“Prithvi Shaw is born to play cricket … He’s a spectator’s delight. There’s a bit of Sachin there, a bit of Viru in him and when he walks – there’s a bit of Lara as well.”
That was Indian cricket’s eternal optimist Ravi Shastri on Prithvi Shaw after his sparkling 2018 Test debut that had a sumptuous stroke-filled hundred. Shastri is a shrewd man. He is prone to exaggeration but at most times it seems he willingly allows his excitement to overpower his very sound cricketing acumen. When Shastri flashes, he flashes hard.
Shastri is conscious of the impact of high-praise on young minds. With Prithvi it didn’t work. His short international career shows he didn’t quite have ‘a bit’ of what Sachin, Viru or Lara had. All he was, was ‘a bit’ of disappointment.
Once he was said to rule the world, but now he wasn’t among the top cricketers in his city. (PTI)
When Shastri was the head coach, he is said to have tried the ‘good as well as the bad cop’ approach with Prithvi. It was futile. Runs dried, he started to gain weight and stories of his indiscipline would spread on the circuit. Prithvi would lose his place in Tests, ODIs and T2OI.
This week, Mumbai selectors also failed to see either Sachin, Viru or Lara in Prithvi. What they finally couldn’t overlook was the 35 percent body fat of their acclaimed opener. At 24, Prithvi resembled an overweight cricketer, the kinds who play corporate tournaments on weekends.
That maidan boy with an unruly mop of hair and the charming Dennis-the-menace naughty smile had gone missing. Once he was said to rule the world, but now he wasn’t among the top cricketers in his city. A promise had been broken and the collective investment of a city had gone bad.
There were many who walked the extra mile, put their money where the mouth was so the teen prodigy from Virar would walk the Tendulkar path. Despite the best of efforts, Project Prithvi didn’t go as planned. There was support for him, he got the break at the right time, he was given chances, he was even indulged. But Prithvi didn’t keep his part of the bargain, he didn’t give his all to the game. He always faced questions about his fitness and work ethics. He can’t escape the blame.
Prithvi was three when his mother passed away. She had asthma. There’s this old documentary called “Beyond all boundaries” that was shot when Prithvi was 8. It has candid footage of a tiny Prithvi dressing up after a bath in his modest Virar home. He was towel wrapped around his waist and is being helped by his father to get into his trousers. It’s an endearing clip, you can’t but root for the youngster, if nothing just for the young father’s dedication.
This was a story of a spectacular punt that was bordering on foolishness. Prithvi’s father gave up his ready-made clothes business as he had to travel often outside Mumbai. When he is asked what he did, the reply is puzzling: “Nothing”. He cooks for the two, packs a tiffin for his son and takes the harrowing ride on the local train – the two and half hours of hell from Virar to Churchgate.
Despite the best of efforts, Project Prithvi didn’t go as planned. There was support for him, he got the break at the right time, he was given chances, he was even indulged. But Prithvi didn’t keep his part of the bargain, he didn’t give his all to the game. (PTI)
The most endearing character from that Prithvi documentary is his early benefactor – local politician Sanjay Potnis. To eliminate their travel travails, he gave the father and son a flat in Santa Cruz – an extraordinary favour in the sea-side city where land is insanely expensive and severely scarce.
The big-hearted politician is seen sitting on a chair speaking to the camera with Prithvi training in the background. Potnis asks Prithvi to play a reverse scoop over the keeper. Prithvi obligies. Potnis swells with pride, starts giggling like a child. He looks at the kid in pads like a proud craftsman displaying his work of art. He says he is privileged to be part of a famous cricketing journey. Just like Sachin’s friends from Sahitya Sahawas. “See, he will do what I say. He is everyone’s pet, every eye is on him” he says.
The erstwhile darling of the country’s cricket fans is now seen as a wasted talent. Prithvi would also hit headlines for wrong reasons. There were whispers when he failed a dope test. He blamed it on an off-the-counter cough syrup. More eyebrows were raised.
The last straw probably was the grainy visuals on social media of him allegedly in a late night brawl outside a luxury hotel. This murky tale also featured a starlet, a car chase, a baseball bat and a broken windshield.
This happened around 4 am, roughly the time Prithvi’s father would get up in Virar back in the day. How times change.
This was the time of the day a Wellington man, a couple of us reporters met during India’s tour of New Zealand in 2009, had dreaded. He was Aaron Klee, the friend abd manager of New Zealand cricket’s enfant terrible Jesse Ryder, a hard-hitting opener like Prithvi.
Klee said he was used to 4 am calls from New Zealand team management. They were about Ryder’s frequent alcohol-induced misadventures.
Klee lived in hope. When we met him at Wellington, he was positive that Ryder was a changed man. Next year, he was in India for New Zealand’s away tour. Again he insisted that Ryder was on the right path. The script would go awry. In subsequent years, reports from New Zealand said Ryder didn’t learn from indiscretions. He too featured in stories of drunken brawls and failed dope tests.
We would lose touch with the manager but a 2014 report from New Zealand about Ryder mentioned Klee. It was about Ryder’s latest binge-drinking episode about how the manager had had enough. “Klee stuck by Ryder through thick and thin … Sometimes he tried to defend the indefensible, but tellingly on Friday, Klee threw his hands in the air and walked away. You can only be let down by someone so many times.”
Prithvi too might see his backers throw their hands in the air and walk away. He is 24, he still has time. Mumbai knows that for every cricketing saint, there is a fallen angel. The city that produced Tendulkar also has Kambli. It took a village to make a Prithvi and now that village feels betrayed.
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