The Big Interview: Monty Panesar

[Balait_da_Sher]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2094-2300484,00.html

The Big Interview: Monty Panesar

Simon Wilde meets the new face of English cricket and discovers a modest young man not feeling the weight of increasing expectations

It isn’t easy putting a finger on precisely why Monty Panesar has become such a cult figure. Sit him down and ask him about the past five months, and he talks about his enthusiasm for cricket, the respect he holds for his opponents, the discipline his religion has given him and his thrill at sharing a dressing room with his heroes. But if he has glimpsed the full extent of his new fame, he’s doing a jolly good job of hiding it.

“Obviously the popularity has gone up,” he says. “Friends and family have texted me saying, ‘You’re on the front of the papers’. More people seem to want my autograph. I’ve been on a couple of Asian radio programmes and a football TV show during the World Cup.

“It’s nice the way things are going, but it just motivates me to train harder and do better. It sounds like a cliche, but I want to keep doing the basics well. I don’t mind the spotlight. It doesn’t really affect me.

“I don’t know if I can live up to people’s expectations. Always at the back of my mind is the thought that things can go down as quickly as they went up.”

This level-headedness counts for a lot, of course. In this age of manicured celebrity, Panesar is refreshingly at home being what he is.

This autumn, while wealthier, brasher teammates may race off to luxury apartments in the sun, Panesar plans to travel to a farm run by a Sikh guru near Edmonton, Canada, for a spell of voluntary work, just as he did last year before many cricket followers even knew his name. He will help with the harvest, mix cement to repair the temple and generally spend time with friends, doing what he calls “normal things and getting away from cricket altogether”.

Take me as you find me, he seems to say — unruly beard, big goggly eyes, unsynchronised limbs and all. And the public has done just that. Fans love nothing more than the sportsman who blends wholehearted effort with a dash of clumsiness. He’s Eddie the Eagle, Eric the Eel and court-jester-made-good all rolled into one.

Yet the appeal of “Monty Python”, as he is known, goes deeper than that. He’s better than that, for a start, as he showed last weekend when he played the velvet glove to Steve Harmison’s iron fist in England’s dramatic victory at Old Trafford, and the realisation dawned that here is a seriously good bowler, not just an eager but incompetent fielder.

The pleasure he gets from playing for his country is captivating. His leap for joy at taking a wicket, first seen when he trapped the great Sachin Tendulkar leg-before, has become his trademark. In a team of grey hue, save for the Technicolor exploits of Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff, these uninhibited celebrations provide welcome relief. But there may be something else. Perhaps, just perhaps, he’s caught the zeitgeist. He is not only the first Sikh to play for England, but also the first non-white cricketer to play Test cricket for England since the terrorist attacks on London on July 7 last year.

This may be crucial in explaining the public warmth directed at him. The rationale is this: the public welcomes his presence because he makes the England cricket team more multicultural. People want their team to look like this. They are happy that he is a member of the team and happier still that he is doing well, because the last thing they want is tokenism. And now it is clear that he thoroughly warrants a place in the team (this is where he so far has the advantage over Sajid Mahmood, who was born to Pakistani immigrants in Bolton four months before Panesar and has yet to really make his mark).

David Ligertwood, of athletes1, Panesar’s agent, has noticed the change in attitude towards his client: “He’s a lot more in demand now. He’s been popular all summer, but that has turned into commercial interest. There was a notoriety and novelty about him at first, which had something to do with his poor fielding, I guess, but I think people now realise he’s a good cricketer.

“There’s an X-factor with Monty. He’s not just another player. He stands out as a character. Everybody can see he’s a good bloke and a fun guy, but a serious cricketer, and they warm to that. He also embraces his Asian background. People may have been looking at guys in the street with beards and feeling negative about them. Monty makes them feel good.”

As Hemal Randerwala, a close friend, says: “In a way, he’s a revolutionary, not just in English sport but maybe in the wider social picture. He has stayed a vegetarian and kept his hair and beard long in modern Britain when he could easily have had them trimmed. He’s said, ‘I want to stay who I am and be true to my religion’.”

