The interview itself is more than 21 years old. The incidents it spoke of go back more than three decades, to a time before satellite television, Super Sundays and million-dollar pay cheques. But the lessons it has for young sportspersons are eternal.
“For some people it happens too early,” Lee Sharpe told The Guardian. “But as much as people were saying, ‘Oh yeah you can do all this when you retire’, well you can’t. You can’t do things you want to do at 19 when you’re 35. I’ll more than likely be married with kids at 35. I suppose I got punished for wanting to be a 19-year-old.”
Long before Ryan Giggs, David Beckham and Paul Scholes, there was Sharpe, the 17-year-old winger whose electrifying pace and strength had taken Sir Alex Ferguson and Archie Knox, his assistant, to Torquay United, then in the fourth tier of English football. Sharpe would go on to win the PFA Young Player of the Year award and his hat-trick in a 6-2 League Cup evisceration of Arsenal still has a special place in Manchester United folklore.
Beckham and others have spoken of Ferguson turning up at their digs some nights, face as black as thunder after he had been informed of their high jinks in some club or bar. But ultimately, those players stayed on the right side of the line and prospered as Ferguson proved that you could win, and win again, with kids. Let go by United when he was 25, Sharpe finished his career at non-league Garforth Town. By then, Beckham was at Real Madrid, and Giggs and Scholes were bonafide United legends.
It wouldn’t do Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan any harm to look at Sharpe’s career trajectory. Sometimes, the off-field trappings of success can be blinding. But if you lose sight of what got you that success in the first place, you could end up where Sharpe did, in the middle of nowhere.
Kishan’s case is the most mystifying. Having played the first two matches of India’s World Cup campaign – Shubman Gill recovered from dengue and slotted back into the XI for the next game – and three T20Is against Australia right after, Kishan hasn’t seen top-notch action for three months now. He left the tour of South Africa citing mental fatigue, and missed out on a place in the Test squad against England because he showed absolutely no inclination to turn out for Jharkhand in the Ranji Trophy.
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Word is that he was miffed at spending so long on the bench without getting a game. Well, here’s a reality check. Far better players than Kishan have had to bide their time. Look at how long Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli had to wait for their first Test caps, or how many runs Michael Hussey churned out before he got his beloved baggy green.
As for Iyer, he was one of the stars of India’s World Cup campaign, tallying 530 runs and scoring a brilliant hundred in the semi-final against New Zealand. Given that he has a history of back issues – he underwent surgery last April – the team management didn’t want to take any chances when he complained at the end of the second Test against England in Visakhapatnam. But once he was passed fit after treatment at the NCA, the directive from Jay Shah, the BCCI secretary, was crystal clear. Prove your fitness in the Ranji Trophy and get back to national duty.
Had Iyer played in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal for Mumbai against Baroda, it’s almost certain that he would have been in the XI for the Dharamsala Test. There’s no way a woefully out of sorts Rajat Patidar or an uncapped Devdutt Padikkal would have been chosen ahead of him. By not heeding an explicit instruction, Iyer has jeopardised his Test future.
🚨BCCI announces annual player retainership 2023-24 – Team India (Senior Men) #TeamIndia
Grade A+
Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja.
Grade A
R Ashwin, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya.
Grade B
Surya Kumar… pic.twitter.com/lzgiNGgs6l
— RevSportz (@RevSportz) February 28, 2024
Those who cry wolf about double standards have no idea what they’re talking about. Hardik Pandya had a serious injury that ruled him out of the World Cup in October. But so central is he to India’s white-ball hopes – no team has won a T20 World Cup without a seam-bowling all-rounder – that wrapping him up in cotton wool makes perfect sense. Pandya also hasn’t played a Test in more than five years, with the team management having grudgingly accepted that his body can’t take the strain.
Kohli shouldn’t even be part of the discussion. He is a national treasure, and has plenty of credit in the bank. Besides, it’s not as though you can compare the birth of a child with shooting Instagram reels or dhoti commercials.
In a country as big as India, with thousands of media outlets fighting for space, there will be plenty of apologists for both Iyer and Kishan. But if they really want to put this central-contract fiasco behind them and move ahead, the first thing needed is a good, long look in the mirror.
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