Yuvraj scoring with Deepika is BAD publicity!

(Other Day four links below the text are Harbhajan has gone mad! What did you do Bhajji! and Neutral umpires are fine but...)

There were twin pictures in the Times of India today. A relieved Sachin celebrating his 38th ton on the left, and Yuvraj having a quiet, but ‘untimely snapped’ dinner with Deepika. The piece was titled ‘Sachin scores on the field – Yuvi off it – with Deepika’.

By the look of Deepika’s eyes, it appears that she is well aware that she is being snapped and the picture will be widely circulated on phone, net, and could also appear in the print. May be she is well and truly in love (as an inside report quoting the ‘sources close to the family’ says, predicting a marriage in two years). But if she is not (since no family member has said so and one never knows how close the sources are), the publication will not be in vain. It will only do good to her celebrity status!

But spare a thought for poor Yuvraj. This picture will do more damage to him than good. Certainly not the best of publicity for a man going through a very rough patch, and whose place in the Test team looks very very shaky indeed.

One remembers an interview of former Hockey goalkeeper Mir Ranjan Negi with Shekhar Gupta in ‘Walk the Talk’ programme, where he had said that few days after that humiliating 1-7 loss against Pakistan at Asiad, he had gone to take dinner at a Pandara Road Dhaba/Restaurant with few of his team mates. Soon a crowd gathered and criticized them for enjoying themselves even after such a humiliating loss!

Now that was 1982, but things are no different today. Every one accepts that cricketers are very popular with the opposite sex and in one programme, the ever candid Ajay Jadeja even went on to say, in good humour of course, that at times, they are like ‘animals’ on overseas tours.

If you are a good looking successful hunk, you will definitely attract lots of people, and possibly be used by them. But getting snapped when in woeful form will only lead to public outcry.

Moreover, it is not wise to invite the wrath of your ODI and Twenty20 captain! Is it?