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When the burning temperature of the decoturf penetrates the soles, when the ball hitting the racquet strings echoes in the background and the only people around are two ball boys who are there only because they earn Rs 200 per day, it's tough to be a sports star. But Sheetal Goutam has prospered despite difficult propositions. A few inches shorter than the average tennis players in her batch, she doesn't quite have the forehand of her friend, Sania Mirza. What she has, however, is mental toughness - a quality that allows her to punch above her weight. But it's not only on the tennis court that her temperament has won through. Curiously, she is the woman who has transformed Robin Venu Uthappa.
Close friends since their Jain Mandir College days in Bangalore, Goutam convinced a despairing Uthappa, who was thinking of calling it quits after a diffident cricket career, that he was better placed to make use of his batting skills than seek a job abroad with his bachelor's degree in commerce. Why was he thinking of giving up his game, she asked the wicketkeeper-batsman. Uthappa said he had started disliking himself because he was getting envious of his team mates' successes. "Do you like the game," she asked him. "Much more than my life," he answered. Her final question: "What is the one thing you want to do so that you can play cricket again?" Uthappa wanted to lose weight. At 95 kg, he was plainly too fat for professional cricket, the after-effect of having treated epilepsy in childhood with steroids. Goutam introduced him to a nutritionist as the first step towards his resurrection. This was at the fag end of 2011. Uthappa's lessons on the art of survival had begun.
By early 2014, 28-year-old Uthappa, having lost 20 kg, was flourishing. It began in first-class cricket with 374 runs in six games; he went on to become the highest run-getter in domestic one-day games, scoring 536 runs with three centuries and a fifty in eight games. His batting helped Karnataka bag a historic treble of the Ranji, Irani and Vijay Hazare titles. A T20 world-record in the ongoing Indian Premier League, or IPL, of ten consecutive scores over 40 merely reiterated the fact of his complete transition in all formats of the game. It wasn't surprising when he got back his India cap this week after eight years, being named in the ODI squad for the Bangladesh series.
To get back into Team India, the batsman needed Team Robin in place. He zeroed in on the people he needed to work with - Praveen Amre was his personal coach there was a need for a physio, so he contacted John Gloster, a nutritionist was already on board; a mental conditioning coach was also the need of the hour and Arjun Gautam filled the spot. To accommodate Amre's family life, Uthappa rented a flat in Mumbai's affluent Khar area and shifted base. He pre-booked the indoor nets at Bandra-Kurla so there would be no hindrance in his practice schedule. All that cost him "quite a bit but I could afford it," says Uthappa. Well, actually every Indian cricketer can afford it, but not many make such an investment.
It was after the 2012 IPL season, when Uthappa played for Pune Warriors where Amre was assistant coach, that he requested the latter to be his personal coach. Amre laughed it off as a big joke. Uthappa went to Belgium for a holiday, but his mind was on cricket, on how important it was to reinvent himself as a batsman. On July 1 that year, the batsman could no longer hold it back and dialled Amre one more time. Amre couldn't refuse the second time around.
To reconstruct Uthappa as a batsman, he had to be deconstructed first. Thus began a series of technical changes, starting with taking a few grams off his heavy bat. The changes are there to see today: he now plays a lot in the V rather than cut and pull like earlier, he leans into the ball rather than brazenly walk down the pitch, and he takes pleasure in playing along the ground rather than allowing his right hand to dictate his batting. "It was a daunting task to completely change his cricket technique and basics," says Amre. "I was a little apprehensive to begin with, but Robin was willing to put in the hard work - three hours every day and a lot of time hitting balls in the nets."
A part of Uthappa's reinvention can be credited to Amre, but most of his cricket ups and downs reflect his own attitude to life. Once, when his mother wanted him to ask for Rahul Dravid's autograph, the young Uthappa curtly replied that he wanted to give out autographs, not take them from people. His ambitions took shape, and he played for India when he just 20. At 21, he was India's unlikely hero of a historic bowl-out against Pakistan and a World Cup winner. He earned big bucks in IPL, and some more as the richest cricketer in the Karnataka Premier League. By 23, he had done everything - opened the innings, batted at No 3 and slid down to No 6 to play the finisher role. He also withered away quickly.
Perhaps Uthappa could have dealt with his professional difficulties, but the young man was dismantled by the constant quarrels between his parents at home. He would be among the last to leave the Chinnaswamy Stadium after a game. He would drive around the city for hours and then return to the stadium parking lot, so he could at least get a good night's sleep.
Uthappa was slipping by his own standards, and the bad mean world was only too eager to hammer him. He was stripped of his Karnataka captaincy, asked to bat down the order and ominously his name began to be debated over in selection meetings. Few know that besides his weight problem, Uthappa also battled a rare eye problem later in his career. A consultation with a Bangalore-based doctor allowed him to sight the ball lot better.
It was around this time that he had that talk with friend Sheetal Goutam.
Irfan Sait, his childhood coach, says Uthappa was a natural cricketer even as a child. "He used to handle every situation, sometimes without realising what he had done," he says. The coach cites an instance. Uthappa, just 14 then, was playing a senior division league in Bangalore and went hammer and tongs against the bowlers to win the game single-handedly. "Later he came to me and said, 'Sir, they were targeting the big guys, so it was easy for me to hit out'," says Sait. Without realising it Uthappa had pulverised an attack consisting of Ranji players.
Sait refuses to choose what he likes about the Uthappa brand of batting. "Earlier, he used to be just a passionate guy who played his game with an aggression that came his way naturally. Now he is matured, he's gone through the grind and he is a professional. He's learnt quite a lot in the last one-two years," he explains.
It isn't just his game or his personal life that have taken a turn. Uthappa's business ventures too have begun anew. His earlier restaurant business and music band with tainted cricketer-friend S Sreesanth has wound up. His current venture, ITiffin, is a nutritious corporate meal service that is also delivered to schools. He developed the menu after having himself given up his hometown Coorg's traditional delicacy of Pandi (pork) curry, mutton and rice to shed his flab.
One of Uthappa's indulgences is numerology. When Gautam Gambhir was struggling to open his account, scoring three consecutive ducks this IPL for Kolkata Knight Riders, it was Uthappa who suggested a change in numbers to his captain. It has worked wonders. Uthappa has sported various numbers on his jersey: 77, 17, 26. He often consults numerologist Sanjay Jumaani, who gave him alternatives like 72, 42, 51, and the 37 that is on his current purple and gold jersey. Most people are more interested in the numbers he is generating through his bat in the tournament, but Uthappa still worries about the number on his back. Clearly, he doesn't want to ever look back again.
(The writer is Associate Editor at ABP News)
