Behind the Scenes: World Cup 2023

The risks of being too nice

5th November, India vs South Africa

"Rohit bhaiya!"

"Hm?"

"Rohit bhaiya—Rohit bhaiya—"

"Yes, Shreyas, I'm listening."

"But you're not looking at me."

Rohit sighed, put down his cricket equipment that he'd been gathering, and straightened up. They were late, and the whole team at the Eden changing room was in disarray, the bus was waiting and Vikram bhai and Dravid bhai were on the verge of exploding—and they always exploded on the captain. Dravid had already half-exploded half an hour back.

'The captain is in charge of the team, get your team down to the bus in FIVE MINUTES!'

Yes, half an hour later, Rohit's team was still in disarray. Virat was jump-scaring Rahul as he tried to pack. Jaddu was juggling with wickets, Shubman and Kuldeep applauding effusively. Ishan and SKY were atop a cupboard. Rohit had no idea why, and he didn't dare ask.

He sighed again and looked at the guy standing right in front of his eyes.

Shreyas beamed.

"I'm packed and ready to go," he said.

"Great, that's one out of fifteen. Great." Rohit bent to stuff his gloves into his kitbag again.

"Rohit bhaiya!"

"Shreyas--what?"

"I didn't want to pack so quick, but I did, because Rahul bhai gave you the responsibility."

"Er—" said Rohit, distracted because he could find only one pair of gloves. "Yep, that's one responsibility I could definitely do without, but here we are."

"You could do without being responsible for them, but I am causing you no trouble, Rohit bhaiya... You're looking for your gloves? I'll find it, I'll find it!"

"Thanks, see if you can find them anywhere," said Rohit, still distracted.

Shreyas went leaping over all the kitbags strewn around and sent half the stuff flying in search of the gloves. There were a lot of, 'Hey!'s and 'Stop it!'s and 'Shreyas hit me, Virat bhaiya!' as people got hit on their head by missiles.

"I found it!" Shreyas roared, and leapt back to Rohit.

"Thanks a lot, Shreyas. WILL YOU GUYS GET DOWN FROM THE CUPBOARD--?"

"Rohit bhaiya," whined Shreyas.

Rohit closed his eyes, prayed for patience, and opened them again.

"Yes... Shreyas...?" he said with superhuman patience. "You do realize I'm listening, right?"

"But you didn't say anything when I said I've already packed—"

"I said that's one out of fifteen and that is... not great overall, but great on your part."

"—when I said I've already packed for you. So that you aren't troubled. I did it for you. It's not like I wanted to let Jaddu bhaiya show off with his juggling without showing Shubi and Kuliya that I'm better at it, but I didn't juggle with wickets and I packed."

"Oh, I see," said Rohit with another superhuman effort at patience, and smiled painfully. "I really appreciate your thoughtfulness, Shreyas. I mean, foregoing the urge to juggle wickets and doing a boring chore like packing, for me... That's really very kind of you."

Shreyas beamed from ear to ear.

Now that I've praised you...

"Can I continue my packing?" Rohit asked to be on the safe side.