What makes Sehwag special

The long list of retiring legends continues to grow - so much so that, come next month, the world will see a "Legends' T20 League". But no man in cricket has enthralled me the way Virender Sehwag did. As blasphemous as this may sound, at one point in time, it was Sehwag's dismissal that made me switch off the television and not Tendulkar's. Every time India won or lost the toss and had to bat second, I'd be dismayed that entertainment was postponed.

But what made Virender Sehwag so particularly special (in fact, even endearing) to me? Numbers certainly speak and like all legends, Sehwag had them. After 104 Tests, Sehwag retires with over 8500 runs, scored at just under 50 per innings and over 80 per 100 balls. In 251 ODIs, Sehwag plundered 8273 runs, scoring faster than run-a-ball for nearly 14 years. But numbers in sport only go so far. None of them account for the nonchalance of one of the most charismatic cricketers of all time, who presented a refreshingly candid face to the public, in an era of much pretense and 'political correctness'.

Pioneer: Sehwag had a "don't try this at home" style of  living

Perhaps the greatest of Sehwag's qualities was his undying belief in his own unconventional ways. In his statement following retirement, Sehwag apologizes to all those whose "advice" he conveniently discarded, for he "did [things his] way". His coaches know that well. Greg Chappell once wrote that Sehwag was the most talented and yet the most frustrating player he'd ever coached. Chappell wrote that if Sehwag did follow time-tested techniques, he'd likely have been greater than even Tendulkar himself. That is speculative, but what Chappell didn't see was that Sehwag's originality is what made him great, and Sehwag, for one, knew it well. The world works on conventions. Every walk of life has its own myriad procedures and processes, schooled to those in its field and practiced religiously by most. But conventions also make men predictable. A conventional human being is the easiest to defeat, for he can't outwit or surprise you. Little surprise then that the pantheon of greats in any field of life is populated by the rebellious few. Albert Einstein was thrown out of school for his 'inability to perform'. Steve Jobs was cast out of his own company for his lack of  'managerial skills'. Walt Disney was shunted out of his first job for his 'incompetence'. And Virender Sehwag was often ostracized for his disdain towards 'batting technique'.

Yet, Sehwag did play, and built an extraordinary career at it too. Pundits believed that Sehwag was a slugger, meant, if anything, only for the fast-paced life of limited overs cricket. But it was in Tests that he chose to prove them wrong. He is one of only 4 men to have scored 2 triple hundreds in Test match cricket and nearly did it a third time, falling after thrashing 290-odd on a single day in the dust bowl of Mumbai (in the post-game presentation later, Sehwag cheekily said that Muralitharan was "out of form", all with a straight face). He averaged over 50 in Tests before it became fashionable and redefined the openers' slot in Indian cricket, inspiring the likes of Shikhar Dhawan and Robin Uthappa to follow.

But everyone would tell you that Sehwag is not to be imitated, and I agree. Like all other great and original men, Sehwag had a way that none should dare to try at home. Many, in fact, have tried to go the Sehwag way in different parts of the world and failed. An arguable exception would perhaps be David Warner - Australia's own 'Sehwag' who broke into the national team in unusual manner (called from the stands in Sydney in fact, to fill in as a substitute just ahead of a T20 game) and continued to play just as unusually with fair amount of success. But even Warner is yet incomparable to Sehwag, for both are original and unique in their own quirky way. Sehwag was known for his unassuming and friendly demeanor on the field, yet Warner is anything but that. Sehwag dominated the opposition with a strangely calm and amicable appearance. Warner often finds it necessary to mouth off at the opposition instead.

But Sehwag wasn't just a legend on the field; he is also an unlikely pioneer in education. Sehwag's new international school near Delhi is a model for the future of schooling in India - mixing quality academic education with world class sporting facilities on campus, all at a subsidized fee. Often in India, students in school have little opportunity to pursue sport seriously enough, unless they're enrolled in expensive convent schools. Sportsmen come from the hinterland, often deprived of quality schooling and unable to find proper coaching or training facilities early in life. Sehwag belonged to the latter category and saw the pressing need to make education meet sport - as his school has done. In the years to come, one can positively hope that the Indian government follows Sehwag's lead in the development of sports across the country, and that Sehwag pursues his vision for the future of Indian sport in his own quirky manner.