I ask Panesar whether he sees himself as a flag-carrier for multicultural Britain. “I think that’s probably public opinion more than anything,” he replies. “I never even thought about being the first Sikh to play for England, I just wanted to play for England. I never thought people would follow me, or that any popularity would go with it. I never thought Sachin would be my first Test wicket. Maybe it’s destiny. Maybe this is how it’s meant to be.

“If me playing for England does something to show that our society is multicultural, then that’s good. I think it does show how Britain is a multicultural society, that there aren’t any differences and we are all one as a country. That’s good for Britain and good for the people of this country.

“I’m not the first British Asian to play cricket. Nasser Hussain has captained England and achieved far more than I have. But if there are youngsters out there who are inspired by what I do, then that’s only good for them and cricket.”

But however proud Britain’s Sikh community is of him, the fact is that not even the presence of Panesar in the England team, or Pakistan providing the opposition, has been sufficient to persuade many Asians from Leeds and Bradford to turn up for the Headingley Test.

Everybody may have a theory as to why Monty appeals. But, whatever the explanation, he must rank as one of the most improbable heroes English cricket has ever had.

PANESAR’S second-greatest gift, behind his ability to bowl, is his willingness to learn. His coaches since his earliest days testify to a wonderful work ethic. And for all the jibes about his batting and fielding, this applies to every aspect of his game.

The day before the Leeds Test match was a case in point. Panesar was the last to finish at England’s final net session as he practised pulling the short-pitched ball before using Merlyn, the spin-bowling machine, to try slogging leg-spin. He managed very well, connecting cleanly for several huge sixes.

His approach provides a stark contrast to that of Phil Tufnell, an England left-arm spinner of an earlier generation. Tufnell’s faux incompetence with the bat and in the field betrayed an unwillingness to do the hard work necessary to improve. Panesar, on the other hand, is mentally much stronger and has no intention of perpetuating his mistakes any longer than he has to.

“I want to be the best spinner in the world, but I also want to become a multi-dimensional cricketer,” he says. “In international cricket the more balanced teams tend to avoid defeat more often. I think that penny dropped a couple of years ago at Northants when we had three spinners and I struggled to play in away games and one-day cricket. They’d play me on turning pitches, but not on a flat track, and that was because my other areas were questionable.

“I just want to give myself the best chance. That’s all I can really do, and hopefully in the end everything will fall into place. I want to stretch myself as much for myself as for anyone else, to see how far I can go.”

Panesar’s comic status was assured by an incident in his third Test in Bombay, when he made a complete mess of a steepling chance at long-off from Mahendra Singh Dhoni, before holding on to a similar catch moments later. He concedes that he should have held the first attempt, but insists he was blinded by the sun. “It was the brightest sun I’d ever seen. The next ball was similar, but didn’t quite go across the sun as much.” Mobbed by delighted teammates, he had to leave the field to sort out his turban, which was virtually knocked off in the melee.

The revelation that his contact lenses were altered (“only slightly”, he insists) after his next Test at Lord’s, where he dropped another sitter, was simply grist to a very large mill.

“I feel I have improved in all areas of my game since starting with England. My fielding has definitely improved — my catching, ground-fielding and throwing at the stumps. With drills you can train your body to react,” he says.

“With my batting, I’ve tried to be more positive and understand that you have to transfer your body weight when you’re playing shots. I’ve just got to keep hitting a lot of balls and persevering. One day I’d like to move up the order, perhaps to No 9, but that’s up to the captain. Maybe I should buy Andrew Strauss a beer.”

By way of evidence of his batting credentials, he can point to a century at No 3 for Dunstable, a few eighties in other club games, a 70-odd in a second XI match, an unbeaten 39 in a county match against Shoaib Akhtar and — far from least — a breezy 26 from 28 balls against Sri Lanka at Trent Bridge.

Much of his recent improvement is down to a visit to Darren Lehmann’s academy in Australia specifically to work on his batting and fielding, although he also says he has improved his coordination by playing five-a-side football, “usually as a midfielder but sometimes up front”. He’s a big supporter of Luton and Arsenal.

