How did he get jersey number 44? Who was his favourite captain? Listen to Virender Sehwag talk about his childhood, early cricketing days in this 2019 interaction...
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00:00Thorpe 1, MS 2, Kohli 3.
00:02Answer?
00:04I think a leader's role is to know how to get his colleagues to put in 100% effort.
00:12See, when I used to bat, I used to entertain people.
00:15There was a funny incident.
00:17It's not superstitious, but you can say it is.
00:21I had a number, 44.
00:23I didn't get it because of my choice.
00:26Because I got selected in the team.
00:27The clothes company thought I would get selected.
00:32So they made a T-shirt with my name on it.
00:35But luckily I got selected.
00:37I got that T-shirt.
00:39I hid my name, but I couldn't hide my number.
00:42So that number became mine.
00:46But I kept playing.
00:48In 2005-2006, when I was going through a bad time,
00:51my mother went to an astrologer and asked what the number should be.
00:55The astrologer said it should be 46.
00:58So my mother told me the number.
01:01I wore 46, but it didn't help.
01:03My wife reads a lot of astrological books.
01:07She knows a lot about astrology.
01:11So she said, no, your number should be 2.
01:14So I wore a T-shirt with the number 2.
01:16But nothing happened.
01:18One thing did happen.
01:20My mother-in-law and daughter-in-law had a fight.
01:23And I was trapped.
01:24If I listen to my mother, I have to wear number 46.
01:27If I listen to my wife, I have to wear number 2.
01:30So I got two T-shirts made.
01:32One was 46 and the other was 2.
01:33So I wore one in each match.
01:35Then the rules of the ICC said you can only wear one number.
01:39So I stopped wearing numbers.
01:43You stopped wearing numbers.
01:44My mother and wife were happy.
01:46Until you started playing cricket,
01:48your family didn't know much about cricket.
01:54And you travelled miles
01:57just so that you could reach the practice session
02:00and prepare yourself.
02:02There was a lot of struggle when you started.
02:04Yes, absolutely.
02:05There is a small town in Delhi called Najavgarh.
02:08Why was Najavgarh famous?
02:11The headlines used to say,
02:13there were two murders in Najavgarh today.
02:16So it took a lot of years to change that.
02:19I mean, it took a lot of years to change it.
02:22Then there was the Nawab of Najavgarh.
02:24That's when it changed.
02:25But we were from a middle-class family.
02:28There was a TV at home.
02:31You could only watch Mahabharata and Chitra Yaga on it.
02:34So if I played cricket on it,
02:36the rest of the 55 people watching TV at home would get upset.
02:40So luckily, when the 1992 World Cup took place,
02:44that was the best time for me
02:46because the matches would start at 4 in the morning.
02:48Everyone would be sleeping.
02:49So I would wake up at 3.30 in the morning
02:52and watch the match from 4 in the morning.
02:53There is so much hard work that you can see,
02:55but you can't see it.
02:56So maybe we don't see a lot of hard work
02:59because we are only shown that we do ads,
03:01earn money, play IPL, play for India.
03:03But the struggle before that is very less.
03:08Ever since you started playing your game in the dressing room,
03:12you used to disturb other players with your commentary, I've heard.
03:16See, absolutely.
03:17Because when I used to bat, I used to entertain people.
03:20I used to think that so many people have come to watch,
03:23people must be watching on TV,
03:25so I'll have to keep batting so that they stay entertained.
03:28And when I used to go in after getting out,
03:30the game used to get very boring.
03:34But my role was the same.
03:36How do I entertain the people sitting inside?
03:40So I used to do commentary to entertain them.
03:42You have seen Sourav Ganguly's captaincy.
03:45You have also played in MS Dhoni's captaincy.
03:47And now you are observing Virat Kohli.
03:49And all three have a very unique style, very distinctive.
03:52They are very different.
03:53Sourav is one, MS is two, Kohli is three.
03:56Answer?
04:00Although I wasn't going to ask who you are putting at number one.
04:04My question to you was,
04:06whose style do you think can bring out a better team's performance?
04:10I think when you don't have a team,
04:14that's when leadership plays a big role.
04:16Because making a new team,
04:17you don't have experienced players.
04:19How do you take 100% from them?
04:20Sourav Ganguly might have done that.
04:22Sourav Ganguly showed that aggression, which led to results.
04:25After that, Rahul Dravid took over,
04:27then Anil Kumble, then MS Dhoni.
04:28I think when MS Dhoni came, he had a team, a solid team.
04:32That's when he got the captaincy of One Day Cricket and Test Cricket.
04:35Because actually, when we wanted to be number one,
04:38it was Anil Kumble's dream to be the captain.
04:40So he had put up a flag in the first meeting,
04:44that Test team number one.
04:46It was written on the board.
04:47So he was the captain for about a year.
04:49He retired when we were about to become number one.
04:52So maybe MS Dhoni got that credit.
04:54But actually, all of us, those 15 players,
04:57gave that credit to Anil Kumble.
04:58Even if you ask MS Dhoni off the record,
05:02he will definitely tell you.
05:05I think a leader's role should be to know
05:07how to make his colleagues put in 100% effort.
05:12And I always say this in my talk,
05:17that the CEO doesn't do the work.
05:19The lower-level people do the work.
05:20But a good CEO is one who can get the work done.