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The Rediff Interview/Yousuf Youhana

'My real coach has been television'

Faisal Shariff

"My real coach has been television."

This statement comes from one who is considered the finest stroke-maker among the current crop of youngsters wielding the willow. Yes, he's Yousuf Youhana.

"I've watched so much of cricket right since my school days on television, that I think it taught me more than anyone did before I got into the national side," adds Pakistan's latest batting sensation.

"In Pakistan there is no academy which teaches technique. All the players that you see come up on their own. After getting into the team one learns a lot. I learnt a lot from the senior players; especially Saeed Anwar, Akram (Wasim) and Miandad (Javed) helped me a lot.

All of twenty-five years, Youhana's story comes across as one of patience and true grit. The boy from Lahore, who started playing cricket with a taped table tennis ball and a wooden club that's used to beat the dirt out of clothes, today holds together the brittle middle-order of the Pakistan team alongside veteran Inzamam-Ul-Haq. However, that tenacity has had its share of pitfalls as well, with run-outs accounting for 23 per cent of his dismissals.

Yousuf schooled at the government-run, Urdu medium, Don Bosco High School, in Lahore. It was only when he was in the seventh grade that he played with a cricket ball. Soon he joined the Golden Gymkhana and started biding his time. After serving drinks for two long years, which Yousuf describes as the period which taught him the importance of being patient, he finally got a chance to play, when Haji Basheeruddin Chughtai, the chairman of the club, asked him to open in one of the games.

"I said that I can't open. I might get injured," says Youhana, with an impish smile. "But I got 45 runs in that match and opening was never an issue ever again."

So which are his favourite strokes?

"I love playing the cut and the sweep shot. You must have seen me cut so many times. I loved to play the cut ever since I was a child."

Yousuf might be one of the latest entrants into world cricket, but he sure does have enormous respect for the past generation and the history that accompanies it.

"My favourite player was Miandad. There can never be a better player. The times when Gavaskar, Richards and Miandad played were the best times. There can never be a better phase for cricket.

"During those times, the bowlers were brilliant; so were the batsmen and the wickets. That was the best phase. It was real cricket. You would never see scores like 300-plus on the board. Cricket is become too much. Asia plays so much of cricket," he adds.

So, is so much cricket good for the game?

"One day mein itni maar dhaad ho rahi hai uski wajah se Test pe bura asar ho raha hai. (There is so much of attacking cricket happening in one-dayers and it has a demoralising effect on Test cricket). Now every Test match has results. One-day is too much. Even in Tests, if a batsman plays two maiden overs, he gets worried about the scoring rate and then goes on to smash, losing his wicket.

"You see in India, two Tests were played, both gave results. In Pakistan there were three Tests, all three gave results. Five days is become too much for Tests now. Matches get over in three-and-a-half days. The standard of cricket was very high during those days; today the wickets are so easy that anyone can score."

Despite being the only non-Muslim in the Pakistan team, the Virgoan has never faced problems either within the team or with any of the officials.

"Mera saath to kabhi nahi hua (Nothing like that has happened with me). There are good people and bad people but never have I experienced any communal bias or anything like that. I went to school, my friends were Muslims; so were my neighbours in my colony. Even today all my friends are Muslims.

And though Yousuf makes the sign of the cross each time he makes a fifty or hundred, he denies being very religious.

"That does not mean, in any way, that I am religious. It's just there. The first time I played and scored a fifty, I just did it and it stuck on ever since. I never thought that I would play for Pakistan. It's a miracle. In those days, when I made my debut, Pakistan didn't have a settled middle order and I got in and scored maximum runs for Pakistan. Khuda ne sab kuch kiya (God has done everything for me).

With scores of 80, 100 not out and 90 not out in the three league encounters in the ongoing Pepsi Asia Cup, it can safely be said that Youhana is getting close to his best.

It was a selfless display of gamesmanship that fans witnessed the other day, when batting at 93 in the last over of the innings against India, Yousuf stole a single and told his partner, Azhar Mahmood, to go for his shots instead of returning the strike to him. A towering six followed a brace of runs and it seemed that Youhana would not get to his well-deserved hundred. Bur what followed separated the men from the boys. Youhana took strike of the last ball of the innings and blew Kumaran out of the ground with the biggest six of the match.

"I don't set personal goals for myself. Don't want to score so many hundreds and so many fifties or so many runs. I just want to play for the country and win matches for the team on my own.

"Even if I score 20,000 runs or 40 tons, it doesn't matter if we don't win. What will I do with the centuries?" he asks in utmost innocence.

No encounter with a Pakistani is complete without asking him the cliched question: What stirs them up against the Indians?

"We play our normal game, but it's the crowd that stirs up. Crowd ka asar to padta hi hai (the crowd has an impact on us). Even if you are playing against your brother the key is to win. A win is a win. And that is what we all believe in."

There is a tinge of arrogance in his voice when asked whom he rates as the best bowlers.

"Sab to hamari taraf hai (All are on our side). But McGrath and Pollock are very good bowlers. I have played Walsh and Ambrose, but they aren't still the same. The best bowlers are Waqar and Wasim Akram."

An ardent fan of Kishore Kumar, Youhana loves watching Hindi movies but hasn't seen much of them in the last 2-3 years. "Amitabh Bachchan is an all-time favourite of mine. Also Aamir and Salman Khan. But Aamir is a very good actor.

Interviews