Ravindra Jadeja on why he hates being called Sir and why he has no time for ‘fukre log’ making memes’

IND vs AUS: Ravindra Jadeja hates being called Sir Jadeja. He would rather want the world to stick to Bapu – the term of endearment bestowed on him, and others from his community, in his neck of woods. “People should call me my name. That is enough. I hate being called Sir. If you wish, call me Bapu, that’s what I like. This Sir-Var, I don’t like at all. Actually, it just doesn’t reger when people call me Sir,” Jadeja had told The Indian Express in an interaction a couple of years back, when he was returning to the team after an injury break for the England tour.
Jadeja rarely gives interviews, never-ever opens up. For years, he has maintained a rather obstinate stance towards the media. Once when out of the team, he had turned down an interview request with a half-mocking reply: “Do you think, if you write about me, I will be recalled?” But that day in 2021, before the team was to fly to England, the ‘Sir’ question had ticked off something in him. He would go on to talk about his other peeves, the angst of being judged those who have no idea about his back story and of being repeatedly undermined his many uninformed critics.
He also shared an early advice he had received from his father. He had warned him that “chamchagiri (appeasement)” doesn’t take one too far. “Ground mein perform karo, bus baat khatam (Perform on the field and the chatter ends there),” he had said. The “baat khatam” had a determinative tone of someone who had seen enough in life – slipped, fallen, been written off, bounced back, risen again – and had cracked the code to surviving and flourishing.
At Nagpur in the opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, on his return after yet another potentially career-threatening injury and facing those perennial questions of his many doubters, Jadeja delivered yet again. The “baat (chatter)” and “Australian batsmen” were “khatam”. His critics, after taking their perfectly-practised U-turns, were again posting folded-hands emojis on social media. It was their way of acknowledging his Man-of-the-Match performance, but they looked like petitions for pardon.
It’s puzzling why Jadeja doesn’t get the praise he richly deserves or excite that batsman-obsessed, ‘hero-making brand-building’ division of the broadcaster. His very cerebral spin-art also seldom gets intellectualised, like is the case of his long-standing bowling partner Ravichandran Ashwin. To make up for the damage already done, going ahead, every time Jadeja is on screen, the following ticker should constantly run on loop: Jadeja’s batting average is better than those of Ian Botham, Kapil Dev, Andrew Flintoff and Shaun Pollock; and his bowling figures are better than those of Bishan Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, S Venkataraghavan and BS Chandrasekhar.
This constant undermining could be the reason for his disillusionment about what is spoken and written about him. The words of his father too had a role. “When I started playing cricket, my father gave me a very important advice. At that point, I didn’t even know that I will be playing cricket seriously, forget playing for the country. He told me ‘it’s your performance on the ground that matters,’” he had said.
Jadeja Sr, a proud man, had told his son that he shouldn’t indulge in flattery for gains. “If I perform on the field, I wouldn’t have to do anything (to appease anybody), the rest will automatically flow. So for me, it has been simple. If I perform on the ground, I don’t have to go out of the way to please people.”
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It’s the time and place that makes the man, they say. India’s foremost all-rounder hails from Jamnagar, the one-time princely state that was ruled the Jadejas. Cricket gave the place a global identity. Maharaj Ranjitsinhji Jadeja, Ranji to the world, happens to be the great-grand uncle to the present-day Jam Sahib, who still lives in a palace with a 45-acre nature reserve in Central Jamnagar.
Born in a one-room government flat, to a nurse mother and a security guard father, “our Jadeja” is a commoner. But cricket shrunk the great divide for him. His wife, Reva Jadeja, is the people’s representative from Jamnagar in the state Assembly and the couple owns a sprawling farmhouse on the city’s outskirts that has a stable full of horses. Jadeja’s equine love is part of Jamnagar’s folklore. Locals talk with pride about the sighting of him galloping in his fields, many a times without stirrup on the saddle.
Growing up, like most kids in Jamnagar, Jadeja heard stories of valour of kings and warriors from the region. He often mentions the 12th century Sorath Chudasama king Ra Khengar on his social media. All around Saurashtra, folk singers, till date, regale large audiences with tales of his bravery at Lok Dayras. Hory calls him a daredevil ruler who lived the sword. Jadeja too will be credited for bringing the sword in cricket conversations. Time has been on a slow crawl here, caste identities still define a man where Jadeja has spent all his life. Jadeja preferring to be called Bapu, and not Sir, has some basis.
