Coping, hoping and winning!

Two players who figured in Indiarsquos amazing 202021 BorderGavaskar Trophy win will probably not play the full series of the next edition to be held on these shores next monthDoubtless India would have been more confident of denying Australia a rare series win in India the Aussies have triumphed in India only once in the last 50 years had Rishabh Pant not met with a horrendous road accident and backtroubled Jasprit Bumrah not sustained a new injury mdash right glute mdash according to ESPNcricinfoOf course as is the case most of the time when it comes to fitness related issues the BCCI did not say much about Bumrahrsquos physical state besides ldquoHe will need some more time to build bowling resilience This decision to leave him out of the ODI series against Sri Lanka has been taken as a precautionary measurerdquoSportspersons do like their share of privacy amidst enjoying the adulation attention and admiration they getHowever life can be pretty awful when an injury comes along especially a serious one that gives rise to doubts about your future in the game From my conversations with several players who have been away from the game through injuries itrsquos not impossible to be optimistic but itrsquos damn hardPant and Bumrah could well be going through such emotions as they fight onAlso Read Jasprit Bumrah ruled out of ODI series against Sri Lanka after failing to recover from back injuryDennis Lillee the great Australian fast bowler of the 1970rsquos and 1980rsquos overcame stress fractures in his back in 1974 after seeing multiple doctors He was told by a doctor in Perth that he may not be able to bowl againIn the closing chapter of his first book Back to the Mark he wrote ldquoEver present in my mind will be the consequences of another breakdownrdquoTo Lilleersquos credit there were no more breaks from the game and he served Australia till 198384 ending up with 355 Test wickets more than any other bowler at that point in timeInjuries are part and parcel of the game so accept them goes a cliche that is used as a comforting thought But there is more to it than mere acceptanceIn 2005 I asked Sachin Tendulkar what made him overcome a plethora of injuries and he said ldquoIrsquove worked hard for this and there are people around me who have worked equally hard With their support I feel extremely confident Itrsquos very tough but with them showing me the light at the end of the tunnel I get more determinedrdquoMalcolm Marshall in the opinion of the most knowledgeable of West Indian pundits the best fast bowler produced in the Caribbean too suffered anxious moments On his return from Australia in 198182 Marshall was clueless as to who he could consult to sort out his back injury He had seen specialists in Australia and England but his pain persisted He took a chance and saw Edmund Sealey a physiotherapist of the Barbados athletics squadIn Marshall Arts the late alltime great wrote ldquoAs the treatment began to look as if it might be proving beneficial Sealey prescribed for me a task of doing 100 situp exercises each day to strengthen the muscles at the base of the spine It does not sound a lot but I can assure you 100 is hard work and I could feel the effects almost immediately At the end of the month my back was much better and I began smiling again for the first time in four monthsrdquoThe 100 situps were reduced to 50 But they had to be done each day of Marshallrsquos cricketing career which ended in 1992One of the most extraordinary injury stories is that of giant Australian fast bowler Carl Rackemann who related his experiences with pain in an interview with me in 2000 when he was coach of ZimbabweHe admitted that his bowling technique predisposed him to injuriesDuring the 1981 Ashes when the touring Australian team needed him to bolster their injured pace attack Rackemann couldnrsquot be roped in because he was injured while playing for Surreyrsquos Second XI He came into the Australian team after Terry Alderman was injured by a spectator in the 198283 Perth Test against England After making his debut in the second Test at Brisbane Rackemann got injured and didnrsquot play the rest of the seriesThe next season he claimed 11 wickets against Pakistan at Perth After figuring in the next Test at Brisbane he broke down His final 10 Tests of his 12match career were played over seven seriesHe was part of the 1989 Ashes squad to England but injured his knee in a warmup match before the first TestldquoI should have been fit in three weeks but the guy who operated me turned out to be more of a butcher than a surgeonrdquo he told meRackemannrsquos misfortunes even included injuries worsening because of unavailability of the right kind of tape to strap his ankle with This happened while playing for Surrey in 1995At the end of our interview Rackemann said ldquoCricket has given me some pain but itrsquos also given me many many good thingsNo complaintsrdquoThat was easier to say in retrospect At the moment Pant and Bumrah are combating adversity and could well be in the throes of pain and selfdoubt Listening to an abundance of inspirational stories the willow game has thrown up will do them no harmmiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stanceHe tweets ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper