'I created my own position'

Ajaysinghji Daulatsinghji Jadeja's career has been as dramatic as his playing style.

The right-hander, who debuted against Sri Lanka in February 1992, is perhaps best known for an innings of 45 off 25 balls against Pakistan, in the quarter-finals of the 1996 Wills World Cup, in course of which he smashed four fours and two sixes to provide an electric late burst to the Indian innings and help mount what proved to be a winning score.

Knocks such as that in a career spanning 179 one-day games (5939 runs at an average of 37.48), and the perception that he was one of the shrewdest judges of the limited overs game in the business, elevated him to the post of vice-captain of the national side.

He was, however, brought down in the match-fixing scandal and consequent investigations of 2000. The Central Bureau of Investigation decreed that he was culpable; the Board of Control for Cricket in India took away his right to play representative cricket at any level.

Jadeja went to court, and won back the right to play - however, a year after winning that judgment, he remains on the sidelines with neither the BCCI, nor his home state of Delhi, picking him to play.

In the US to take part in the ProCricket initiative, Jadeja spoke to Tanmaya Kumar Nanda. 

(This interview was conducted before Jadeja refused to participate in the ProCricket initiative on learning that the International Cricket Council did not approve of it.)

Excerpts: 

Now that you have been cleared of match-fixing charges, what is happening with your career?

I'm back -- I played first class cricket last season, I played for Delhi. I had a decent season -- I didn't have a great season because I had a pretty long layoff. The game is moving at a very fast pace these days, and two years is a very long time. So I've got back to cricket, I'm playing first class and I'm hoping to get back all the way.

Where do you go from here, in the coming season?

Go back into first class cricket. It's like you are back in the queue again, and you've got to make your place in the (national) side. The side has done exceptionally well in the past few years and there are not many places for grabs at the moment. But I've got to push my stake and if I can do it once, I can do it again.

What kind of regimen have you been putting yourself through to make this happen?

Cricket is more of a skill game, as I see it and as I play it. It's getting more and more physical now, so I try and keep myself fit. The regime is not very professional, as I see it, especially when I hear about baseball players or American football, their 365 days are charted out, what they are going to be doing every day. Cricket is different, you just have to be equipped to handle all situations because cricket is not played on the same surface, it's not played on the same grounds, and the conditions are different. The more conditions you play, the more conditions you have to keep yourself fit to put up with.

You talk of making a comeback to the national side, but most people appear to have written your chances off...

I think it's anybody's right to give his opinion. I probably was written off in 1990, when I first went with the Indian team and I remember a couple of people writing that I was not fit to play, that I didn't have the right technique.

Of course I don't - I am not as blessed as a lot of other people, but I found my own place in the side. I was an opening batsman, but I managed to bat lower order, which was not an easy thing to do, I created my own position as a late middle order player.

As one-day cricket got more popular, I tried to change my game to what was required because that was the only place in the side in those days if you wanted to be in the eleven.

That is exactly the situation now also, that pretty much all the numbers are filled up, with more than one player vying for each position. Where do you see yourself fit into this current eleven?

See, nothing's forever, in cricket especially. It's not a game where you can say 'This is my position, this is where I belong all the time'. Take Sanjay Manjrekar for example, in 1992 he was supposed to be the world's best, but in 1994 he couldn't make it to the eleven. Then he came back in 1996. That's why this game is so exciting, because you don't know what's coming next.

If you are a sportsman, you never give up, you just keep trying and actually, it doesn't matter for a sportsman where he's playing because when you start playing the game... today a kid can start thinking of it professionally but when you go back to my time in school and college, when I played the game, there was no money in it, it was not a profession, just a passion one had. It still is the same, but it is a profession now. So the passion still remains and I will play wherever I get to play.

Do you have any plans to play in the English county circuit while waiting to get back into the national side?

I don't think county cricket gets you back in the national side because it's probably a lower grade of cricket than even first class cricket in India. It's played seven days a week, 20 teams play and the quality isn't good. Yes, it's one of the options -- but to commit to play for a team in England for five and a half months, now when I have a family, it is not something on my priority list.

How are you balancing that, the family aspect with the cricket?

I'm fortunate to have spent, you know, so much time with my child and my family because I wasn't playing cricket. If I were playing, I probably wouldn't have had so much time with my child. So I understand the importance of that as well. I'm crazy mad about the sport, but family does take up my time so that's one of the reasons I am not playing in England. There you have to play with a side for the five and a half months and it's a bit too long a time to stay away from the family. If it was a better standard of cricket maybe I would do it.

Have you set yourself some kind of deadline, about when realistically you think you can make it back to the side?

It's not like a software program or a financial consultant where you can chart out a plan. One thing about cricket is that nothing is certain, you cannot say 'I'll do this or do that'.

The only deadline I've given myself is as long as my feet don't give up, my body doesn't give up, I'll keep playing. Ultimately, you've got to make your place in the side, whether it's Ranji Trophy or a county side or the national side or the club side. If you are not good enough, nobody is going to watch you.

So I've got to be fit enough to be there and be part of the team. Where skill and ability is concerned, I don't think I need to prove to anybody that I can do it. The thing is whether I am fit enough to do it again and that is what I have to keep proving.

What did it feel like, when you first heard you had been cleared of the match-fixing charges?

Nothing, it was just a battle that I had. I felt relieved, I felt satisfied because I was fighting a battle against an organization, an individual against a system. When you are fighting a system, it's not easy. I felt grateful to the Almighty and to all the people who have supported me through all this.

Did you ever consider giving up?

No, a sportsman never gives up, that is the only good thing about being a sportsman. I think that's the only quality I have got as a sportsman -- otherwise, you know, I am not the most blessed technically, I am not the most blessed physically but I enjoyed the game, so I carried on in the only spirit that I have as a sportsman, which is to never give up and I try to maintain that.

Both you and (former captain Mohammad) Azharuddin were charged with essentially the same thing. You have been acquitted but he's still where he was...

We are two different people and besides, since the matter is in court, it is not right for me to talk about someone else.

How about the current team? You haven't played with some of them, how do you see the newer players reacting to your possible come back?

I've played with all of them actually, except Parthiv (Patel, the wicket-keeper). In fact, last week we played a game together and that's the first time we, Parthiv and I, were on the field together. But except for Parthiv till just now, I've played cricket with all of them. I don't think there's any issue between my teammates and me. As far I can see, I'm pretty okay with them and still spend time with them and keep in touch.

Do you practice with any of the current team members?

Yes, in Delhi, with Ashish (Nehra), I try and get him to bowl at me so I can keep in touch with top class cricket. Ashish is the only one around in Delhi of the current guys, so we practice together.

What's happening with your movie career?

I did one movie because I wasn't playing cricket at the time. Now I am back to cricket, yaar. That was the second option. Gharwali ko chhod kar baahar thodi jaa sakte hain; gharwali baahar jab gayi ho tab jaa sakte hain baahar (You can't leave the wife at home and go out with someone else; if the wife has gone out with someone then may be you can).