From Mumbai to Puducherry - 100* for the fierce Nayari
“Mumbai is still the powerhouse, if you look at the last three years they have played two finals, this will tell you how good a team they are. We are still a powerhouse in the Indian Cricket and whether I come and go, whether thousands come and go, Mumbai will still remain a powerhouse as a team.”
These are some words that have been the very fabric of Mumbai diaries. As teams go, Mumbai
Because Nayar is not the one to cling to something forcefully. He is positive and understands his position in Mumbai cricket and moreover, understands why he is no more a part of the very core. There is no pussy-footing around his sacking anymore. He has completely moved on, and if anything, he now looks back at his sojourn with fond memories because it was a journey that witnessed him playing 99 first-class matches with Mumbai being his primary team.
99 - a number that no one likes to be on. Especially in cricket, they hate it. Nayar must have started hating it even more when in a must-win game against Tripura in the 2017-18 season, he was dropped from the team. It was going to be his 100th first-class encounter and his friends were present at BKC complex ground to cheer for him. But as the news broke out, the excitement suddenly turned into despair and the world seemed to come crashing down on him. A public disappointment was followed by an equally strong response to the selection committee, questioning the fairness of the process followed.
However, as a man of gentle and amiable disposition with a zeal of a steel, Nayar perfectly knew that he had it in him to come out of the situation. And now that he has moved on from the issue and all set to play his 100th first-class match when Puducherry will take on Meghalaya on November 12, he considers himself a lucky man.
“For me, Mumbai team is all about its players. I mean the kind of camaraderie and the kind of relationship that I have with every player in the team is something I can't explain. For me, it was more about sharing the dressing room for the last time. I had discussed it with the players about me moving or leaving. The thing is that a lot of them wanted me to play and that is why I kept pushing myself.
“Yes, I was disappointed for a bit, but as I said in the last few months, I was a happy man. I got a lot of opportunities and took me in a space where I can be happy and could let go of all these wonderful years that I had in the middle of the wicket. So, somewhere, I found peace and be happy. I am very happy to be where I am now,” Nayar tells SportsCafe.
He may not be a great player operating at the highest level, but Nayar always seemed destined to continue until so many bodily parts, that he needed to be carried into the middle, fell off. He recognised his body with an admirable clarity that he has it in him to serve the game for a bit too long. Nayar, as many in Mumbai will accept, is the ultimate Khadoos cricketer and never the one to take the shortcut.
It was the inborn part of the personality that he has had in him which made him comfortable as a mentor too. His involvement with Dinesh Karthik and how that helped the latter make a comeback to the national team was one of the most celebrated stories to have come out of the Indian cricketing circuit in the last one year. Nayar might have only played three international matches in his career, but his contributions to the growth of Rohit Sharma, Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur, and Siddhesh Lad, to name a few, have been immense. He also runs an academy at the Wilson College Gymkhana for poor kids, and along with former Mumbai batsman Sahil
© Twitter“I actually never know what I did to become a mentor. I never had a tag in my life that I wanted to be a mentor or coach. I loved helping people and I'm doing that. A lot of people have said different things, but for me, it's like people come to me for help and I like helping them out. I may not have been the most gifted cricketer, but this is a gift that I possess.
“I have no highs about it to get any kind of recognition or whatsoever. It doesn't matter if they are playing for India or they are playing U-14. If I have an opportunity to help someone, I go out and do it. Not everyone I help goes on to become a legend, but when a player does well in a club cricket game, it's a big achievement for me. For me, helping out doesn't necessarily mean results at the highest level, just giving someone happiness and ensuring they become a better player than they were yesterday.”
Probably the attitude to help people was stemmed from the fact that he had seen the tough days so early in his life. In his early 20s, some financial problems in the family forced him to go door to door looking for a place to stay in Mumbai. Not just that, his entry to the Mumbai team was one tough initiation where he had to battle hard so many perceptions and so many insecurities. Very soon in his career, he was signed off as a batsman of no quality by many Mumbai teammates and had to prove his worth in every moment - both on and off the field - to reach the level where he is now. All these things came together to elevate him to a level where he gained respect as a tough individual and mentorship is just the byproduct of the same.
