
The Plus One Syndrome and Indian Cricketers

By: Yajurvindra Singh
Email: sunnybilkha@hotmail.com
January 17th 2025:
The topic concerning wives has taken India by storm. The head of L&T, Mr. S.N. Subrahmanyan, started the ball rolling with his remark about how long could one stare at ones’ wife on a Sunday. He would rather have his people working on that day and advocated a 90 hours week. Naturally, this has not gone down well, as todays India is moving towards a work life balance. A happy employee, as one says, is a productive one. One wonders if the L&T employees are made to work the extra hours and would the company still showcase good results.
As one Industrialist quite rightly pointed out, it is the quality of work that matters. How right he is, as it’s the results that finally counts.
Unfortunately, India’s disastrous performance in the last 2 cricket Test series against New Zealand and Australia seems to condemn the wives and plus one’s presence for the failure of few of their stars and finally the teams performance.
The presence of wives on a cricket tour has always been a debatable issue. Indian cricket, in the 70’s when we toured or played at home did not permit wives to stay in the same hotel. “Wives”, then were taboo, although one did see a few of them floating around, tactically smuggled in through a team effort. BCCI was not flushed with money and so an Indian cricketer then was paid a pittance. Cricketers, therefore, could not afford the luxury of housing not only ones wife but other family members too. Reminiscing on those days, one is now quite amused as to how team members played their part to help one another to comfort a fellow cricketers near and dear ones. The bonding that took place because of it, has stood by even when we meet each other today.
Our contract then had a peculiar clause which emphasized that wives were not permitted, however, there was no mention of girlfriends.
The contract must have been based on the one made for the English cricketers, as one prominent English player on their tour to India in 1977, had his wife residing in one hotel and the Indian girlfriend visiting him in his.
Silence was golden and all players followed that ritual and that’s where the matter stood firmly.
The presence of a spouse was never the reason for one’s failure. Cricket is a team game, however, when one is in the middle it all comes down to an individual. Failure or success is only in your hand and when the ball is hurled at one, a cricketers thoughts are focused only on it and not on a person sitting in the stand.
A long and arduous cricket tour can be very frustrating and taxing mentally and physically for a player. This gets escalated three fold, if a player is going through a rough patch or being sidelined. The last thing any sportsman wants is to showcase any weakness and definitely not to his fellow teammates. Presently, several support staff are accompanying the team, however, a player will be reluctant to trust them entirely, as they are the eyes and ears of the coach and the administration.
Cricketers over several decades have fought tooth and nail to get their spouses and kids included on a tour. The BCCI should be complimented for allowing players to have their families for a reasonable time during the tour rather than not at all. The grueling cricket schedule that an Indian cricketer is subjected to has also been addressed by the BCCI and players have been given family time and rest whenever they felt necessary. This is a wonderful gesture by the BCCI as a player is the only one who knows when he feels home sick or exhausted.
The problem that Indian cricket faces is balancing the time when a cricketers close ones visit them, vis-à-vis the time to gel with their teammates. More than their dear ones, it is the presence of their personal staff and managers that one feels distracts them while interacting with their cricket colleagues. These inner circle individuals are important for them as they are the source of their sustenance for their future.
A cricketer has a short shelf life and an unpredictable one. An injury or lack of form can send one into wilderness and therefore extracting the maximum financially is as much in their agenda as their performance is in the middle. A 1000 runs in a year with no bank balance may have been acceptable earlier, however, the cricketer of today knows how important financial security is for them.
One has to accept the present life style of a cricketer especially as they are now looked at as superstars. They know how important it is for them to perform to remain one.
The responsibility of getting a side together and performing as a unit solely lies on the shoulders of the coach. He needs to create more activities and gettogethers for the team to spend more time and bond together. That’s precisely why a coach needs to be a good man manager. He has to understand not only a players cricketing skills but also their emotional and mental strength and well -being.
It is pointless blaming a player for dressing room leaks, wives and their personal support staff for failure, one should look deeper for the truth.
A 90 hours week is normal in a cricketers life.
For an ardent follower of the game of cricket, staring at the screen on Sundays is a way of life, one with a bit of grumble but mostly accepted by ones wife.
(Yajurvindra Singh is a former India cricketer. The views expressed are personal.)