I wasn't willing to go to Kolkata for felicitation, says KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir
In all the glamour, the glitz and the attention that is the IPL, winning two titles in three years to equal the number of titles won by the most consistent team in all of IPL The Chennai Super Kings, is a phenomenal achievement to boast of. In a typical straight forward manner, Gautam Gambhir, in a chat with gocricket, speaks about his role as a captain over the past few years as well as his relationship with King Khan himself.
SRK’s cartwheels and celebrations around the ground have been famous post the two IPL title wins for KKR. Gambhir says it all ends with the cricket for him and he wasn’t even interested in a felicitation at Kolkata later.
“Never. That's not me. There was a point when I wasn't even wanting to get into the celebrations, wasn't willing to go to Kolkata to do all this felicitation and stuff, because I think for me it all finished as soon as we won the IPL,” he said.
When asked about the change in fortunes for the team from the dismal start they had, with Gautam Gambhir starting with a string of ducks and four losses on the trot in the UAE, to winning the title in Bangalore, he replies, “You need to think out of the box. Second, you need to take some strong decisions, which is very important. I think there are times in this tournament we've taken very strong decisions. Making Jacques Kallis sit out is always a big decision. Someone with his stature, and experience in international cricket being one of the best all-rounders of all time.”
Gautam has always had a strong belief in transparency and selflessness to be the greatest attributes for a leader. After the first three games where he couldn't score a single run, lots of people told him to bat in the middle order in order to get some runs on the board and get some confidence to go back to the top of the order, to which he responds, “I never wanted to shield myself and pass on the burden of my poor form onto my team. As a leader I believe that I should lead from the front. I would prefer to drop myself from the playing XI than to move to the middle order and put pressure on the rest of the team, as a leader it is my job to take pressure and not create pressure.”
Gautam emphasizes that the team ownership has never interfered with his job and never questioned team selection or strategy. He has always had a free reign to go about his job.
“I think it's the boss who is answerable when you don't do well. It's the boss who is in the firing line and I've always told Shah Rukh this. In the first year, when I was picked, I was obviously a little nervous about how much interference there will be. And he said, "This is your team. If you want to make it, you make it. You want to break it, you break it." And I told him that we will not talk in the middle of the tournament,” he said.
The KKR skipper said that he has always been the one answerable and accountable when the team doesn’t do well, on which Shah Rukh Khan has also supported him. He has always wanted to take decisions and knows very well that the consequence of him taking decisions is that he will be in the firing line and will have to take questions from the players, team management, team ownership as well as the media and therefore he believes he has all the right to call the shots. He proudly says, “I'm very happy that whatever has happened the last four years with KKR, I have taken all the calls on the cricket field.”
For him, winning the IPL, scoring runs, his performance and the team's performance, gives him more happiness than any other thing. He stands by always approaching cricket with a positive mindset and taking away positives from every match.
Gambhir says he believes that he wants to walk onto the pitch to do well for the team and return back as a winner. “For me, winning does matter a lot. You must have heard a lot of people saying that results do not matter. You go out there, do your processes right, give your 100%. If winning is not everything, then why do people keep scores? Why do we always talk about who won this game? And instead not ask who gave more effort? KKR or the opposition?”