India’s veteran pacer Ashish Nehra will be hanging his boots from international cricket in a matter of next couple of days. But, he feels that “If you can, then sprint. If not, then run. Can’t run? Then jog. Won’t jog? Then at least walk! Can’t walk? Then crawl but just keep on moving.”
A total of 163 international games across all formats in 20 years isn’t a big number but the emphatic Nehra will remain a riddle for what he could have achieved had he not gone under knife 12 times.
During a recent chat with PTI, Ashish said, “Trust me, I have had an eventful 20 years. I am not a very emotional person. The next 20 years is what I am looking forward to. Hopefully, it will be as eventful as it has been since I started playing for Delhi in 1997.”
Talking about the regrets in his career, Nehra said, “It’s been a great journey. Maybe one regret. If I could change anything in these 20 years, that afternoon in Johannesburg during the 2003 World Cup final. But nothing else as it’s all about destiny.”
Sharing the journey that started at Delhi’s famous Sonnet Club in the early 90s, he is a thoroughly old school with loads of incidents. Nehra said, “During my first Ranji Trophy game at Kotla, Delhi team had late Raman Lamba, Ajay Sharma, Atul Wassan and Robin Singh junior. Raman bhaiya and Ajay bhaiya, I have grown up bowling to them at Sonnet nets. Difficult to forget Raman Lamba. Dada player thaa (cricketing lingo for dominating batsman).”
He further elaborated, “I remember bowling one-change in my debut Ranji game as Robin Junior and Wassan (his last first-class match) were bowling with the new ball. I got Ajay Jadeja for a duck in both innings. Another man is Ajay Jadeja. I have huge respect for his cricketing acumen. For me, Ajay Jadeja and Mahendra Singh Dhoni are the two shrewdest cricketing brains I have ever interacted with.”
He has seen the quiet a revival under John Wright, been through the turbulent phase under Greg Chappell, had a comeback under Gary Kirsten and the final fanfare under Ravi Shastri. Talking about the same, Ashish said, “I didn’t play much under Greg Chappell save two series in 2005 (in Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe). Mujhe pahle series se hi maloom thaa yeh biryani, khichdi bannewali hain Greg ke under (I knew biryani would turn into Khichdi under Greg). That’s where Gary (Kirsten) was such a superb coach. He discussed strategies with MS (Dhoni) but on field, he never interfered with MS’ style of functioning. But I still believe Chappell could have been a terrific coach for juniors.”
Talk about Virat Kohli, Nehra said, “Look Virat’s career and captaincy are on auto-pilot mode right now. He knows what he is doing and leads by example. He doesn’t need gyaan (sermons) but support which Ravi gives him in abundance.”
He further added, “You know the best part about Ravi. If a player is going through a rough patch, he is the man. Even if the player is not able to middle a single ball in the nets, Ravi would make him believe that he is as good as Brain Lara! Now that might sound ludicrous to an outsider but those who understand cricket know that this is man-management.”
When asked about Anil Kumble but had a subtle take on what is an ideal coach-captain relationship, Nehra said, “If a coach, suppose is 50 years old and the captain is 28, it is the duty of the coach to understand the psyche of a 28-year-old and not the other way round. It doesn’t work the other way. Not in cricket at least.”
Fans remember him for his 6/23 against England in Durban where he hardly put a foot wrong. Describing that Nehra concluded, “Sports is nothing but moments. People remember that night. I would like them to remember me as an honest trier. Ek aisa shaqs jisne seekh ke khela nahin par khelke ke seekha (a person, who didn’t learn and play but played and learnt).”