Cricket will undoubtedly never be the same without Virender Sehwag, but there are serious life lessons from Sehwag's career for all those who will heed. This was a career dedicated to the rebels who dare to be different, the tenacious who don't bend to convention, "those square pegs in round holes" as Jobs had called them. None will replace him, but many will emulate him.

Thank you for all the inspiration, Viru.

Can Morgan now be the next Dhoni?

English journalists and cricket fans are noisy folks, so you had to expect the barrage that came following England's untimely exit from the World Cup. There was plenty written and said about everyone - from the board president to the former captain, the current coach and of course - that evergreen punching bag of English cricket - Kevin Pietersen. Plenty written and said, but not a word on Eoin Morgan, the man at the helm. The most that one could hear or read about the English captain was how he was the unfortunate scapegoat, thrust at the wheel of a sinking ship.

That Sinking Feeling: Morgan isn't too different from Dhoni

That isn't mere sympathy. Born in Ireland, yet belonging to England, Morgan was yet another of those stolen cricketers who were meant to change the face of English cricket. But even as England's ill-fated World Cup journey was about to begin, few knew if he would truly lead the side. True to their form, the conservative Englishmen stuck steadfast by the side of their conservative skipper, Alastair Cook, even as he took the English team from one defeat to another. Then, just weeks ahead of world cricket's greatest competition, Eoin Morgan was dug out from the cold and put in charge. He did his best, however, in his first real assignment in Australia, leading his side in a triseries that really featured just two teams - the hosts and his own. Then came the World Cup, where, in the words of Steve Waugh, the conservative Englishmen played a brand of cricket more suited to 1989, albeit under the guise of naturally more progressive talent.

Don't forget though that not too long ago, the celebrated Indian team was in the same phase as England are in today. Following the 2007 World Cup, the equally ferocious Indian media wrote pages and pages together about anyone and everyone. In a most recent interview, the captain of the time, the otherwise unflappable Rahul Dravid said of the experience that "captaincy wasn't what I thought it would be. It was more about personalities and less about cricket." Dravid said that he soon grew tired of leadership and handed it down to an individual he thought was ready for the job and hungry for it.

In the months that followed, the face of Indian cricket changed entirely. MS Dhoni, still relatively new to international cricket himself, took India to a most famous T20 championship victory in South Africa, and soon followed that up with history in different parts of the world. India later went to the summit of world cricket - in all formats - and stayed formidable for a fairly long time.

It isn't that MS Dhoni hasn't had failures. He once lost 8 Test matches in a row outside of India and, eventually, himself "grew tired" of leadership in the longest format. In the ODI triseries that preceded this World Cup, India were rolled over, failing to win a game, despite spending enough time in Australia to even learn its geography in good detail. Yet, such is the nature of success and failure, that one can easily overshadow the other, in quick time. India can now do no wrong and the captain himself is unsure about how this phoenix-like transformation came about.

Morgan is not too different from MS Dhoni. Both are equally likable - daring, innovative, diplomatic and yet, candid, frank and reserved by nature. So could Morgan now become England's Dhoni? The greatest challenge that leaders face when they take over in times of tumult is dealing with uncertainty and loneliness. No one gave Dhoni a chance when he first came in. Even his place in the team was under doubt. Whether a junior cricketer would be able to handle the personalities whom the great Rahul Dravid himself could not deal with was yet to be seen. But introverts like MS Dhoni and Eoin Morgan have a gift - they tend to isolate themselves from the world that gobbles up most, thereby making them great shock-absorbers - a quality seen most visibly in folks whom pundits call 'great finishers'. Yet, spare a thought for the man from Ireland who must now reform the conservatives of the UK. He now needs to turn into a political statesman as well.