“It's also my struggles, but I feel like I have said I have an eye for certain things. Like a lot of people go through struggles, I mean every big cricketer has to endure challenges. I do what I do because I enjoy doing it. I have always looked at people very differently in terms of how I can help someone. If I struggled and I did something, I don't make others do it, thinking they will succeed. Because I want people to be better than what I was.
“If I make someone do something based on my experiences, they would not be any different from what they are. So for me, like I said I can't explain to how I do it and why I do it, the better way to know would be the people I talk to and the people I help. But, I do what I can, what I understand is best for them. Whether or not results come, doesn't matter. For me, the happiness of the player and the happiness that I see in a player matters the most,” Nayar said with an admirable clarity that comes to a select few.
Read the above quotes once again and you will doubt that if the man with so much of confidence and understanding of the process could ever have had any sort of insecurities in his life. However, insecurity is just a byproduct of a strong yet near-miss career and Nayar had to go through that. He was dismissed as a player of no substance by MS Dhoni, who had once commented that he wasn’t sure whether Nayar was a batsman who could bowl or a bowler who could bat. It must have hurt him, but more than that it did the damage to such an extent that he could never don the India colours after those three matches against West Indies in 2009. It was not a sole instance though. There were a lot of insecurities as a cricketer that he had battled in his life, but he took it on his chin and moved on.
“In the last season only, in the first couple of games, I was insecure for some reasons, which I don't want to get into, which made me question if me playing is right. Then the Baroda and Odisha games came and the team required it. You know, somehow my instincts came out and I managed to pick important wickets. In the Baroda game, I managed to play an important role, same for the Andhra game. So, I think the crucial situations have brought the best out of me because it brings out a certain fire, especially in times like this.
“When I started off my career, my first time in Ranji Trophy, I remember, I played against Maharashtra and Sairaj (Bahutule) was bowling to me in the rough and I couldn't believe that I could score runs. Munaf Patel was bowling to me one of the fastest spells and I didn't believe that I could score runs against him too. I didn't believe that I belonged here, I didn't believe that I can call myself a Ranji Trophy cricketer.
“This has happened many times in my career, but two times that stand out is when I was playing against Maharashtra at Wankhede in my first year and the last year (2017-18 Ranji Trophy). I think the first time it was about if I could play and the last year it was about how unhappy I was while playing and being in that dressing room. Those moments stood out for me, but I think my team needed it and I went to give my all and did my best that I could.”
The snub for the Tripura game was the last thing that he wanted and almost nine months after that day, he had decided to move down south in the capacity of mentor and player of Puducherry. His long-time Mumbai mates Avishkar Salvi and Omkar Khanvilkar had already joined the team in the power of head coach and assistant coach respectively with another Mumbaikar Pravin Tambe being at the helm of the Under-23 team. Will this mini Mumbai association in the Union territory bring Mumbai air to Puducherry cricket?
“I'm not someone who enforces their thoughts on somebody. I try to understand the culture that is here. I don't try to bring my culture, I'm not trying to take Mumbai's cricket culture anywhere because Mumbai Cricket culture can only exist in Mumbai. What I can do is make sure to keep the culture Pondicherry has or the culture that Pondicherry wants to maintain. I can make sure that the guys can learn as much as they can. That's in my power, I don't come with a magic wand that I'm gonna
“You know, good things take time, Rome wasn't built in a day. So, any sort of impact will be great, for me playing for Pondicherry and playing for a year, is obviously another kind of pressure that was for Mumbai. I would like to enjoy my cricket in the final years and along with it give inputs from what I've learned, try to pass it over to the guys here and hope that they can take that legacy forward and make Pondicherry cricket a formidable team in the coming years for now.”
This is what great mentors have been made of. To bring in the experience to the fore to the new set-up and yet respect the individuality and culture of the new team. And Abhishek Nayar has all the ingredients to be one. He has already proved that in his life and if he can at least bring in a sense of positivity in this Puducherry set-up, it will be a win-win.
