 "Team India players and coach Gautam Gambhir have been seen making numerous trips to temples during the ongoing T20 World Cup. Images: PTI")
Effort and ability are non-negotiables, but in every sphere of life, each of us is looking for that little extra something that will help us get ahead. That can manifest itself in spirituality, prayers, faith in the Almighty, whatever one wants to call it.
They say that the superior power only helps those who help themselves, which translates loosely to: ‘Unless you try your best, nobody else is going to come to your rescue.’ That doesn’t mean that everything is always in one’s hands. Certain forces need to align – whether it is called luck, or fate, or destiny, or divine intervention – it depends entirely on one’s point of view – because when they do so, nothing is impossible anymore.
Sportspersons often speak of the role of fortune, or the rub of the green going their way. It could be in the form of a lucky net cord in tennis, an outside edge that just eludes the wicketkeeper and flies away to the third man fence in cricket, of an unfortunate (for the deflector) deflection that might help a striker going through a barren run get on the score sheet in football. Especially at the most demanding of times, we tend to place our fate in the hands of a higher power, hoping that faith and belief in someone beyond ourselves will carry the day, though paradoxically, both opponents might sometimes entertain the same view.
Laxman’s Shirdi visit before Kolkata heroics in 2001
VVS Laxman once told this writer of how he made a visit to Shirdi to invoke the blessings of the Sai Baba between the Mumbai and Kolkata Tests of the unforgettable 2001 series against Australia. Laxman was on the comeback trail and had left no stone unturned in his bid to break open the doors to national selection again.
Dropped from the Test side just one game after making a magical 167 against Australia in Sydney in early 2000, he decided that he would never agree to open the batting again. He followed that far-reaching call-up with a string of spectacular scores, including 353 in the semifinal of the Ranji Trophy against Karnataka and a century in the final against Mumbai, making it impossible for the selectors to overlook his credentials.
Like the rest of his colleagues, Laxman had a Test to forget in Mumbai, making 20 out of a first-innings tally of 179 and 12 when India were rolled out for 219 in their second knock to go down by ten wickets. Between the Mumbai and Kolkata games, he made the drive to Shirdi; along the course of that journey, he kept asking himself and the Sai Baba, in whom he has tremendous belief and faith, numerous questions: “I had done everything in my control, so why this test by fire? Where was it that I had been found wanting? I had committed myself totally to my dream, I had left no stone unturned, so why this treatment? Why were the runs not coming? Why was I in and out of the team? What more could I do?”
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View AllDuring the drive, as he closed his eyes, ‘my entire life ran through my mind’s eye’. “I could see the hours and hours of practice, I could watch myself play every ball in each competitive game of cricket I had played. It was surreal, but it was also oh-so-real. After a peace-filled few hours, we drove back to Mumbai. By this time, I was ready to visit any temple to seek divine intervention,” Laxman revealed.
“I wasn’t desperate. I wasn’t putting my fate in the hands of the Almighty because that would have been taking the easy way out. But I wanted to find a certain equilibrium, a peace of mind before I went to Kolkata. Hence, at the suggestion of my uncle, I drove to two different temples during my short stint in Hyderabad between the Mumbai and Kolkata Tests.”
Then followed the classic at the Eden, when Laxman made a fabulous 281 in the second innings upon being promoted to No. 3, a knock that altered the destination of the series and changed the way teams looked at enforcing the follow-on. Confident that a 276-run lead was more than enough to bowl out a team that managed 219 as the highest of three completed innings in the series, Steve Waugh asked India to bat again and saw history being rewritten. Laxman didn’t make those runs because he abdicated responsibility and put his fate in the Almighty’s hands, but because he supplemented his skills by deriving strength from an intangible force for which he had great reverence.
Not everyone needs to follow this same course, nor will everybody enjoy such immediate success as the wonderfully gifted Hyderabadi in the immediacy of a ‘pilgrimage’. But cricketers, like all of us average Joes and Janes, too have their own insecurities that they hope a visit to a place of worship will help assuage. Who are we to dispute that?
Sri Lanka’s cricketers, men and women, for instance, are blessed by leaders of various religious faiths before they embark on any overseas tour, be it for a bilateral series, a continental tournament or a global event. It’s a practice that has been in place for several decades, and went recently from invoking the blessings of only Buddhist monks to a multi-faith ensemble. Every time they play in Pallekele, T20I skipper Dasun Shanaka takes his side to the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, which houses the relic of the tooth of the Buddha.
India’s temple visits and search for extra edge
The Indian contingent at this T20 World Cup hasn’t dissociated itself from the pulls of the greater force. Head coach Gautam Gambhir has visited numerous temples, including the Siddhivinayak Temple in Mumbai, ahead of the team’s opening clash against the United States and before Thursday’s semifinal against England; has also sought the blessings of Kali ma in Kolkata, a day before the final Super Eight clash against West Indies which India won by five wickets to make it to the semifinals.
On Wednesday morning, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Axar Patel were among thousands who offered prayers at the Siddhivinayak Temple, while Morne Morke, the bowling coach, acknowledged that the start of India’s training session on Tuesday evening had been pushed back by an hour because of the lunar eclipse visible in some parts of the country.
None of this means that India don’t back themselves, that they don’t trust their skills and their disciplines. They invoke the blessings of the Gods not because they think they aren’t good enough, but because faith – of any kind – is an integral part of their euphemistic kitbag. It’s not a faith imposed on everyone; there is no diktat to visit temples and seek blessings, but those who want to do so aren’t discouraged. Even within a team environment, individuals are allowed to have their own independence when it comes to these matters, which is how it should be.
India aren’t in the semifinals of the T20 World Cup merely because of their temple runs. But faith, they say, moves mountains. India are topping up their disciplines by seeking external aid, by trusting someone beyond themselves, someone who is not seen but elicits strong reactions from those who believe in the presence of a force way above themselves.
That’s their prerogative in a free world, in a free society where everyone is allowed to be themselves so long as that does not infringe upon someone else’s rights and mindsets. Who are we to argue if that is right or wrong?