Not shying away from speaking the truth and showing individuals the mirror when they needed to, Younis Khan reckons, was his only fault, as he relinquished his post as Pakistan captain in 2009 despite having taken the side to glory at T20 World Cup that year in the UK.
Younis, who retired from the game as Pakistan's only 10,000 Test run-maker in 2017, said a group of players weren't comfortable with his ways as a skipper and wanted him to be removed.
"You often face a situation in life where if you speak the truth, you are considered as a madman. My fault was pointing out to a group of players that they were not pushing themselves hard enough for the country," Younis told Gulf News.
"The players were, however, regretful later and we played for teammates long enough after that. I know I had nothing wrong for it’s a lesson that I had learnt from my father to always speak the truth and always remain humble."
Back in time, Younis was aware that around 8 or 9 players are conspiring to somehow get him sacked as captain of Pakistan.
"I feel as If I have no command over this team," he had said. "And if a leader has no command over its players, what is the point of continuing to lead? The last 3-4 months have been very trying times for me, not just with the cricket but all that has happened outside it. I need time to get myself together now."
Younis, meanwhile, also talked about the influence of Javed Miandad on him during his initial days of playing for Pakistan.
"During my playing days, I had Miandad as a coach. As someone who was a master of the big hundreds himself, he used to tell me that once you reach 100, think you are starting from zero."
"This may sound like a cliche, but it’s quite a difficult thing to do as it needs a great deal of mental fitness along with physical fitness," he said.
"If you look at Indian cricket, you will see that when the likes of Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma were coming up, (Sachin) Tendulkar was still around. You can learn a lot from watching how a great batsman prepares himself for an innings."
Having played cricket for almost two decades, Younis thinks succeeding at the highest level has only gotten tougher for young cricketers.
"The rival teams are constantly analysing the video footage of the likes of Virat, Rohit or a (Steve) Smith. They keep track of which batsman can have a lapse of concentration once getting into his fifties or sixties and it’s to the credit of these batsmen that they can still build their innings."
"It takes a lot of strength of character to perform consistently at this level," he stressed. "I tried to focus on this need of building a strong character during a virtual workshop for the Pakistan batsmen where the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) wanted me to speak recently."
"I am happy to note that someone like Babar Azam has said he benefitted from it."
(Inputs from Gulf News)
