In his heydays, he used to stun everyone with his shot selection and his ability to go after bowlers even in the nervous nineties. A few years later, former batsman-turned-commentator Virender Sehwag still knows how to spring surprises. The last man to throw his hat in the ring for the coveted position of Indian cricket team’s coach, he sent a two-line resume as his application. Media reports suggest that his application just mentioned that he is ‘a mentor and coach of Kings XI Punjab and has played with all the boys before’ and BCCI, which was taken aback, asked him to send an elaborate CV.
Well, people might have various opinions about what kind of a coach the fiery batsman will prove to be, but Sehwag’s coach A.N. Sharma believes his prodigy will be a coach like none before. The 73-year-old, who coached Sehwag from 1993-2007, says, “He is a very straightforward man who knows what is to be done. He won’t fear anyone. If he becomes the coach, I can guarantee you that no Indian cricket team would have seen a coach like him. He can’t be compared to any of the previous coaches. He will run the team with all his heart and passion.”
About the Multan ka Sultan’s two-line CV, Sharma says, “He believes in action, not words,” and shares an anecdote, “Once we were going through the resume of a Ranji player. After Sehwag read it, he slammed the file on my table and said that he felt like tearing it up because what the player had written in it was all gibberish and not to the point. Sehwag believes your work must speak for you.”
Sharma adds, “As a player, Viru will never say, ‘Agar yeh karoge toh woh hoga.’ He will say, ‘Yeh karna hai.’ Even as a kid, he was too frank. If I explained something and he didn’t get it, he wouldn’t hesitate in saying, ‘Mujhe nahi samajh aaya, phir samjhao.’ He wouldn’t accept things until he was convinced, while most kids would nod saying they had got the point at the first go. On many occasions, he would get angry with me if I scolded him too much.”
Sharma rues that owing to his age and Sehwag’s busy schedule, they don’t get to meet often. However, he has his kitty full of stories about the player who the world may call reckless, but to him will always be “God-gifted talent with amazing hand-eye coordination”.
