Memoirs of a cricketing guru

Rohit Mahajan

After a drought lasting a long time, cricketing autobiographies are making a comeback — by the 1980s, Sunil Gavaskar had written four books, Kapil Dev wrote at least two, and even Sandeep Patil came up with one. Then there was a lull as few cricketers put pen to paper. The autobiographies have made a comeback in the recent years, with books by Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Sanjay Manjrekar and Sourav Ganguly.

Coaches, though, rarely forayed into writing. This offering by Gurcharan Singh, the great cricket coach from Delhi, shows that it’s important they did — such stories should be essential reading for young players trying to make a career in sport, and coaches who must deal with talented but temperamental youngsters and their parents.

Guchi Sir, as the 85-year-old is known as, may not be a household name among fans, but among his peers, the respect he draws is almost unparalleled. Over 100 of his trainees have played First Class cricket, and 12 of them have played for India; coaches dream of guiding a single player to the international level — Singh has done it several times.

Singh owes his success to his talent in the sport — he was a fine cricketer for Punjab and Railways — plus his passion and discipline. There are several examples of the last attribute: Kirti Azad, son of a powerful politician, could be difficult as a child, but Singh would have none of it; after one episode of bad behaviour, Singh threw Kirti out of his camp. Kirti’s father, Bhagwat Jha Azad, backed Singh, and the young cricketer learnt his lesson. “Kirti maintained good behaviour thereafter to emerge as an outstanding player,” writes Singh.

Apart from producing top cricketers, Singh did something that Delhi’s cricket and cricketers would forever remain indebted to him for — he shaped the cricket centre at the National Stadium after joining there as the coach in 1969. Two clubs were formed, NIS and Veterans, and he became a much sought-after coach at schools and colleges of the city, and for VIP kids in the capital.

The strict disciplinarian in him didn’t faze even when dealing with VIPs — an Army General didn’t like his sons being turned away from Singh’s nets. The General tried to get him transferred out. “Eventually, I prevailed upon Gen Chajju Singh that his sons were good at studies, but not in cricket,” he writes. The General got the point. One kid who ran away from his strict coaching became famous as actor Shah Rukh Khan.

The book is peppered with anecdotes, and recounts his emotional visit to his ancestral visit in Pakistan, 72 years after Partition, when his father was killed by rioters.

If you’re a bit dissatisfied with this book, it’s for a good reason — at 180-odd pages, it just about skims through the trove of stories that Singh has collected in his 85 years.