“We address each other with respect. It is always ‘Aap’ or ‘Bapu’. That’s my culture, that’s what the people around me do. Whether you know someone or not, if you are from the community, you address them as Bapu. You could be young or old, but respect is important,” he had said.
During his rare break from cricket, the all-format all-rounder loves to be in his comfort zone. He is in the company of those who don’t see him only as a cricketer. “Time at my farmhouse is precious. Whatever happens to me on the cricket field, all the pressure, all thinking, all that high-intensity atmosphere … it’s a break from all that. I get relaxed there. I meet those who take care of the farm. I spend time with my horses. No one talks about cricket, they are my well-wishers. They want me to do well in cricket but don’t want to know what happens in the dressing room. I come to know that there is life outside cricket too.”
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Ravindra Jadeja celebrates the dismissal of Australia’s Steve Smith during the first day of the first Test in Nagpur. (Photo: AP)
Over the years, Jadeja has taken precautions to stay low-profile and avoided confrontations. He says the only time he wanted to say something specific, he tagged the person. However, a forensic analysis of his Twitter handle gives an idea about the times he was durbed. While these days, he follows the celebrity pattern of ‘happy birthday’ and ‘congratulations’ posts, there was a time when he dropped more than subtle hints about the storm that was brewing inside him.
Back in 2013, he had tweeted lines that were credited to American rapper Eminem. “Don’t even try and judge me dude. You have no idea what the f*ck I’ve been through.” Life hasn’t been smooth for the boy from a lower-middle-class family. Though the family budget was tight, Jadeja’s mother would never say no to any of her son’s demands. If his father or ser would scold him, he would snuggle up to his mother.
In 2005, when Jadeja was 16, his mother passed away. Third-degree burns following a kitchen fire were the cause of death. Jadeja wasn’t at home. When he returned, he wanted to quit cricket. But soon, his clouded mind was cleared a single thought that hit him. “Why should I quit? Not after all that my mother did to make me a cricketer,” he says.
Reminded of that Eminem tweet, he let out a throaty laugh. He doesn’t dance himself from the post, starts explaining and soon the tone gets very serious. “On days when I haven’t done well, they start trolling, calling me names. They say things without knowing the kind of hard work I have done to reach this stage. Small, small things … there are so many struggles and sacrifices that I don’t even remember now.”
Now his voice is slightly raised. “Computer ke saamne fukre log baithte rehte hain, meme banate rehte hain aur kuchh bhi likhte rehte hain (Those idlers sitting in front of a computer have nothing to do, they sit and make memes and write anything that comes to their mind) … See honestly, those things don’t matter to me. If they did, I wouldn’t have reached this far … They have no idea what all I had to go through to reach here. They say he is playing IPL and earning so much money … Believe me, in IPL, they don’t pick you seeing your face.”
He controls himself, and is smiling again. It’s a Zoom call, we aren’t face to face. “You sitting with my Twitter account open? What next?” he asks. Another tweet is mentioned. This one is in Hindi. “Mere baare mein koi raai mat dena kyunki … mera time bhi badlega or aap log ki raai bhi … (Don’t have an opinion about me as my time will change and so will your opinion)”.
Jadeja, on social media, also does sarcasm. “Need new haters, the old ones are starting to like me …” – this is from January 2014. There’s more: “The truth is everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find ones worth suffering for.”
Jadeja is now in splits. Someday we would laugh about all this, is what they say to give solace of those dealing with crisis. It sounds so true. He doesn’t mind giving a glimpse of his mindset when he posted those angst-ridden tweets.
“Generally people keep judging you all the time, they say that’s all he will do, he will not improve, he has limitations. They don’t understand a simple principle that with time, one improves. From start to finish, one can’t be the same. I was worst when I started. So I was just saying that I will improve and once I do, your opinion about me will change. That’s when you will say ‘This is the all-rounder, India wanted’.”
The opinions have changed, respect won. Now, all he is asking for is to drop that Sir tag.