Waterboy Yuvraj and his Mature Musings

Yuvraj Singh is no longer a snappy dynamite. He’s doing a makeover and becoming a team man, mentor of younger Indians and mature gentleman.
But he will still be waterboy and carrier of drinks if it pleases the selectors. For the Test series against Australia it has, because there’s a new bloke appearing and so Yuvraj’s been dropped. And he’s handling it like an overly-suave can-do guy.

And he’s reading these days. Something called "Why Men Don’t Listen and Women Can’t Read Maps".
Bloody hell. I need to send him with John Buchanan over to teach the Poms, they will be such a fantastic duo.

But coming to Cricinfo’s interview; there’s a whole lot of interesting stuff in it. At some stages you would even be surprised why Yuvi didn’t transform into an ogre and run away with the interviewer’s head or even try using one of his eyeballs for an aperitif. But that’s because waterboy is now a new Yuvraj and currently heading an Enlightenment programme.

According to Waterboy, never come to the "Oh shit, man, I can’t do this anymore" stage.
This is the stage where your skin grows wrinkly, brain starts to retard and you’re basically this wrung piece of cloth that can’t bowl or bat without breaking a rib or two.
So according to Yuvraj the solution is to arrive at the "Oh shit, I’m being total shit but I’m young enough to get over it" stage, which happens at your near-thirties.

When asked about the obnoxious nincompoops in the crowd, this is what he had to say:
"I wasn’t reacting to that at all. The crowd behaviour was very abusive, not to me but to other players, so all I said to the security chief, all I did was say, put in a complaint to the ICC - that the crowd was bad."


You have to do stuff the official way; no intermediaries just a straight objection sent to the bosses and job done. Not even a mention of the brouhaha about you being called waterboy. Excellent.

Then comes the next question where he’s asked about being involved in any finger pointing.

"This is all media speculation. They always make it up... okay, I mean, most times stuff is
made up. The same thing happened in West Indies when we went to eat after a match. There was no fault of the players. Cricketers are playing for India. You have a responsibility as ambassadors and we don’t do these things. Everybody has a temper, but I keep my temper in check."

He gets a bit incoherent here, such as talking of how responsible representatives such as his teammates don’t get involved in pub fights, but then only stressing how he controls his temper. As long as it doesn’t get lost, that is. So I’m still inclined to think something rowdy did happen in the West Indies and maybe Nehra was thrown out of the windows after all.

Then Yuvraj also mentions why he looks like a pissed off all the time
It’s because it’s part of the strategic thinking during a match.
Of course you have to laugh occasionally too, which is exactly what Waterboy tells you to do. He’s mature now and knows laughing is good for health.

"Laugh like a real can-do guy:  Me!"