INTERVIEW

Rajagopal Sathish, and the need to create impact

 •  Published on
Photo credit: TNPL
Photo credit: TNPL © Cricbuzz

The ball took roughly around four seconds to travel the distance from the striker's end to the long-off boundary. It was struck on the half-volley, and rather sweetly. Its well-endowed striker was driven by the pursuit of putting his team in the Tamil Nadu Premier League final. In those four seconds, the long-off fielder readied himself in an 'alligator' catching position before the ferocity of the ball forced him into readjusting to a more acrobatic arched position. As the ball reached the fielder, his position had quickly metamorphosed into a one-handed leap. The ball nestled in the palm and gravity brought Rajagopal Sathish back to the ground, exactly where he'd left it - a good few inches before the boundary rope.

To his onrushing teammates, it was a thing of beauty. A catch that had effectively ensured a finals berth for the Chepauk Super Gillies, an eclectic bunch of Tamil Nadu's unheralded who'd defied pre-tournament odds by merely making the semifinals. For Sathish, the team's captain, it was just another opportunity to create 'impact' in the game - a self-taught buzzword that forms the core of his cricket.

Rajagopal Sathish ticks several boxes that distinguish a Tamil Nadu player in the Indian domestic circuit. He's sincere, unassuming and holds an engineering degree. There's nothing quite flashy about him even when he steps out onto the field with an unkempt beard that adds years to his soon-to-be 36-year-old frame. His batting is sprightly, without being exhilarating, and his gentle medium-pacers often goad batsmen to swing across the line in an obvious display of their violent intentions.

Yet, his presence on the field, in the ring or while patrolling the long-off boundary, appears to have a stimulating effect on his teammates. His exploits in the now-defunct Indian Cricket League (ICL) and key on-field contributions with three different IPL franchises - Mumbai Indians, Kings XI Punjab and Kolkata Knight Riders - have earned him mentions in more than the occasional YouTube clip.

Back inside the cosy confines of his hotel lobby, Sathish has a little more than four seconds to reflect on his fielding feat. The luxury of time also serves as a tool for a pleasant throwback to his first fielding drill with the legendary Jonty Rhodes at the Mumbai Indians pre-season camp in 2010. "Jonty had us lined up for catching sessions and he hit one hard at me and I took the catch with my alligator style," Sathish says in a conversation with Cricbuzz, his fingers settling into his preferred catching position for additional detailing.

"'You! Come here,' "Jonty said. 'What is this technique?'

"I've been catching like this all my life, Jonty. But I'll tell you this. If I drop even one catch, I'll change it," Sathish had responded.

"I don't know why I said that. But I made sure in the next two years at Mumbai Indians, I didn't drop a single catch. Earlier this season (2016), when I was training at the Eden Gardens with the Kolkata Knight Riders ahead of the game against my former team, Jonty walked past me with an approving smile. It was almost six years to that incident. But, he remembered. 'Aha, So I see you're still doing your alligator catches. Well done... Good, good.' It was a nice moment."

For the mild-mannered boy growing up in Srirangam, Trichy in central Tamil Nadu in the early 90s, fielding was just as vital a cricketing discipline as batting and bowling were. More importantly, fielding was a means to spend more time on the cricket ground. By the middle school years, the sport had assumed an integral part of Sathish's physical training classes. But it was still, strictly avocational. Students knocking the ball for the fun of it, diving around on the field, hoping to possibly earn an early admirer. Becoming the subject of lunch table cricket conversation was high on the agenda those days.

The Campion school in Trichy, with its healthy sports culture, served as a breeding ground for Sathish and his friends. It was an impressive show in the summer camp in what was his first tryst with the cricket ball that convinced Mr. and Mrs. Rajagopal that their son be enrolled there as a student. An all-round natural athlete, Sathish made rapid strides in school cricket and by the time he was graduating high school in 1996, he had already found himself a place in the Tamil Nadu and South Zone Under-16 sides. It was only then that the seeds of cricket as a career option were completely sown.

"Campion was where it all started for me. It was the perfect platform for a young cricketer in Trichy then. It had everything to get you started... We had nets facilities, mat wickets, separate coaches, bats, new balls... We were given everything. Other schools in the area were plagued with financial constraints. So cricket kits would not be available. I was very lucky because even in those times, I had no shortage of infrastructure. If I think about it now, I'd say it was a little too much. Now I feel I could have utilised it all even better," Sathish chuckles.

