K.R. NAYAR COLUMN: Should cricketers avoid reading newspapers?

India’s rising star Shreyas Iyer, while speaking at a function in Mumbai recently revealed that as soon as he’d joined the Indian team, his senior colleague and former Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni advised him to avoid reading newspapers and also try and stay away from social media as much as possible.

Many international cricketers in the eighties and nineties had talked about how they used to avoid newspapers, especially during a Test series. They feared that some remarks by journalists could affect them. Many cricket writers those days would highlight chinks in a batsman’s footwork or a bowler’s run up. Today, with close-up shots and replays on television showing much more than in the past due to advancement in technology, that style of writing has come down a lot.

Newspapers in the past also played a big role in bringing cricketers to the fore.

The day before the announcement of the national team, some leading cricket writers, in their regular columns, would comment on who should be in the squad.

However, no selector has ever revealed that he avoided reading newspapers before entering the selection committee meeting!

To read or not to read newspapers should be a personal choice. Years ago when Indian opener Navjot Singh Sidhu played a slow knock in his Test debut innings against West Indies in 1983, a writer called him the ‘strokeless wonder.’ Following that remark, Sidhu even got dropped from the team and that name stuck on to him for a while. Sidhu took it as a challenge and made the same writer call him ‘Sixer Sidhu’ after he transformed himself into a hard-hitter.

Newspapers also play a big role in lifting the image of a cricketer. There are instances of Test cricketers framing inspiring articles that highlighted their accomplishments and displaying it on the walls of their homes. Newspapers can thus boost the confidence of a cricketer too.

The ability to avoid reacting to criticism and bettering oneself is very important.

Last week, England spinner Adil Rashid reacted strongly to his former captain Michael Vaughan’s column about him in a leading English newspaper calling it ‘stupid’. It is only when a cricketer becomes famous that he is discussed in the media, and he must avoid reacting to it. Instead, players should be responding to critics through their bat and ball.

In the past, very few former cricketers were in the media box. These days that number has increased with many cricketers turning commentators and columnists. So those who have advised to avoid reading newspapers could well be in the media box soon after their retirement.

Also, opinions and criticism travels faster today than in the past; hence avoiding them can be difficult. So, a cricketer must react to it only by performing at his best rather than running away from it.