 "Ravindra Jadeja")
Ravindra Jadeja has always been a part of cricket conversations in the past five years. There have been jokes about him aplenty as well as speculations over his selection in the national team, his capabilities and his close links with the Indian captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni. There have been the laurels - all of which have ensured that Jadeja is the man in the spotlight.
"He likes the attention," says a friend of Jadeja, "and has always wanted to be in the limelight." Like Harbhajan Singh, 25-year-old Jadeja has been unable to escape controversy. The current series in England began with Jadeja caught in a tussle with bowler James Anderson. He was fined 50 per cent of his match fees, but the verdict has been challenged by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Last year, it was his own teammate, Suresh Raina, with whom he had a spat after Raina dropped catches off his bowling. The story goes that Jadeja had been taunting Raina for losing the captaincy when Dhoni opted out of a series. Raina was supposed to be named captain, but the selectors chose Virat Kohli instead. Jadeja apparently told Raina: "Now that you've lost the captaincy, have you lost interest in fielding as well?"
Jadeja has always been cocky. He had once tweeted, "Need new haters. The old ones have started to like me." Then he is supposed to have told off a female fan on BlackBerry Messenger, in not-too-polite words, when she jokingly asked him "how he was the most expensive player in the Indian Premier League". The story was never substantiated, but it's not something which Jadeja couldn't have done.
To understand Jadeja - the person and cricketer - you've to understand where he comes from. Mahendrasinh Chauhan, one of his first coaches, remembers a boy who had the talent and the will to succeed. "He was intrepid and had this desire to prove himself," says Chauhan. Jadeja's father worked as a security guard, his mother as a nurse and it was a family of limited means. His sister, Naina, played a crucial role in his development as a cricketer. Jadeja's mother passed away in 2005 and left the teenaged cricketer devastated. It was his sister who nurtured him through his budding career. He has told journalists of how once "even 10 rupees was a huge amount" for him. But he realised cricket was his ticket out of poverty, and teammates talk of how it is difficult to get him away from the nets.
Jadeja is a product of IPL - he loves the game, the fast life and the things that wealth brings. He owns a couple of horses and has a farmhouse on the outskirts of Jamnagar that has "RJ" garishly painted all over the boundary walls. His first car - a black Hyundai Accent - had a sticker reading "Life is Cricket" on the rear windshield. He now owns an Audi, a Hayabusa motorbike and a restaurant called "Jaddu's Food Field" in Rajkot.
Balkrishna Jadeja, a Ranji player with Saurashtra and Jadeja's friend, says, "He is full of energy and always wants to do something or the other, which shows in his cricket as well." Jadeja, who plays domestic cricket for Saurashtra, caught the attention of the cricket world in 2008 when no less than Shane Warne, captain of Rajasthan Royals, nicknamed him Rockstar for his performance in the inaugural IPL. A good Ranji season followed and Jadeja was called up for national duties. But the euphoria was short-lived. In the 2009 World T20 game against England, India chased a modest target of 154. Jadeja was sent in to bat at number 4. He struggled to make 25 runs off 35 balls, and India lost by three runs.
For the next three years, that England match became Jadeja's Chetan Sharma-in-Sharjah moment. It clouded people's perceptions about him. He was ridiculed in jokes and disparaged as Dhoni's stooge. But it was also then that he grew in mental strength. "He was determined to force his way back and put up stellar performances in domestic cricket," says Balkrishna.
But the doubts over his skills continued to haunt him. When Chennai Super Kings (CSK) bought him for $2 million, he became 2012's most expensive player in IPL. The jokes, predictably, followed. But he weathered the storm. "He is not bothered by what people have to say about him," says another friend.
Jadeja's close association with Dhoni has always been under the scanner, especially when he has managed to retain his side in the Indian team despite average performances. In England, he has displaced Ravichandran Ashwin as the main spinner. Dhoni has always been vocal in his praise for Jadeja. In fact, the criticism that Dhoni has never nurtured talent obliquely attacks his chaperoning of Jadeja. Incidentally, it was Dhoni who started the whole "Sir Jadeja" jokes on Twitter. Dhoni and Jadeja have always got on well together, says a CSK player. Yet Jadeja has his supporters. "Was there preferential treatment for him? I don't think so. Jadeja is a talented cricketer," avers another player.
Dhoni started believing in Jadeja in 2012. It helped that Jadeja was managed by Rhiti Sports, a company in which Dhoni once held stake. That year, Jadeja also made his Test debut against England, but didn't do anything of note. The turning point came three months later in March 2013 in the series against Australia. Jadeja picked up 24 wickets, and got Michael Clarke five times in six innings. In came the twirled moustache and the swagger. Later, he was also named man of the series in the Champions Trophy. Jadeja, as of now, has a decent record in one-day cricket. In 101 matches, he has scored over 1,500 runs at an average of 33.82 and has taken 120 wickets at an average of 32. In T20, surprisingly, his record is quite poor. In 21 internationals, he has scored just 77 runs at an average of just below 10 and has taken 13 wickets. Jadeja is still finding his feet in Test cricket, with 44 wickets at 30 a piece and 360 runs at an average of 24 in 11 matches.
"Jadeja has never lacked the confidence to succeed," says Chauhan. He has scored three triple centuries in the Ranji Trophy, taken a lot of wickets and has always performed at the crunch, says his coach. "His talent, hard work and dedication have gotten him this far, not his closeness to Dhoni," he adds. But naysayers continue to feel that Jadeja was been persisted with far too long when others have been shunted out after a bad performance or two. "There's no denying that being a CSK player and closeness to the captain has helped quite a few players," says a former India player.
Despite his over-the-top personality, Jadeja hasn't been chased by too many advertisers. The few endorsements he has have come by way of his CSK links - like Aircel. "So far, he hasn't been a permanent fixture in the Indian team," explains an FMCG company executive. But his performance at Lord's in the second Test against England shows Jadeja is here to stay. He scored a victory-bid -resuscitating 68 and took important wickets.
Jadeja might just be the all-rounder India has been looking for since Kapil Dev. There have been many false dawns - Irfan Pathan being the most notable one - but Jadeja has the ability, arrogance and confidence to fill that void. As the last five years have shown, it is literally impossible to keep him away from the spotlight.
