Remembering Yuvraj

Except among the most sentimental, Yuvraj Singh is a spent force as an impact player. His fight against disease and subsequent return to top cricket is one of sport's inspirational tales. But to say Yuvraj the destoyer is still around is stretching it.

Let's face it, it's just not the same.

A 30-ball 44 , such as the one Yuvraj made in the Eliminator on Wednesday evening, is a useful - even match-winning - knock in Twenty 20s. But confronted with the the present-day standard of 17-ball 51s and 23-ball 65s, it shrivels into insignificance.

The Yuvraj we have known, the Yuvraj that has permeated into the consciousness of the cricket watching public of the last 10 years, is not the same man we are bearing witness to now. Not the man vying like a rank outside for an Indian place. Not the man who is not a part of Indian cricket's future.

Irrefutably - and this surely doesn't require verification by a worthless hack - Yuvi's comeback has been like the recovery of someone dear who beat insurmountable odds. Yuvraj didn't merely survive a (benign) cancer. He conquered it. He recovered not just to be able to stand back on his own two feet, but to being competitive in a professional sport at the highest level.

It is only rarely that cancer allows a human being to compete in life again.

Being competitive, however, doesn't cover half of the old Yuvraj; in his pomp he didn't brook competition, he annhilated it.
 

Yuvraj seeks 'God''s blessings

And so lives on in our minds the southpaw who hit a strapping fast bowler for six mighty sixes in an over; that effortless arc of the bat that still cleared the biggest grounds; the hint of a scowl of entitlement.

This is not a dissing exercise. It is a trip down the wires of our memories, down what we remember and how we choose to remember it. When it comes to Yuvraj, we remember him as the original Punjabi brat that Virat Kohli grew up idolising, an arrogant mutilator of bowling attacks, the man who slapped cancer on its face.

Whatever he does hereon will do little to change that.