*Singh is King… Singh is King… Singh is King…*
This song plays in the stadium when I go out with my master. Oh! Let me introduce myself first. Hi, I am Yuvraj Singh’s bat. The recent one. With me, he played the best knock of his career. We will talk about that knock in a bit. First, let’s go back in time and have a look at the journey of my family. Our life depends on three things:
1. Polishing and accessories
2. Proper knocking
3. Hitting the ball from the middle.
It starts with proper polishing. Bat makers Polish us after giving us the shape. After polishing they cover our handle with the thread and a grip. After polishing, proper knocking is required to be done. It can be done with the ball or the hammer which is specially made for our knocking. Polishing, accessorising and knocking makes us strong at the time of our birth. After these things, everything depends on our master. How he use us on the field. They often say that it is very important to middle the ball. That thing is actually very important for our life. When our masters constantly allow us to meet the ball properly then he also survives longer and we also last longer. If our bottom or edges comes into the contact of the ball, it leaves cracks or breaks us in to pieces.
My family is serving Yuvraj Singh since 2000. My forefathers and ancestors served him then and now I am serving him. I am the member of sixteenth generation of my family. I am not a lone member of my generation. I live along with my brothers, cousins, father and uncles. We live in a joint family. My master is one of the most destructive batsman in the world. He takes good care of us. We are like his family. He knows that we hate water. He keeps us away from it. He packs us well in the kit bag. Whenever he wear pads, we get an idea that it is time to go out. After padding up, he walk towards us. As he walks towards us, we all get excited. And in excitement, we start fighting with each other. We push each other and fall on one another.
Yuvraj Sir choose only one of us after evaluating the conditions. He also keeps the format of the game in his mind while choosing us. We fight with each other because all of us want to go out with him. He has such an aura that we enjoy his company. Once he choose one of us, he always keeps that one closer to him. Until he goes out on the ground, he place us on the chair next to him or next to his padded up legs with the gloves. We all want that comfort. We all crave for his warmth. There is one more thing behind our fight to go out with him and that thing is that he has capability to make us immortal. Lot of our ancestors and forefathers have become immortal because of him.
They say “When Yuvraj Singh is in form then there is nothing like a good ball or a bad ball. It’s just that how he treats it.” Each and every generation of mine has experienced it. It started with very first member of our family. First member of my family set the trend for us. Master on his debut made eighty odd runs with that member of our family. Then he took first step towards greatness with the second generation of my family. In 2002, he played match winning innings in the natwest final in England. Then he helped India in reaching the final of 2003 world cup. My master is man from world cups. In 2007 again, he made one of our family members immortal. He hit six 6s in an over and then he made 70 off 30 balls against mighty aussies in the semi final. He played anchor role in that world cup win.
Then in 2011 world cup as well. He repeated the same. He stood up when the team needed him. He performed at crucial times when the team was struggling. Not only with us but he performed with the ball as well. In that world cup, he won the matches for India single handedly. He used one of my great grand fathers during that entire world cup. After the hitting the ball hard and scoring runs at average 90.50, my great grand father broke down. Then my master went through the lean patch of his life but he defeated death and made a comeback on the field. It was tough for after that, he was struggling with form and fitness after that. He is a fighter. He fought all the odds and politics with my family and made a great comeback on the field. I feel everyone should possess this kind of fighting spirit.
Through out his career, master gave us branded clothes to wear. From Reebok to PUMA, every big brand wanted to showcase themselves on some or the other part of us but this time scenario was different. When he chose me no brand wanted to be on even a single part of me. The only reason was that he was going through a tough phase. At that time, everyone forgot the value he added to their image over the years. So what if no one was ready to be on me, my master has his own brand. He gave me the clothes of his brand YouWeCan. He took me out on the field with very small cloth of YouWeCan on my back. And on the field, he created history. He played best knock of his life with me. I don’t know how long I will survive but that innings has already made me immortal.
