Today's Edition
KUUMAR SHYAM (DUBAI)
The sport of cricket can be tough, but tracing the career graph of those finding success can provide life-changing lessons, a gathering in Dubai heard on Saturday.
Lalchand Rajput and Robin Uthappa, two fairly new residents of the UAE, spoke at the launch of a book "Life Lessons from Cricket" at a city hotel on the sidelines of the Champions Trophy which is partly being held in the country to host the matches involving India as part of a hybrid model for original rights holder Pakistan.
Rajput is the UAE national team coach and is also credited for spotting early the talent of a certain Virat Kohli during his Under-19 career phase. It was Rajput who alerted about Kohli to Vimal Kumar, a Delhi-based journalist and the book co-author along with Ashish Ambasta. Kumar asked Rajput to share the anecdote while the audience in Dubai soaked in a lesson about the passion and hunger for the game through the example of Kohli.
"I remember a domestic game in which he made 140 and as he came back to the pavilion, he looked upset even though I and others were congratulating him for a job well done. But he said: 'I was all set [in form] and could have easily made a double hundred' and I was amazed to see that.
"It's a lesson to make every opportunity count after the hard work and never rest on your laurels," Rajput said. He also highlighted how Kohli dives and runs fast between the wickets even in the twilight of his career.
Uthappa, who went through a phase of clinical depression and even contemplated suicide in 2011, talked about cricket in the high and low moments.
"Cricket teaches you not to get overconfident when you have success, and when you fail, not to deviate much from the processes that worked for you, and remember, we fail more than we succeed."
