Cricket and Sachin Tendulkar have become synonyms. Its hard to think of the sport without thinking of the man who is loved because of his ability in the sport. So when he gets on TV and gives batting tips you better listen because these words are priceless; they can really help you improve your game. I have tried to transcribe his words as clearly as I could.

Try and keep the ball along the ground

“Nowdays [cricketers] including my son Arjun like to play T20 and they like to see the ball going out of the stadium. I keep telling them that you know if you try to keep the ball along the ground and you mistime a shot you still continue batting. But if you keep the ball in the air all the time, you’ll mistime one. Then you will be back in the dressing room, watching the rest of the match. Try and keep the ball along the ground.”

Batting is about balance

“My favourite shot is playing the straight drive because when any fast bowler or spinner sees the full face of the blaid they don’t like it. I like showing them the full face of the bat. To play a straight drive you have to be perfectly balanced because if your head starts falling to the right then the ball will invariably go to the leg side. If your head is not straight and your weight is on the back foot then you will slice everything to the off-side. When you start playing good straight drives, you know that your head positioning and your body balance is perfect. What you need to do is lean forward with your head straight and transfer the weight forward with a follow-through which shows your back leg.” Continue reading →

As a batsman there are many things which go through your head. You are out in the middle with 11 players from the opposition trying to get you out. What should your strategy be? Should you attack the ball? Should you first play yourself in before you start hitting your shots? Is there a target you have in mind? Do you have a personal target? Should you make use of the powerplays? is your aim to play through till the end?… and on and on and on. If you want to be successful in this sport, you better use your head wisely, or else you will have a few flurries of performances but nothing substantial to show in the long run. Continue reading →

I came back home upset; upset for being taunted by the opposition for losing the cricket match and upset for being the cause of the loss. I got down to psycho-analysing myself. Writing has a knack of clarifying the mumbo-jumbo in your brain. Once I sifted through the confused mess of interacting and conflicting thoughts, I actually got to the core of what I did wrong and how I can avoid doing the same mistakes again. Yes this is personal and very situation specific, but in the process I found clarity. And what better way to find clarity than to ask yourself questions. Maybe a similar process applied to a different situation will help you sift through your thinking or maybe you can find some insight as well as agree or disagree with my conclusions. Either way, I thought the ideas and conclusions were worth sharing, so here it goes.

My object was clear when I started to write:

1) What? – to identify what I did wrong

2) Why? – to identify why I made those mistakes

3) How? – to identify how I can avoid making the same mistakes again so that I can improve as a cricketer. Everybody makes mistakes but to make the same mistakes twice is stupidity! Continue reading →