Yuvraj Singh and the cricket confidence index
Yuvraj Singh, despite his fine innings, did not look as comfortable as Virat Kohli
Presentation of cricket data on television and on social media has always been a tough task for content creators. How much of data is good enough to show on the screen and how much of it can the viewer absorb with his limited mindspace is a question every content fellow is still trying to figure out. Several brands have come out with metrics to compare players/teams but most have been very complex to have appealed to regular cricket fans.
Watching Yuvraj Singh bat in the T20 game yesterday for Team Bangalore actually made me think about an imaginary index for cricketer which would showcase their confidence levels at present. I’m putting my hand up and admitting that such an index is purely fictitious at the moment and will be difficult to put together as it would have many subjective parameters considered.
But just think of it plainly, would not a confidence index give a true reflection of the player’s mood and mindset in the heat of the moment? Would it not tell the viewer how he is feeling at the moment and if he can get past the low confidence by showing some great form, is that not a brilliant story to watch?
At a certain level of sport, it seems its only confidence which separates on-field performances. It’s confidence which allows a cricketer to take a call on whether to pull a delivery from Mitchell Johnson or take the safety option of ducking under it. In a crucial tie break moment of a 5th set, when a tennis champion is serving to stay in the tournament, it is confidence that allows him to try to drill in a second serve into a corner line rather than play safe by serving to the center of the court.
Yuvraj Singh got a half century yesterday and he hit quite a few big shots but for a sharp cricket fan, the impact of having lost confidence in the last 6 months of his career was clearly showing in his batting yesterday. For a big player like Yuvraj, ducking and looking uncomfortable on such a flat deck against Mohd Shami must have been embarrassing.
On the other hand, you look at his captain of the Bangalore side, Virat Kohli who seems to be oozing with confidence. Even if it’s only a gentle push for a single or a strong forward defence stroke, Virat’s batting is showing confidence of having scored tons of runs in the last few years.
I’m happy Yuvraj got some runs yesterday but as a true fan, who wants to see him play in the 2015 WC, I’m hoping that he can work with someone to get back his lost confidence. Not many in the history of Indian sport would have seen so many highs and lows in his career so not many can even understand what would be going through his mind.
The intent still seems to be there, he looked aggressive while going after the spinners but it’s the fast men who will be gunning for him like assassins. It will be very interesting to see how he copes with them.
My favourite cricket confidence story is actually about Richie Richardson, the ex-West Indies captain. An audacious player who never wore a helmet in his prime Richardson exemplified the West Indies sides of the 1980s – aggressive, fearless, non-verbal and well loved by fans. While he had a successful run as the skipper of the West Indies team, he is always going to be remembered as the captain under whom West Indies lost their dominance in world cricket.
Richie was the skipper of the team which lost a Test series to Australia in 1995 – the first test series loss West Indies had in 18 years either home or away! Incidentally, this was also the first test series when Richardson donned a helmet while batting. Amazingly, 4-5 of his opponents from the Australian team which played that series have marked this moment, when they saw him walk out in a helmet as a defining moment of the series, a moment where they felt the West Indies team had lost their aura.