bench, he is rarely seen smiling – somewhat of a contrast to his team’s co-owner. “People don’t come to watch me smile. Unfortunately, people come to watch me win. That’s the kind of profession we guys are in. I can’t help it… I’m not a Bollywood actor, or I’m not a corporate,” he told Ashwin. Perhaps that’s why KKR thought him to be the best person to mentor the team.
A large part of the team’s success this year has been due to the performances of the likes of Sunil Narine and Andre Russell. The two joined KKR during Gambhir’s earlier stint with the team. People who know the game say that the mentor has brought the best out of the two players from the West Indies this year. Russell has credited Narine’s resurgence as an all-rounder — an opening batsman, with more than 450 runs at a strike rate of over 180 and 15 wickets at an economy rate of 6.6 in a tournament marked with exceptionally high scores – to Gambhir’s licence to him to play freely.
KKR is in the finals. It may or may not win. But by all accounts, it’s a team that thrives on mutual respect among all who matter – the players, mentor and coaching staff and the co-owner talisman who can shrug off a loss to hug his opponent, while also telling his team members they “should be proud of their performance”. That’s what sport is about – that’s what all good organisations should be about.
kaushik.dasgupta@expressindia.com
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 23-05-2024 at 13:27 IST