But not everything was fun and games. Unknowingly, the institution was also preparing its ward to find individual solutions to the levels of scrutiny that a professional cricketer in India has to deal with. With the burgeoning reputation of being an Under-16 state player came lofty expectations, even from his classmates. "It was interesting. The way people looked at you changed quite early. When you performed, you would get second looks. If you didn't, there was already pressure at that age. In school cricket, a 50 that would have earned me praise a month back didn't generate the same reaction... Now they'd go 'Hey, he is a South Zone player, obviously he'd score'. I didn't know if it was a compliment or a snide remark."

The rise from representing the state's under-16 side in 1996 to making the first class debut in 2000-01 wasn't without its fair share of setbacks and distractions. The engineering safety net would occasionally rock following threats of disqualification from the university due to attendance shortages. But the college soon realised that it could milk some of Sathish's growing popularity in the cricketing circles. At each step on the cricketing journey, however, there was a helping hand, a guardian angel guiding Sathish.

At the district level, a star-struck Sathish acquainted with Vasanth Saravanan, member of India's U-19 team in 1998 and someone who'd go on to play under Sathish in the TNPL. Sathish, who'd progressed through the ranks to represent the South Zone and Tamil Nadu's Under-19 teams knew that natural progression lay in moving to Chennai and playing the first division league. It was where the cream of Tamil Nadu cricket plied its trade. India Pistons signed him up and former national team all-rounder Robin Singh became his first captain. It was a great moment of realisation for Sathish at just where he was and how much further there was to go.

"I think that I came across the right people at the right moment. It told me where I stood. I thought I was a good fielder and then I met Robin," he remembers. "He was in a different standard altogether. So what could I do? Simple, I had to chase Robin. Follow him, do what he was doing. You have the answer sheet handed to you.

"The fielding sessions those days were very, very tough. 100 hard catches at a go. You would end the session with bruises on your hands. But Robin was there doing it along with you, so you wanted to push yourself too. It's inspiring for a U-19 player to see a team India player do the same drills with you."

Lessons soon went beyond the boundary line and into the dressing room, knowledge that holds Sathish in good stead even now when he has the responsibility of leading the state's T20 and One-day sides. "Your work ethic is most important," he says. "What I learnt is you've to put in the hard yards every single day... Whether you play or don't. Whether you perform or don't. This way when you go into the field, you'll always be a threat. If you don't score, you can get a run-out which can instantly motivate your teammates.

"If I hit a zero and go sulk in a corner, the other players would be hesitant to talk to me. It creates negative vibes. Even in this TNPL, I have the most ducks. But that'll never change my demeanour. I look at it this way. What I make sure is that my contribution will always be there. My fielding is for the team. In cricket, these little things count for just as much, if not more. I love fielding and I love being that complete team guy."

Being the team guy, however, wasn't opening doors for Sathish at the Ranji Trophy level with Tamil Nadu. At the turn of the century, the team was blessed with a plethora of batting options. The likes of Hemang Badani, Robin Singh, Sridharan Sriram, Sadagoppan Ramesh, S Sharath formed the spine of the batting line-up, leaving little room for Sathish to establish himself. After failing to capitalise on his break in two games against Karnataka and Hyderabad, Sathish was dropped. It was then that he decided to move to Assam. Once more, the decision to shift base was only borne out of a desire to remain on the field.

"I don't know if it was the right call to go to Assam the first time but adaptability is my big strength. What's the worst that could happen? I could go down with a stomach upset because of change of food... Two days I would be fine" he says. "I had to be extraordinary (to be in Tamil Nadu). Even then, I probably would have had to seal my berth in one game. I didn't do. I needed my time but I'll agree I didn't capitalise in that game against Karnataka. (Subramaniam) Badrinath did it. But interestingly when I went to Assam, I scored a hundred against both Karnataka and Hyderabad. So that was great for me, knowing that I could do it. But yes, it's a different feeling playing for Tamil Nadu. It's a matter of pride. I would cherish it even now if I were to get picked," he recollects.

Ironically, in his second season at Assam, Sathish slammed a peerless 204* against Tamil Nadu, an innings that prompted selectors to usher him back to his state of birth. But as luck would have it, yet again an inability to sustain his form over stretches cost Sathish, who was soon on his way out. It was at this time that the ICL came knocking. The rebel T20 league by Zee Entertainment provided the perfect platform for the likes of Sathish to hone his white-ball skills against international opposition while also offering significant financial relief. It was the second big decision Sathish had to take in a matter of years and another one he opted for without too much deliberation.

