Yuvraj Singh: Scripting a great saga

That life is full of ironies is a worn-out cliché, but what could be crueler for Yuvraj Singh than to discover that he had a malignant tumour only a few weeks after he had been named Player of the 2011 World Cup?

Around this time last year, Yuvraj was the toast not just of the nation but the entire cricket world for his all-round exploits which helped India win the World Cup after 28 years. Twelve months later, he has returned from the United States after three rounds of chemotherapy to treat a rare germ cancer that was lodged between his lungs, his future uncertain.

At 30, Yuvraj should have been at the peak of his prowess. True, he has had an up and down career and was a literally a last-minute inclusion for the World Cup last year (his close friend Rohit Sharma losing out in the battle for the only remaining place), but his form in that tournament had suggested that he had finally found his métier and groove.

He had an ordinary series against England subsequently which was also truncated because of injury. Skeptics had argued then that Yuvraj had become too soft – and too heavy – but nobody had a clue that what was raging within him was the most dreaded of all diseases.

The treatment, by all accounts, has been successful. But the road from here will be arduous and challenging for the cricketer whose swashbuckling style – on and off the field — had made him both a coveted and somewhat controversial personality.

I must confess to being an ardent fan of Yuvraj; I must also admit to being infuriated by his lack of sustained success in the 12 years since he made his international debut in 1999. Where players of lesser ability had consolidated their careers, Yuvraj was profligate and struggled to keep his place in the team.

When playing the under-19 World Cup and other similar age-group tournaments, he had looked to be India’s most gifted young cricketer since Sachin Tendulkar. He had power, panache and style. He had a wide repertoire of sizzling strokes and was electric-heeled in the field. But at the highest level, he failed to become the high-scoring match-winner that everybody expected.

Every now and then he would show the brilliance he was capable of: in the Natwest final in 2002, in some of the innings in the 2003 World Cup, when hitting six sixes in an over from Stuart Broad in the 2007 T20 World Championship and, of course, his superb all-round performance in the 2011 World Cup.

There are some Test knocks too I remember with delight and awe: most notably the 122 against Pakistan at Lahore in 2006 and 112 at Karachi in 2004 – both in a lost cause – and the smashing 85 not out against England at Chennai in 2008 when he and Tendulkar led India to victory in a memorable run chase.

But trace the timeline of his high points on a graph, and the huge gaps between outstanding performances emerge startlingly. The fact that he has played in only 37 Tests in more than a dozen years and has an average of 34.80 tells a story of a hugely talented player with no consistency.

Around 2010, one thought Yuvraj had perhaps run out of chances. His Test career was still moving in fits and bursts, there were a host of young batsmen knocking on the doors of Indian cricket, and the patience of the selectors was running thin.

I believe, though, that as the 2011 World Cup approached, he rethought his cricketing life. In the statements he made and interviews he gave, there was not just a sense of greater maturity but also an awakening. Perhaps he felt himself that he had done little justice to his talent and was poised to take that Big Leap, till he was unfortunately detected with cancer.

The history of sport is replete with examples of players who have come back from serious injuries and other debilitating physical setbacks, but few who have successfully conquered cancer and regained their skills and fitness to compete at the highest level for any length of time.

The most extraordinary story, of course, is of cyclist Lance Armstrong who beat testicular cancer through chemotherapy and after a prolonged spell in rehab, returned to win the grueling Tour De France a few more times. Armstrong has become Yuvraj’s soul-mate and there can be no better inspiration.

There are two facets to Yuvraj’s battle to get back into international cricket from here. The first and most important, of course, is to regain full fitness under the best medical supervision. Sport is secondary to life itself, but in the case of sportspersons, it becomes the reason for living. In that sense, Yuvraj must make a serious bid to start playing again.

The other aspect, which is a consequence of the first, is of winning back a place in the Indian team. That is not going to be easy, given the number of claimants for the one or two spots that usually become available. He will have to compete very, very hard because while there is universal sympathy for him right now, when it comes to selection for the national team everybody gets hard-nosed.

What could spur him on is the exemplary will-power he has displayed since being diagnosed. A couple of doctors I spoke to also mention the ‘life-changing’ experiences that such diseases can bring about in an individual. “Some of them aim to do the impossible, or at least challenge conventional wisdom” says Dr Sameer Kaul, a cancer specialist.

The build-up from here will be painstaking, fraught with self-doubt, but not impossible. Can Yuvraj do this? He’s changed his twitter handle to @yuvstrong12 which is a strong show of intent and a good starting point to script one of the great sagas of modern sport.

He deserves everybody’s good wishes and support.