Team India's Fab Four who laugh, play and break bread together

[Karan114]

Team India's Fab Four who laugh, play and break bread together Sandeep Dwivedi Affection and respect from a dressing room filled with several sprightly north Indians can shrink your name beyond recognition. And that’s how Zaheer Khan got his popular alias Zak Pa, the shortened brotherly moniker for Paaji suffixed to the westernised pet name. Now, with a terrifying tag like that and a swagger to match, Zaheer isn’t expected to shed tears in public. So when cameras zoomed on the moist eyes of Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh on that magical night at Wankhede, a smiling Zaheer propagated calm. He lent his shoulder to three of his closest mates in the Indian team, who seemed overwhelmed by the occasion and made no attempt to control their emotion. Going back a long way, the group of four with several shared highs and lows behind them, were now perched on the dizzy peak of their roller-coaster ride. For about a decade, they have addressed their individual problems collectively and forgotten personal failures while celebrating their mates’ success. They form a group with no hierarchical ambiguity — one leader, three followers, but each in awe of the skill the other has so painstakingly mastered. It is a core group that the skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is blessed to have and the youngsters in the team aspire to break into. The hallmark of the Dhoni era has been the cohesiveness of a tightly knit team, a dressing room devoid of factions. But while on the road for months together, the cricketers, as is human nature, find their comfort zones to form like-minded subgroups. Old timers say the best way to understand the equations within a team is to observe the various dinner groups that descend into a hotel lobby. The group that eats together stays together, they say. Dhoni generally has for company a couple of 20-somethings — Suresh Raina, R.P. Singh or Rohit Sharma. The Delhi boys, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Ishant Sharma and Virat Kohli, hang out together. But the men who invariably break bread after a tough day on field happen to be Tendulkar, Yuvraj, Harbhajan and Zaheer. Once during my stay at that quaint one-street city Napier, a fellow cricket writer and I shared a cook with the Indian team. To make it sound less impressive, we regularly ordered home delivery from the only curry place in Napier that also catered to Dhoni & Co. The delivery boy, a man of lot many words, would give us a lowdown of his visit to the hotel rooms of the star cricketers. He reserved the most detailed descriptions for Tendulkar’s room and the merry men who seemed part of the furniture. These stories had the proudly rustic Harbhajan who at times sat on the floor to eat, the super-mimic Yuvraj’s wisecracks, a relaxed Tendulkar in splits and the ever-smiling Zaheer’s one-liners. It was clear that the group of men, who were constantly under pressure to perform miracles on field, were banking on each other to unwind. At training sessions too, the four would invariably seek each other out. Tendulkar, with a bat in hand, would have long chats with Harbhajan and Yuvraj. Zaheer at the end of the follow through would inform Tendulkar about the position of his bat and smile in case he could get the ball past him. But when sitting next to their kitbags after the pack-up, the laugh riot would kick off. The monk-like focus on Tendulkar’s face would be replaced with a naughty smile. Similar background and circumstances have strengthened the bond of this quartet. Bandra boy Tendulkar and Shrirampur-born Zaheer share a mother tongue, middle-class background and formative years at Mumbai maidans. The Punjabi boys Yuvraj and Harbhajan took their first steps into serious cricket in Chandigarh. Slapgate or Monkeygate, Tendulkar has always been around to bail out Harbhajan. Zaheer and Yuvraj enjoyed their first high against Australia during the 2000 ICC tournament at Nairobi. It was to become a trend in the years to come as not just Zaheer and Yuvraj but Harbhajan and Tendulkar too would save their best for the Aussies. But along with triumphs, there have been lows concerning form and fitness. These are times when Tendulkar would play the family elder. He was the one who gave Zaheer the career-changing advice to spend a season in English county and convinced Yuvraj to concentrate on domestic cricket to rediscover his touch. So it didn’t come as a surprise that Yuvraj, Harbhajan and Zaheer, like several others in the team, spoke fondly about winning the Cup for Tendulkar and helping the master complete his grand jigsaw. Considering the fickle nature of the game, heavy workload and their dodgy fitness, time was also running out for the three ageing Tendulkar followers. It all fell in place for that symbiotic group of four at Wankhede. And when Tendulkar had tears in his eyes, Zak Pa was there to lend a shoulder. http://cricket.expressindia.com/news/team-indias-fab-four-who-laugh-play-and-break-bread-together/772296/

[Sachin=GOD]

Good read The team spirit and cohesiveness in this Indian team is remarkable and is one of the biggest reasons for its success. It looks like all the members enjoy each others success and thats a very good sign.

[Roshanrocks]

Fantastic article :sniffle:

[Karan114]

Good read The team spirit and cohesiveness in this Indian team is remarkable and is one of the biggest reasons for its success. It looks like all the members enjoy each others success and thats a very good sign.

Yep. This really is a team, not just a collection of talented individuals that Indian sides in the past have been...and it makes all the difference.

[vvvslaxman]

Raina is such a cheerful guy i have to say. I bet he mixes very well with everyone.

[akshayxyz]

Good read The team spirit and cohesiveness in this Indian team is remarkable and is one of the biggest reasons for its success. It looks like all the members enjoy each others success and thats a very good sign.

True. Honesty, mutual respect & admiration is the first stepping stone for any group of individuals to become a team.

[akshayxyz]

One more thing - I hope they know how/what to do when couple of members change and newcomers (esp shy) might feel a bit left out with the existing high cohesiveness.

[punjabi_khota]

"Break bread" ? Really ? They have to use a 500 year old irrelevant phrase to emphasize the cohesiveness and pyaar...:headshake: .. how about more appropriate "Play and gobble chicken together" or "Play and grab a beer together"

[Ram]

Here’s the grouping within the Indian team; Sachin+Bhajji+Zak+Yuvi Gautam+Viru+Kohli+Aashish MSD+Raina+Chawla+Yusuf Ashwin + Top 10 most memorable Rajnikanth punch dialogues DVD Muanf + Hotel Lobby couch. Sreesanth + his parallel universe. :giggle:

[TheWall]

:two_thumbs_up::two_thumbs_up::two_thumbs_up::hatsoff:

[b555]

"Break bread" ? Really ? They have to use a 500 year old irrelevant phrase to emphasize the cohesiveness and pyaar...:headshake: .. how about more appropriate "Play and gobble chicken together" or "Play and grab a beer together"

after seeing the wc final together, even champagne would be fine instead of beer

[Tigerbait]

Here’s the grouping within the Indian team; Sachin+Bhajji+Zak+Yuvi Gautam+Viru+Kohli+Aashish MSD+Raina+Chawla+Yusuf Ashwin + Top 10 most memorable Rajnikanth punch dialogues DVD Muanf + Hotel Lobby couch. Sreesanth + his parallel universe. :giggle:

I'm stealing this one.

[pensionplan]

No not another fab four.

[flamy]

Dhoni generally has for company a couple of 20-somethings — Suresh Raina, R.P. Singh or Rohit Sharma.

:hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical: