Pat Cash hasn't dipped in popularity since his retirement from professional tennis. Apparently, people at Australian pubs still pick up fights with him at any possible chance.
"Yeah, that happens a lot of times," says Cash. "They are just jealous because I am famous and their girlfriends look at me."
When younger, the Aussie had a few drinks thrown at his face by 'those' jealous boys in pubs.
"It was very startling. You never get used to something like that," he said.
With his larger than life persona, the fashionably untidy hair, the huge cross tattoo on the right arm and earring to match, he surely does make a few heads turn.
Cash, in Chennai for the just-concluded ATP event, is still a lot funkier than the 20-somethings or younger in the locker room.
| |||||||||||
But what happened to colourful personalities like him and John McEnroe?
"Honestly, I don't think people like him (McEnroe) are good for the game," he says. "Of course, his game, the spirit he brought to the game and the tactics is something even I have idolised as a kid, but I don't agree with the way he behaves on court."
The restraint from the original wild kid of Australian tennis is understandable, because he now exclusively coaches youngsters after a rather silly fall-out with his former ward, Mark Philippoussis. Cash's brash approach clashed with a distracted Philippoussis for a slanging match before the two split.
Nevertheless, it has been an eventful life for Cash even after retirement from the tour in 1997.
"It hasn't really been a retired life," says Cash, "I run a tennis academy, there's music and family and I have a real estate business in Australia. There is some charity work involved too."
Cash, for whom music is second love after tennis, will also play guitar at the Australian Open with his group Pat Cash and the All-Star band, which includes former world number one Jim Courier.
"We came up with that name because we couldn't think of anything," says Cash, brushing his chin. "Over the years I have made a lot of friends with some of the musicians."
The Australian thinks it's better to string guitars than racquets after the unsuccessful comeback to the tour in the doubles at the Chennai Open. A regular at the Delta Tour of Champions, (the seniors tour) Cash got a wild card entry into the doubles draw with India's Karan Rastogi, but the pair was ousted 2-6, 2-6 by second seeds Rainer Schuettler and Alexander Waske.
"Any other team and we probably had a good chance," said Cash.
That he couldn't pick some of the serves has confirmed to him that he should stick to the senior circuit.
"The game hasn't changed that much but I'd certainly like to see more serve and volley. You have to serve and volley to be a champion player. The courts have become slower over the years; that's why the players are not comfortable with the volley. It's not easy but it's necessary."
The 1987 Wimbledon champion said though he would like to see more aggression at the net from Roger Federer, the Swiss has done amazingly well to thwart his prediction at the start of 2005 that he couldn't hold on to his position without a full-time traveling coach.
"He is an incredible player. It's not easy to do all the running around and organisation and still concentrate on your game.
"For sure he's one of the best we've seen and someday we will say he's the best of all time. I think the only thing holding him back is the lack of challenges. There is no one out there who will push him to play better. I mean, last year his biggest competition was Andre Agassi. I am not being disrespectful to Agassi, but he's 35 and there needs to be some youngsters coming through in the next couple of years."
Cash is also a delight for the media. He has a strong opinion on everything and loves to voice it.
Last Wednesday, he walked into his post-match conference along with Rastogi in the media room unnoticed. A late finish of the matches meant that journalists were left scurrying to meet deadlines and hardly noticed or seemed to care for the two coming in.
Cash boomed into the microphone so loud that the walls started vibrating. No one dared to touch their computer keyboard for the next 20 minutes that he held court with his ability to talk his heart out and more.
If his earlier exploits are something to go by, it's fascinating to think that at 40, life has just begun for him!
Photographs: Getty Images
More from rediff