Of course, he will ultimately be judged by his bowling. In this department he is, if not the finished article, well advanced on the road to an outstanding career. His strengths are massive hands that help him spin the ball (they are so big, it’s amazing he ever drops a catch), bowling at a brisk pace and a smooth, repeatable action.

“The thing with Monty is that he bowls it quicker than most, but still with a dip, and gets turn and bounce,” says the Northants second XI coach, Nick Cook, a former Test spinner. “You don’t get good players out bowling slow. You have to push it through, and Monty can do that and still beat people in the air. He can get turn and bounce on shirt-fronts.”

Panesar has been studying the art of left-arm spin since switching, on the advice of Paul Taylor, the former England bowler, from “horrible little left-arm seamers” at the age of 12.

Having cut his teeth with Luton Indians and Dunstable Town, he played his first match at 17 for Bedfordshire, whose development officer, David Mercer, was soon hailing him as a human bowling machine. Spinners normally take years to learn their craft, but Panesar turned in some remarkable performances at a young age. By 19, with only eight first-class appearances to his name, he was signed up for his first winter with the national academy.

So thorough was he that the night before his first Test in Nagpur he knocked on the hotel door of his captain and showed him charts with the field placings he proposed to use for each India batsman. No wonder Flintoff said he was a joy to captain! “At the minute, it’s all a new experience,” Panesar says. “I’m just trying to keep it simple, because the people I’m bowling to have faced spinners much better than me — like Murali, Warne, Harbhajan and Kumble — and if I try and do anything clever, I’m sure they’ll notice. Out of respect for them as fine batsmen I’m not going to be too clever. Someone like Warne has probably got a method for bowling to these players, but it’s all new territory to me. I try to tie them down, apply the pressure, and hopefully wickets may come.

“What happened at Old Trafford has given me confidence and more idea about myself. It has also given the team and my coach a bit more idea about who I am. But left-arm spin is a challenging art. I have a lot of fun with it and am always learning different things, about having a different shape on the ball to different players, for example.

“Generally I know what I need to do, and then, depending on the situation and the condition of the pitch, I may alter a few things. I’d not bowled to these Pakistanis before. Obviously, they’re good players of spin, so beforehand I just tried to get familiar with how they might look to play me, using footage provided by Mark Garroway (England’s analyst).

“Old Trafford was my best game by far. I’ve been working on a few things with David Parsons (the England spin bowling coach) and Duncan Fletcher (the England coach) and maybe my action is becoming more co-ordinated.

“I look to get my rhythm right and get comfortable at the crease first, then work on variations to keep the batsmen guessing. David communicates very well. He knows when things aren’t right, picks up fine points, as does Duncan Fletcher, and helps you to get back on track. Even when Duncan Fletcher has some input, I value his comments.”

Fletcher’s support for Panesar may be qualified because of doubts about his all-round game, but Panesar has nothing but gratitude for the advice he has received from the coach, who has helped him to better understand the concept of bowling over the wicket and played a crucial part in Panesar’s dismissal of Mohammad Yousuf in the first over of the last afternoon at Old Trafford. During the interval Fletcher had suggested that Panesar loop the ball more. Sure enough, the bait worked: Yousuf reached forward, missed and was smartly stumped by Geraint Jones.

“All wickets in Test cricket are hard, and every wicket I get, I enjoy, but Inzamam’s wicket was the one I enjoyed the most, even though I was a bit lucky to have him caught off the boot,” Panesar adds. “He’s just such a key member of their team and a great player of spin.”

One of the striking features of Panesar’s career is the quality of the players he has dismissed at county and Test level. Because of his studies at Loughborough University, this is his first full season and he is playing only his 44th first-class match, but in that time he has dismissed some of the finest batsmen in the game. As Fletcher would no doubt be quick to point out, he has been fortunate that pitches in this dry, hot summer have been so spin-friendly.

His worst days, he says, both came in Tests at Lord’s, the first time when England failed, in nearly 15 hours, to bowl out Sri Lanka a second time, and the second when he struggled for rhythm on the first day against Pakistan. But a practice session on the second day quickly put him right.

