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It's a great feeling to complete 10 years: Harbhajan
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It was exactly ten
years ago that a young Sikh off-spinner got his
first India cap. Bangalore, March 25, 1998:
Harbhajan Singh played his first Test, against
Australia. Since then he's an integral part of
Indian cricket.
The hunger for wickets and passion for the team
hasn't diminished a wee bit. Instead, his variety
and artistry with the ball has gone up many a
notch. While controversies have dogged his career,
the Punjab spinner has displayed great mental
toughness to come out of every roadblock.
Not surprisingly, he is India's leading
off-spinner, with a haul of 256 wickets in 63
Tests and 189 wickets in 171 ODIs. |
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Your reactions on
completing 10 years in international cricket?
It's a great feeling to complete 10 years in
international cricket. For any player who represents his
country for 10 years it is a big achievement. I am very
happy and very proud of myself. It has been a long
journey so far. In future also I hope to continue
performing to the best of my abilities in the eight or
nine years that I will play for India.
How would you describe your decade in international
cricket; ten years is such a long time?
When I played my first Test I did not think that I would
play so many matches. But I had definitely thought I
that would play for India once; it happened and I kept
on playing. During this period I didn't even realise
that I played for such a long time till now. Today also
it feels like I have not played this long.
Do you still remember your first international match,
way back in 1998?
I still remember my first match. I remember I played my
first match in Bangalore. Daadi nahi thi..mooch nahi tha
[I had no beard, no moustache then]. Suddenly, I was
playing with all the big names like Mohammad Azharuddin,
Sachin Tendulkar and Navjot Singh Sidhu. In fact, Sidhu
also happened to be my first room mate. He was someone
who I used to watch on television and suddenly I was
sharing a room with him.
I also remember that I was quite nervous going into the
match. My first wicket was Greg Blewett, which I got off
the 10th ball I bowled. In my third over, I dropped a
caught and bowled chance off Michael Slater, who had
scored a double century against us in a side game and
had hit every bowler he faced. So when his catch popped
up, I was happy even before I completed the catch and
suddenly it went down. Then I got Darren Lehmann's
wicket, caught at silly point. So, overall, it was a
good experience. I got two wickets gave away around 115
runs in the Bangalore Test.
It was a proud moment playing for India at the young age
of 17-and-half. I was so delighted that I was playing
Test cricket at such a young age. I was so proud to wear
that India jersey that I always wanted to wear; it made
me feel special to have earned that jersey and not taken
it from someone. I was really happy; so were my parents
and friends. It was such a special moment for all of us.
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How much did
your roommate, Sidhu, help to settle your nerves
ahead of your Test debut?
At the start I was afraid to share a room with a
player like Sidhu, whom I always admired. I was
thinking of what I would talk him, how I would
talk to him and all that. When I reached the room
and met him, he congratulated me on making it to
the international stage.
He told me not to be under any pressure and just
play as if it were another Ranji Trophy match.
'Just continue bowling the same way; there is no
difference in the way one bowls in international
matches. Just try and do the best you can, but
don't get overawed by the atmosphere in the
ground. Once the match starts, you won't realise
how the five days of the Test match go,' he said. |
Could you pick the five top performances of your
career?
There are so many performances that I would call tops,
whether it is in Test cricket or one-dayers or Twenty20
in the last 10 years. I have seen good days and bad days
as well and I am sure it happens to every cricketer or
person.
If you ask me the top five moments, I would say the
hat-trick in the Kolkata Test against Australia [in
2001] was the top of them all. Second could be the
series victory over Australia, which we won after losing
the first Test. The third moment is the Twenty20 World
Cup. Then the fourth is making it to the final of the
2003 World Cup and the fifth is winning the tri-series
in Australia.
But performance-wise there have been so many moments in
my career. If I start to tell you, it could end up as a
long list. So, probably, these are the five top moments
of my career so far in the 10 years that I have played
cricket.
And what would say were the toughest moments in the
ten years?
Cricketing-wise, the toughest moment was apparently the
question marks over the legality of my action in
1998-99. It was quite tough for me then, as I was quite
young and just didn't know what to do. I was not too
sure what to do. Then I went to England, got my action
cleared, but then I was dropped from the ODI team.
Then another tough moment was being expelled from the
National Cricket Academy in 2000. Obviously, after that
was going out in the group stages of the 2007 World Cup.
That was probably very tough to accept because we never
thought it would happen. The reaction of the public in
India was as if we had killed someone; but we did not
play well in the World Cup.
Other than that there were tough moments, like when Greg
Chappell was the coach of the Indian team. The two years
that he was the coach was probably the toughest, not
only for me but for Indian cricket overall.
So how do you intend celebrating a decade in cricket?
There is no celebration planned. I am just looking
forward to win this first Test match against South
Africa and also the series for my team.
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