In a candid conversation with The Telegraph, former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif discusses the best captain he has played under, his predictions for the ongoing England-India series, his memorable knock in the Natwest Series final, his love for chess, and much more! Excerpts...
With India playing in England, we are naturally reminded of the Natwest Series final of 2002 and your heroics with the bat (an unbeaten 87 runs off 75 balls) that saw India over the line. When you joined Yuvraj Singh at the crease that day, what was the mood like? What did you two talk about? Did you think you could pull off the victory?
We did not talk that much, actually. We understood the situation, the pressure of chasing a big target at Lord’s... but we did not want to show too many emotions. We did not want to give away too much with our body language.
We were just trying to focus on the job at hand, take the chase ball by ball. Since we had played together for so many years at the U-16 and the U-19 levels, we knew what was required from each other. Yuvraj was going really well, hitting a lot of boundaries. He was the danger man. I was trying to take my time and build a proper partnership. But we wanted to keep it simple. When you keep it simple, great things happen.
Coming to the ongoing series, with a slightly weakened English line-up, do you think this is India’s best chance to win a Test series in England for the first time since 2007?
Yes, I think so. Especially with the way they have started. Had it not rained, India would have won the first Test easily. The Nottingham performance is going to help them a lot in the series overall. Jasprit Bumrah has got among the wickets again, K.L. Rahul has got a lot of runs, so plenty of good signs.
You have played under so many illustrious captains for India. Who was the best according to you and why?
It was Sourav Ganguly. No doubt about that. Ganguly and John Wright (as coach) were a great combination. One was a bit more aggressive, one was a bit calmer. Ganguly was the leader but he was also a player’s captain. You could go up to him and talk to him. Sometimes captains do not approach young players, but he was always there talking to youngsters, even asking them for advice. He would also explain the individual roles to the players really well. I remember him coming up to me and telling me that I was as important as the openers for the team. This was at a time when I was not getting to bat a lot during games.
A lot of youngsters came through under Ganguly’s leadership, be it myself, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Virender Sehwag, or Ashish Nehra, and it was because he was a great motivator.
Mohammad Kaif
Sourced by the correspondentGiven that you have been involved a fair bit in coaching over the past few years, what is the biggest change you have noticed between yourself and players of the current generation?
I used to be quite tense as a youngster, but when I see the young players nowadays, they seem far more relaxed. They are much more chilled out. Maybe social media has helped them to some extent.
You are extremely fond of playing chess. Do you think chess helped you strategise better as a cricketer during your playing days?
Yes, it did. I would advise all the young kids that you must take up chess. It is a great game. It helped me a lot when I became captain of the
U-19 India team and won the U-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka (in 2000). It helped me once again when I captained Uttar Pradesh and we won the Ranji Trophy in 2005-06.
When I was captaining, the small things mattered a lot. Chess allowed me to get better at setting the field, at understanding different angles of play. Chess definitely makes you stronger tactically because it keeps your mind switched on all the time.
Just as in chess, cricket also needs you to take a moment, pause for a bit, get your thoughts back together, and resume playing. When you are batting, bowling, fielding, or captaining, you have to take that pause. Those few seconds matter a lot.
I also played a lot of football in my younger days. I started diving around a lot, so the fear of (falling or hurting myself) was gone. I did kite flying and a lot of other things that mohalla kids do.
I know that kids nowadays study a lot. But they must also take the time out whenever they can to enjoy different sports.
Finally, what does an idle Sunday look like for you? What are the things you like to do to zone out?
It is a different world nowadays with all the lockdowns and the Covid bubbles. I have got two kids who are stuck at home, they cannot really go out. It is tough for me, for them, my wife, everyone.
But when I am travelling, I watch a bit of television, go to the gym. I want to make sure that I do not miss out on my workouts. I have recently started following quite a bit of international news, to keep track of events that are happening around the world.
Is it true that after Sachin Tendulkar got out in the final (Natwest Series), your parents stopped watching the match and went for a movie instead?
Shah Rukh Khan’s Devdas was in theatres then, and it was running in a theatre about five minutes away from my house. Once Sachin got out, my parents thought India would lose the game. So they went to see the movie. My father was a great Dilip Kumar fan, so he really wanted to see the remake of Devdas. He locked the house and went with my mother and the other family members to the theatre.
Eventually, when we won the game, all the people of our mohalla went searching for my family, located them in the theatre, and managed to get them out mid-movie and tell them about the result, about how Kaif had won the game for India!
Rapid Fire
One England bowler from the current side you would have loved to face: James Anderson
One Indian batsman you enjoyed batting with the most: Yuvraj Singh
Your favourite British city: London
Your favourite co-commentator: There are quite a few, but if I had to pick one, it would be Virender Sehwag
Watch England vs India- 3rd Test- LIVE from 3.30 pm IST on SONY SIX, SONY TEN 3 (Hindi) channels from August 25
MOHAMMAD KAIF FACT FILE
Soon after making his Test debut for India against South Africa in 2000, Kaif was selected to be a part of the first intake of the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore
Kaif jointly holds the record (with Bangladesh’s Soumya Sarkar, Pakistan’s Umar Akmal, and England’s Chris Woakes) for taking the most catches as an outfielder in an ICC Men’s World Cup match. He achieved this feat when he grabbed four scalps against Sri Lanka at Johannesburg in 2003
Kaif was signed by Rajasthan Royals as an “icon player” for the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2008
In July 2018, Kaif announced his retirement from all formats of cricket, finishing with 138 international appearances and more than 3,000 international runs for India across Tests and One Day Internationals