He admits that life is tougher for finger-spinners in international cricket than for the unorthodox spinners and says he is working on developing a doosra, a delivery that turns in the opposite direction from his stock ball. “It’s something I keep playing around with. Any finger-spinner who can beat both sides of the bat can put hesitation in the batsman’s mind. If I could bowl a doosra at the same pace as my stock ball, that would be great. I’ve bowled it occasionally in county cricket, but not in a Test match. It’s something I’ve got to have a go at.”

PANESAR BELIEVES that he picked up his appetite for hard work from his parents, who came to England from India in the late 1970s. His father, Paramjit, set up a construction business in Luton and by sheer hard work turned it into a success.

“He still works, even though he’s around twice my age. I look at my parents and know they’ve worked hard, and the idea that you work hard and take nothing for granted has grown on me.”

Panesar has a large family spread across the Midlands and northern India. They offer him unstinting support in his cricket. Many of them have attended his Tests, including 35 of them at Mohali, in the Punjab, in March. He has a younger brother, Isher, who bowls left-arm wrist-spin at club level.

If his family is one inspiration, religion is another. “I follow Sikhism, and maybe I’ve channelled the discipline that religion creates into my cricket. There’s discipline with any religion, and you can take it into a game or into anything else.

“Religion has helped me, as did Kepler Wessels (the former Northants coach) last year. He was good at making me not get carried away, and getting me to know how to bowl at different players. Cricket is one of those games that is played in so many different conditions that if you assess them well, you can do okay, but if you don’t, you won’t.”

Wisely, after moving from Luton’s Stopsley High School to Bedford Modern on a sports scholarship, he continued to pursue an academic career in parallel with his cricket. He graduated from Loughborough University with a degree in computer sciences only 14 months ago, so life has changed quickly for somebody who now drives a sponsored car and puts his name to a newspaper column — two routine perks for today’s international cricketers.

Although he concedes that early nerves may have contributed to his shaky performances in the field, it is striking how cool he has always looked when bowling. “I try to treat a match like training. The trick is to not make it seem too important. It is important, of course, but I don’t want to make it so important that it affects my performance — to feel the pressure so much that I can’t let go of the ball.”

But it cannot be easy when he feels so excited just being part of the England set-up. “Hussain was a hero for me, as was Tufnell, but even in the England team now the likes of Matthew Hoggard, Marcus Trescothick and Flintoff are heroes too. It’s strange. Now I’m in the same changing room as them, talking to them about cricket and getting their advice. I’m loving every minute of it.”

Its a big interview, can someone from canada or someone with info regarding the Paragraph marked in RED please reply here. What does that paragraph refer to , sikh guru in Edmonton????

[jhamka]

vaheguru ji ka khalsa vaheguru ji ki fateh

soo sad to see todays sunday express monty follows a pakandi baba from canada the one thats ran of with a 22 year old women. ohh dear when r we going to get a gursikh role model in sport

vaheguru

[BABBAR KHALISTANI]

I thought he was a true gursikh...although he's ramgarhia......how wrong i was

[jhamka]

vaheguru ji ka khalsa vaheguru ji ki fateh

beware monty follows pakandi guru

soo sad to see todays sunday express monty follows a pakandi baba from canada the one thats ran of with a 22 year old women and has done beadbi of sikhi

ohh dear when r we going to get a gursikh role model in sport

sorry i have not got the link but if u buy it u can see for urself

vaheguru

dhan dhan guru granth sahib ji

[Guest militant singh]

what else can we expect

[jhamka]

vaheguru

oppps it was the mail on sunday

heres the link

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/a...in_page_id=1770

[S1ngh]

The pakhandi guy who drinks and the womanizer.. This guys scamed sikh sangat of sacramento area (california) by asking donations to build the gurdwara sahib .. which he never did..

[N30S1NGH]

really sad news :D

[Balait_da_Sher]

please dont bad mouth the guy (monty) becuase in my opinion he is the victim just like many people are of these babas.

[S.S.F]

wahgeuru jee ka khalsa waheguru jee kee fateh

y do people still follow this pakhandi baba guy everyone knows what he done :D