He performed really well when he was aggressive. So in really understanding where he came from, I was able to connect with him in his way and in his “language”, so to speak.įor Munaf, it was not really so much about employing sports psychology principles, or ideas or tools, as it was about having conversations to help ensure that he was just in the most relaxed mood. It really is an amazing and heart-wrenching story.
PAKISTAN 2011 WORLD CUP SONG PROFESSIONAL
I’m not sure how public it is where Munaf came from and what he went through in his process to becoming a professional cricketer. What was really great was that Munaf really opened up to me and told me about his youth and upbringing. So it was really nice to see bowlers stand up and be counted when they needed to. Particularly in the bowling department – we probably went into that tournament slightly stronger in our batting department. So that was a real big positive that under that sort of pressure, against one of the bigger teams like England, we were able to hold our nerve. The real positive we took from that game was how we stood up and played really good cricket at key moments, when we needed to control the game back. I must say I rarely felt it before and something in my head said, ‘don’t get caught up in this’ but there was a real sense. It wasn’t somebody trying to believe or trying to create a positive thought. I remember it clearly, Ashwin asking me, “Paddy, do you believe in fate?” and I said, “how come?” And he went, “I just believe that we are meant to win this tournament.” There was such a calm knowingness about the conversation. Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel bowling India to an incredible tie.īefore the England game, Ravichandran Ashwin and me emerged out of elevators into the breakfast area at the same time. After four unsuccessful attempts in 1996, 1999, 20, Sachin Tendulkar was a part of the team which won the World Cup in 2011. In the opening match, it was the usual sort of nerves, a combination of nerves and excitement of starting what was going to be a really big tournament, where we had very big goals. The focus was to keep playing the best possible cricket and not worry too much about the result. We knew at that point that we were already playing good cricket throughout the 100 overs of a one-day game, both with the bat and ball. So we really did not focus on losing or winning, but on the kind of cricket we’re playing. If we did that, we had a very good chance of going on to win the World Cup. The kind of cricket we were playing, we knew that if we played really good cricket consistently for 100 overs of an ODI game, we would win more games than not. It was something that we were really loving at the time, as best we could. It wasn’t just rhetoric and thoughts and ideas. We focused on the process and let the results look after themselves.
So I think we went there with the natural nerves of starting a World Cup, but as a team very prepared, and fortunately, fairly familiar with the kind of conditions in Bangladesh as well. We didn’t put too much pressure on ourselves to try and win every one of the round robin games.