SportsKeeda catches up with Aakash Chopra who just launched Cricketaakash.com

Aakash Chopra is among the top openers in the country. In this exclusive interview with Sportskeeda, he offers a straight bat to questions ranging from his knee injury, Delhi’s Ranji season, DDCA, his time with the Indian team and his famous partnership with Virender Sehwag, disappointments of being dropped, the historic series triumph in Pakistan in 2004, IPL, his book Beyond the Blues, his website www.cricketaakash.com and his marriage.

Aakash Chopra

Goutham@SportsKeeda: Congratulations on your marriage. You have been only married newly, but is having a companion helping you cope better with life outside the dressing room? Say, your current problems with the knee for example?

Aakash: Thank a lot. Yes, I got married very recently…2^nd December to be precise. It’s good to have a companion to enjoy life…there’s a lot more to life than cricket.

Goutham@SportsKeeda: Coming to this year’s Ranji season, Delhi has had a few problems. There have been 3 captains and you have been one among them. Senior players have been missing either due to national duties or through injuries. Only one Delhi player features in the season’s top 20 run getters before the semis began. It must be frustrating for you not be playing the semis. Tell us a bit on the season itself for you and for the team…

Aakash: It’s been a disappointing season as far as I’m concerned. I’ve been carrying this injury for quite some time but chose to ignore. The reason behind the decision was the absence of other senior players. But then reached a stage where I couldn’t move my leg without considerable pain and had to sit out. But despite the injuries, absence and lack of big runs Delhi did reasonably well to reach the last four.

Goutham@SportsKeeda: The DDCA has a reputation of maladministration and corruption… There have been stories of selections being influenced and once even up to 60 probables being picked at the start of a Ranji season a few years ago just to accommodate all requests. Then Sehwag threated to abandon Delhi at the beginning of the season before he met DDCA president Arun Jaitley that cooled tempers. Your comments?

Aakash: Delhi, like any other state, has its share of problems but we have a very able man in Mr. Jaitely at the helm. He ensures that cricket is moving in the right direction. A lot has changed for the good and for the rest, it will take time. We need to be patient

Goutham@SportsKeeda: What do you make of the Delhi pitch fiasco and the match referee Alan Hurst’s decision to call the game off?

Aakash: I didn’t see the match and hence I’m not in the position to comment. Yes, the track was poor but the match happened for nearly 24 overs which tells me that it was not as bad as the tracks in Indore and Jamaica.

Goutham@SportsKeeda: Coming back to domestic cricket, Vijay Dahiya and Wasim Jaffer recently made the point of not having enough rest between games. The current schedule allows only for a 3-day gap between games which includes the time for travel as well. Our domestic calendar now has to make way for a 6-week IPL window (and more from 2011) resulting in a cramped schedule. Is it possible to space out the games better keeping travel and rest for the players in mind? How does this affect the onfield performance of players, especially bowlers?

Aakash: In my opinion we need to do away with a couple of trophies and also this Elite Plate system. We should divide teams into 3 groups of 9 teams each. Winner should be decided through Knock-outs. But it’s imperative to have at least 4 days between matches.

Goutham@SportsKeeda: Others, including you, have mentioned the need to make knock-out games from quarter-finals onwards as 5-day affairs. W.V. Raman even mentioned that it becomes a batting contest from the quarter-finals onwards as a first-innings lead is good enough to get to the next round. You have strong opinions on making it a 5-day affair from the quarter-finals onwards and also cash incentives for teams achieving outright wins. Can you elaborate?

Aakash: All knock-out games should be five-day matches because that allows team to come back into the match. As for the remaining matches a cash incentive would encourage teams to go for the outright win instead of using the last day for batting practice. Obviously the incentive in terms of more points isn’t working so we need to look beyond it.

Goutham@SportsKeeda: Your performance in the New Zealand series booked you a ticket to the tour of Australia in 2003-04. Not many gave India a chance going into the Test series. Matthew Hayden remarked that most Indian batsmen were loose outside off-stump and were afraid of short-pitched bowling and also said that India had a ‘popgun’ bowling attack and were intimidated by the Australian batsmen. What was the mood personally and that of the team going into this series.

Aakash: Well, touring Australia is considered to be the toughest challenge in a cricketer’s career. And it was not different for me. I didn’t know what to expect except the fact that it would be a tough tour. Aussies were a formidable unit at that time but we were also shaping into a good team. We’d started winning overseas and that gave the team the belief that we would be able to give Australia a good fight.

Goutham@SportsKeeda: One of the highlights of that series was the your opening partnership with Sehwag. Your running between the wickets was aggressive and you both seemed to have a great understanding. You averaged 57 runs for the opening wicket through the series (as against 9 runs for the opening wicket in the previous series in Australia in 1999). What was your approach to opening with Sehwag and the secret behind the success of your opening partnership?

Aakash: Both of us get along very well and that helped. We trusted each other when it came to calling for runs and also knowing each other’s temperament helped to build a partnership. We knew the importance of giving a start and not exposing the middle order to the new ball and were glad to do the job more often than not.

Goutham@SportsKeeda: You had a century partnership with Sehwag in the third Test at the MCG when he got that 195. You were hit on the head in that innings but you stayed on. Later you remarked: ‘I didn’t want them saying that an Indian batsman was scared.’ How important was it for you to carry on batting – from the team’s point-of-view as well as from a psychological point-of-view?

Aakash: It was important to stay in and carry on. The easier option was to go off and come back later but the need of the hour was to hang in there and negotiate the new ball. We’d decided to bat after winning the toss on a dampish wicket hoping that it’ll break on day4-5. But for that plan to succeed it was important to bat well in the first innings. Going out at that point wasn’t an option for me.

Goutham@SportsKeeda: India’s catching was top-class in that series. As was the batting. Anil Kumble had a great series with the ball while Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar and Irfan Pathan, making his debut, had their moments with the ball. Do you think this series was instrumental in instilling belief that India could beat the best in their own backyard?

Aakash: It started in England when India batted first on a seaming Headingly wicket and it culminated in Australia. No one gave us a chance against Australia but halfway through the series things changed. It was a water shed event in the history of Indian cricket.

Goutham@SportsKeeda: John Wright, in his book, Indian Summers, calls you the best bat-pad catcher he has ever seen. What is your advice to close-in catchers?

Aakash: Stay low, watch the ball and be brave. Don’t be afraid to get hit. A leather ball will hurt you but won’t kill you.

Goutham@SportsKeeda: You were a part of the team that went to Pakistan in early 2004 for a full series for the first time since 1984-85. It almost didn’t take place. There were bombings in Pakistan when the India team was touring Australia and the team had signed a letter expressing reservations about the tour. Two months later, on 14th February 2004, the prime minister A.B. Vajpayee announced that the tour would go ahead. Share your feelings when it was announced that tour would go ahead.

Aakash: Well the conditions in Pakistan were not conducive for playing cricket. Yes, there were reservations as far as touring Pakistan was concerned but once we were assured of our safety. We went ahead. But once we were in Pakistan we didn’t feel anything to fear. The security was top notch and we were welcomed with open arms. In hindsight I can say that I’m glad we toured because it remains to be one of my fondest memories.

Goutham@SportsKeeda: India went on to win both the one-day and Test series for the first time in Pakistan. The middle-order proved itself and Balaji, Nehra and Irfan Pathan combined well with the spinners. But you had to make way to accommodate Yuvraj Singh and the returning Sourav Ganguly for the third Test. You had got 42 in the first Test at Multan which India won by an innings and scored 4 and 5 in the defeat at Lahore. Were you disappointed at being dropped for the third Test at Rawalpindi after one bad Test?

Aakash: Yes, it was extremely disappointing to be dropped for the third test. The two scores in single digit were my only two poor innings in succession. I may not have scored 100s in my previous outings but I did the job I was entrusted with. It was heartbreaking to be left out after just two innings of low scores.

Goutham@SportsKeeda: You bring to light the many problems players face with officialdom in your book Beyond the Blues. Services got banned from the Ranji Trophy for not showing up to play in Srinagar for security reasons this season. You reasoned in one of your columns that such decisions are not with players and it is therefore unfair to punish players, for many of whom cricket is the bread winner. Your comments?

Aakash: I always thought that there were many interesting stories in the domestic circuit which needed to be told. In a country where cricket is considered to be a religion it was ironical that no one follows domestic cricket. After all real cricketers play in these matches as well. So it was an attempt to share that world with the people in India.

As for penalizing Services for not turning up for a Ranji trophy game…we could have fined the association heavily while allowing the players to participate. But unfortunately that didn’t happen.

Goutham@SportsKeeda: You have also launched your website http://www.cricketaakash.com. Tell us about the website.

Aakash: The website is an attempt to share what I think is important for kids who play cricket. It’s an attempt to provide them with the stuff which I missed in my formative years i.e. professional guidance. In this day and age cricket not only about hitting the ball, training is not about running laps, nutrition is not about having Ghee. And let’s not forget the mental aspect of the game. The peer pressure and the expectations of one’s parents. There’re plenty of questions but kids don’t know where to go for the right guidance. Cricketaakash is a platform to provide them with all they need for Free.

Goutham@SportsKeeda: Now to the IPL. KKR had a mixed first season and a poor second season. Your thoughts on the IPL as a concept and KKR as a franchise?

Aakash: IPL is a wonderful concept and has the potential to globalize the game. But it will take time to go to the next level

As for KKR it’s a very emotionally run franchise. We have some quality players in the ranks and it’s just a matter of time when we put things together and succeed

Goutham@SportsKeeda: India are currently the number 1 ranked Test side. What do you think the team needs to do in order to sustain their status as the best in Tests?

Aakash: The formula is very simple…win every match they play. Obviously it isn’t as simple as it sounds. All said and done we still haven’t won test series in Australia and South Africa. We need to do that in order to the deserving numero uno side in the world.

Goutham@SportsKeeda: India has had a slightly inconsistent time of it in one-dayers and T20s. Where do you think the team needs to improve before the T20 world cup in West Indies in April and the one-day world cup in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh next year?

Aakash: Indian fielding is the biggest area of concern. And it’s not the average fielders dropping catches but the best in the side faltering. We need to improve our fielding and death bowling to become more consistent.

Goutham@SportsKeeda: You had a great 2007-08 domestic season when you amassed 783 runs at a whopping average of 332. You scored heavily in the domestic one-day competition as well. But you were left out of the 24 member probables squad picked to face the Australians in 2008. You wrote in your book, Beyond the Blues, “If I play for India again, it will be forgotten as an unfortunate incident which just delayed my comeback. And if I don’t play for India again, it will be forgotten as if it never happened.” Clearly you were disappointed. Do you still believe that you have it you to make a comeback into the India team?

Aakash: Yes, I was very disappointed. I was told that I had done everything that one had to do to get a place in the side but still it didn’t happen. In India age starts going against you as soon as you go on the other side of 30s. I can only hope for a lot of things to go my way because scoring runs do not seem to be enough to make a comeback.