The league, despite its status, served to put Sathish on the cricketing map. He deputised for Stuart Law in Chennai Superstars' title-winning campaign in 2007 and then went on to lead the Indian contingent in the second season. Over the two-year history of the ICL, Sathish received the most number of Man of the Match awards, scored at a strike-rate of over 150 and made several highlight reels with his fielding.

"I wanted to express myself. I never waited to judge if it was a good decision. Whatever I decided, I backed it and just went with it. I back it even now. If we keep introspecting then you cannot do anything in life. You cannot go up or down... You'll be lost completely, always stagnant," he says. "I thought if I kept waiting, I'd end up nowhere. Although ICL was the rebel league, we got amnesty and I still got to Mumbai Indians from there. It's a dream. Why should they take some random player from a rebel league in a team that Sachin Tendulkar was captaining! It's one of the best things to happen. Whatever happened to the league, as a cricketer ... I played cricket and they just watched to me.

"ICL gave me opportunities to interact with some of the finest cricketing brains. There was Law, Michael Bevan and Ian Harvey. I spoke to Shabbir Ahmed and there was the famous incident about Inzamam-ul-Haq (of the Lahore Badshahs) identifying me as the key opposition player in his team meeting, which my physio happened to attend. It was such a pleasant feeling of recognition."

After a couple of seasons of fluttering about in the lower middle-order for IPL franchises, Sathish received an unexpected injury setback, one that threatened to end his playing career in one excruciatingly painful incident. Playing for Assam in his second stint, Sathish ruptured several cartilages in his knee after his heels dug into the soft ground just as he was trying to turn around for a second run. The treatment involved three surgeries and he was out of the field for full 30 months.

" ACL, MCL, Meniscus... You name it, I would have heard of every single term associated with the knee in these two and a half years. It was a very bad patch but I learnt a lot. I knew who my friends are. Are they there for me... They were. They kept sending me a video. It kept me going."

The video in question has cricket legend Tendulkar heaping praise on Rajagopal Sathish-inflicted twin run-outs that changed the game for Mumbai Indians. Sathish swells with pride as he replays the video on his smartphone. He'd made an impact after all.

"But I came back. After more than two years out of the game, I came back as captain of Tamil Nadu's limited-overs team... I'm grateful to TNCA for that trust. Because I never thought I'd come back to the sport, leave alone in such a capacity. I performed and KKR signed me up. Even though, I didn't play all the games for them this season, I was told that I was picked only because they saw some value. Obviously, they aren't running any charity venture either."

Injury-ridden or otherwise, Sathish's limited-overs stocks remain unaffected. Chepauk's run to the TNPL final brought to the fore another dimension to his cricketing personality - his captaincy. Despite rather poor returns with the bat, Sathish earned praise from players none less than Matthew Hayden and Dean Jones for his man-management skills. Despite Tuti Patriots' onslaught in the final, the Chepauk captain brought himself on to bowl at various intervals in the hope of inspiring a turnaround. It wasn't to be but Sathish was in no mood to raise the white flag.

"I know that even if I give 36 in an over, I can come back and bowl the next. I care a damn about getting hit. But I know if I get stuck in, I'll get the wickets. Yes they know, I'm slow... I'm very slow. But I can mix it up and I'm confident. I don't want to transfer all pressure to my younger bowlers, who are only finding their feet at such a level. I can be extremely confident under pressure."

That he thrives under pressure is reflected in his famous rearguard rescue act against Uttar Pradesh in the 2015 Vijay Hazare Trophy, an unbeaten 34 in a tense chase that is held in high regards by those in the Tamil Nadu circles. But not too much is thought of his red-ball playing ability for Tamil Nadu. The state association did not consider him in the probables for the forthcoming season. He played three Ranji Trophy games last season, all at home, only because the team needed a slogger to add crucial runs on spinning minefields. That was about it. Sathish acknowledges the decision but finds statistical evidence for his reinstatement.

"It's the association's call... I'm pretty okay with it. They look at me as a one-day and T20 player. I don't have anything to say. Whatever I get, I'm happy. It doesn't mean I cannot score in Ranji Trophy. I'm all the all-time highest run-getter in the (Chennai) league. I don't want to prove anything. If they want me, I'm always there.

"I'm very easy going. You play me, I'll play... You don't , I won't... But that will not stop me doing my hard yards every single day. I will train every morning and I will get something. I thought everything was over... Then TNPL happened, where we made the finals. There's high-octane cricket that even my three-year-old daughter loves to watch. See, there are so many players in the league but I get to captain the Chennai franchise. That says something. Anga thaan irruku gethu(Therein lies my swag)."

Image credit: TNPL
Image credit: TNPL ©Reuters
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