Ranji Trophy: Casino nights to motivational movies, Abhishek Nayar’s role in team makeover
Veteran Abhishek Nayar was a calming influence on the youngsters. (Source: Daniel Stephen)
Last season was a nightmare for Mumbai. Rifts erupted within the team, captain Surya Kumar Yadav was reprimanded by the association after teammates complained and he eventually quit captaincy midway through the season, Abhishek Nayar too had earlier led for just one game before Aditya Tare was given the reins near the end of the tournament. The team-spirit was obviously the chief concern of the management at the start of this season but apart from the efforts of earnest Tare and an experienced coach in Chandrakant Pandit, it was the senior player Nayar’s behind-the-scenes contribution that seems to have done the real trick for this team.
After the first round game in October when they conceded a first-innings lead to Andhra, their captain Tare had a word with the team where he effectively said that talent alone isn’t going to win them championships and the team need to play as a team. Before the tournament began, Mumbai went to Khandala, a hill station in Maharashtra made popular by Aamir Khan in a song, and held a boot camp in the adjoining Lonavala.
After the below par first game, Nayar decided to do his bit and organised team-bonding sessions that ranged from playing casino games, watching motivational movies, and occasionally pub visits too. Some of them involved building trust, a chief factor that was lacking last season. Nayar clubbed his team-mates into pairs of twos, and blindfolded one. “We put obstacles in the way with the designated partner guiding you. The partner will direct you and you had to blindly trust him.”
Fun nights before semi-final
Some were fun nights. Like the casino nights, before the semi-finals in Cuttack. Nayar arranged a mock casino atmosphere in the hotel room. “I got a roulette table and a black jack table and I was the dealer,” Nayar told Indian Express. It wasn’t for money but for the excitement of playing together.” Nayar also organised “motivational movies” to watch as a group.
The all-rounder feels that he has better understanding of Mumbai players than anyone else. “For any team to do well you need to be very tight as a unit. When you are young, you tend to be impatient and you may not always respond to the coach. But you respond to the player sometimes because he feels that you are going through same emotions you are,” he points out.
Sometimes it was teaching youngsters when to switch off and how not to let ambition and desire for performance lead to a state of nervousness. So when Akhil Herwadkar was not scoring big runs in initial games, Nayar took him out to a pub. “He (Akhil) is the guy who only does hard-work but he needs to enjoy his life too. You can only perform when your mind is free. He is very shy guy, I told him that going to pub is not a bad thing. I took him to dinner, he needs to know when to switch off,” he says.
Nayar also remembers the time after Syed Mushtaq Ali, the T20 domestic tournament, his core group straight headed to Goa. But even in those party atmosphere, each one had Ranji Trophy title in their mind. Mumbai hadn’t won Vijay Hazare, the 50-over domestic tourney, and Syed Mushtaq Ali. The only title left was Ranji Trophy and the team was itching to win it.
Even though Mumbai defeated Saurashtra with such ease on third day to win the Ranji trophy, the second day had Mumbai threatening to lose their grip on the game. Nayar sensed it and decided to have a word with Tare. Soon, the other players were called for a meeting. “I felt yesterday (second day) we were falling apart. I went and called Adu (Tare) and spoke to him. I asked him what he felt and told him what I felt. I told him that we are sitting at different places and we are not sitting together as a team. I was feeling that we are bunch of very talented individuals who will just walk over them (Saurashtra) if we play as a team. Sometime simple things like sitting and cheering together matters. It was decided that as a team we will sit together, cheer together,” he adds.
At times, the motivation talk included a bit of straight talking. In a routine talk on the eve of the final, Nayar, who shares room with Shreyas Iyer, the highest run getter in this season, told the young player that all those runs won’t hold any significance if Mumbai doesn’t win this Ranji Trophy.
Nayar, who led for one game last season, says he understands how tough captaincy can be. He admits that Tare’s job is not the easiest. Nayar believes that whenever a player is leading a side, some players will have something against him sometimes. “If you let those players carry on like that than the team will not going to benefit. Someone in the team needs to tell him that captain is doing the right thing and it is not the way you are understanding. So that they don’t lose trust on the captain,” Nayar adds. “When you have talented individuals you need to keep them together,” he says. Ask him what will be the bonding sessions on Friday night after the Ranji win and he says, ‘dance on the floor’.
