Interview with Manoj Tiwary: "If opportunity comes, I am ready for it"

It’s regularly seen in Indian cricket, that when a perception is created about a player being ‘talented’, or ‘good to watch’, it often goes against those who are effective and are performing consistently. It happened in the 90s, and then it happened with you and Rohit Sharma. No disrespect to Rohit, an exceptional batsman, but he just wasn’t scoring at that point of time. Do you think that it went against you that you didn’t look as good as Rohit did while batting, or weren’t as elegant. Is this a systemic problem with Indian cricket?

I won’t say that it’s a problem with Indian cricket, but a perception that the so-called experts create by saying things like, ‘oh he is looking so classy’ and ‘see, he has so much time’. But I always believe that no matter how much talent you have, and I don’t wish to compare my talent with anyone else’s – I know for a fact that I might not look as classy as someone else but am as effective as one can be. And when I was out of the Indian team, I was averaging 57 in domestic cricket, figuring at number ten in the all time list of batsmen with highest averages. Averages do tell a lot, and I have scored runs every time against good teams. I know how to score runs, if you remember; I scored 93 against England when they toured India in 2012.

Cutting you there, especially when we are talking about perceptions, sections of the media disregarded your 93 back then, by romanticizing Yuvraj Singh’s comeback knock of 70-odd. Yuvraj is a class player, but when the coach of the India-A team says that Manoj played well but Yuvraj was brilliant, it just sidelines your efforts. Why this romanticization? Why aren’t just performances important?

I think it’s unfair, because each and every player has a different way of scoring runs. Some might look classy, some might not. It’s not their fault if they don’t look technically as good, because at the end of the day, Cricket is a game of scoring runs if you are a batsman and taking wickets if you are a bowler. Look at MS Dhoni for that matter, when he first came in, people questioned his technique. But he scored runs all over with his own technique. If someone is scoring runs at an average of 55 plus and has 19 hundreds in First-class cricket, it won’t happen if he isn’t technically correct. I have a wonderful quote on the way people think these days, “People talk of talent, but they forget that enthusiasm, never say die attitude, and hard work are also God given talents”. So it’s a little harsh for the lesser ones, as, while they don’t look as good at play, they do have these traits which will never be considered to be ‘talent’ by the masses. A hardworking person deserves as much attention as a talented person does - equal opportunity for all.

Manoj Tiwary celebrates scoring the winning runs for Kolkata Knight Riders in the 2012 IPL final

2012 was a good year for you, you played well against Sri Lanka, followed it up with that knock against England. There were people talking about you, and a middle-order berth awaited you, for the Pakistan one-day series. Then a back injury happened - there are a lot of people who believe that the reason your career has been like this is because of your bad fitness and injury management. What do you have to say about that?

If you take my fitness test, I will always figure in the top three. But the injuries aren’t in my hands – even the fittest of people get injured, see any sport be it the EPL or NBA. Injury is all about destiny, and I believe in that. Like I had said earlier, if equal opportunities are given, players won’t feel as bad, when unforeseen moments such as these come about. In case there aren’t enough opportunities, then good communication definitely helps and the player knows where exactly he stands and what he needs to do to get back into the team. After scoring hundreds of runs, if one isn’t rewarded, it pricks a little.

If you noticed, I also scored a century against Australia in a tour match.

True, you have scored good runs against touring sides in the past. However, I have noticed it, that whenever you have been in the reckoning for a national call-up, you haven’t been able to follow up your good performance with a back to back performance. Like for example, after the England knock, there were talks of you getting a call for the Test series, but you got out scoring a 40-odd in the following Ranji game at the Eden Gardens. Yuvraj subsequently got the spot, which was later taken up by Ranji triple-centurion, Ravindra Jadeja. Then, when Australia came in March, you scored a century, but in the following Irani Trophy game, you got out for 37 in the first innings. Why is it that you haven’t been able to capitalize?

As a batsman, you have to make just one mistake to get out. And that’s what happened during that Ranji game against Rajasthan at the Eden. I tried playing out Pankaj [Singh], but got out doing so. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But if someone identifies you, recognizes your potential to play international cricket, I don’t see how one bad knock can change that perception. I have never been able to understand that – if I am able to score runs against England and Australia, and then can’t follow it up with another big one, how is it that I become not good enough all of a sudden, that too for a year?

It’s also important to take into account the conditions in which different players are scoring runs. For example, scoring forty-fifty runs in Lahli will be as difficult as scoring a big double century at Rajkot. In good batting conditions, I have scored as much as others have in the recent past, like my big hundreds at Rajkot. But I have also scored under difficult circumstances, on difficult tracks, like my First-class hundred in Lahli, a few months ago. So people shouldn’t just go by big runs, but by the other factors as well like quality of opposition, playing conditions, and etcetera.