COVER STORY WRITTEN BY IAIN BALL PHOTOGRAPHED BY RICHARD DAWSON STYLED BY ARJUN BHASIN He’s halfway through his career, yet has only tapped half his potential. Yuvraj Singh could become a cricketing legend – but can he do it while having so much fun? 84 — APRIL 2009 SINGH!ULAR TALENT Singh has never let go of his ambition to be cap- tain of the Indian side – and leading the Kings XI is his way of showing that he can do it VELVET JACKET BY BURBERRY. SHIRT BY DIOR HOMME. TROUSERS BY ARROW APRIL 2009 — 85 COVER STORY JUST IN CASE THERE’S ANY confusion, Yuvraj Singh would like to make it ‘I’M A NORMAL clear that he is not a playboy. Specifically, he would like it gener- BOY WHO LIKES ally understood that he does not drink THINGS LIKE too much, he does not smoke too much, he does not get distracted by money, GOING OUT. JUST fast cars and parties, and he certainly does not get distracted by women. All LEAVE ME ALONE he cares about – honestly – is cricket. That, anyway, is the message that AND LET ME Singh would like to convey, the one bullet point on his agenda for our LIVE MY LIFE’ interview, which takes place in the Royal Imperial Suite of the Imperial Hotel, New Delhi, in between shots for GQ’s cover shoot. And, just in case I didn’t get it from our interview, he spells it out for me when we say good- bye: “Don’t make me out to be a play- boy,” he orders, slipping on his over- sized Armani sunglasses and heading for the lift that will carry him down to his BMW M3. The 27-year-old captain of the Kings XI Punjab may be young, rich, gifted and famous – but he is also cursed. He is cursed because he is not just any-old famous, he is Indian-cricketer famous; not just a celebrity, but a god who walks upon the earth in spiked shoes. The curse of being Indian cricket’s would-be messiah is this: gods can’t go to parties, get drunk and go to bed with models, because if they do, the priests get very, very upset. “They think that you should just play cricket, stay at home, eat your food and go to sleep,” bristles Singh. “People need to realize that I’m also a normal boy and a normal human being who likes things like going out and – ” He cuts himself off before he says any more about the things he likes. Instead, he finishes with a bit of a whine: “Just leave me alone and let me live my life.” The funny thing is, Singh does not exactly come over as the sophisti- cated, lounge-lizard womanizer type. Despite his strength and aggression on the field, in person there is something almost… well, childlike about him. Maybe it’s the boyish looks, that incipi- ent paunch, the lower lip that tends to give him a teenager-ish pout. Maybe it’s the appealingly bratty way he enters the suite, jumps on the sumptu- ous four-poster bed and immediately asks for a chicken sandwich. Or 86 — APRIL 2009 VICE CAPTAIN Singh became known as an athlete who couldn’t handle fame soon after his spectacular entry into international cricket in Nairobi in "##$ SHIRT, DOUBLE! BREASTED JACKET; BOTH BY GIORGIO ARMANI. TIE BY RICHARD JAMES FOR SAVILE ROW APRIL 2009 — 87 SUIT, SHIRT, TIE; ALL BY ERMENEGILDO ZEGNA. WATCH BY VACHERON CONSTANTIN 88 — APRIL 2009 COVER STORY SPUN OUT perhaps it’s the unruly curls that look Singh blames his bad- boy image on biased like he borrowed them off a toddler reporting. “The media (he decided to skip a haircut and let has become all about masala, hype, GQ’s hair-and-make-up artist take care controversy” of it). And – excuse me – but what kind of playboy lets his mum balance his cheque book? But the playboy tag has dogged Singh from almost as soon as he first burst on to the international cricket scene in 2001, when he scored 84 runs against Australia at the Mini-World Cup in Nairobi. His talent and poten- tial were obvious, and by the time he was 19, he’d already landed a lucra- tive Pepsi endorsement. Then his performance began to see-saw, and commentators pinned the cause on Singh’s alleged inability to handle the party-lifestyle temptations of money and fame. His image hasn’t exactly been helped in that regard by the long- legged chorus line of models and ‘ NEVER HAVE I STAYED UP LATE BEFORE AN INTERNATIONAL GAME. MAYBE BEFORE A DOMESTIC OR CLUB GAME ! ONCE OR TWICE’ actresses he’s been linked to in the tabloids and on gossip sites, including Deepika Padukone, long-term girl- friend Kim Sharma, Shamita Singha and Karishma Kotak, among numer- ous others. The latest, Kotak, has now sadly exited stage left, leaving behind her a slightly wounded Singh and a string of breathless Internet snippets. “I’ve been in love, been out of it – and I’m still struggling to find the right one. But I’m single and very happy,” he says. Eight years into his career, his party-animal reputation has become as hard to shift as a splinter from a cheap cricket bat. Last July, after accusations that he had been out all night party- ing before his dismal performance APRIL 2009 — 89 TEST OF CHARACTER Singh sees a successful Test career as the key to his legacy – and to making one-day and T"# cricket “comparatively easy” HAIR AND MAKE!UP: APENI GEORGE PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANT: SAURABH SAWANT ASSISTANT STYLIST: ANTARA MOTIWALA PRODUCTION: GIZELLE SILK KIMONO, SHIRT; CORDO, ALECKA BOTH BY DOLCE & MICKLEWRIGHT GABBANA. TROUSERS LOCATION: THE BY REID & TAYLOR. IMPERIAL, NEW DELHI WATCH BY PIAGET 90 — APRIL 2009 COVER STORY in the Asia Cup final, old family friend people were thinking that I was going Kapil Dev publicly told him to kick the ‘EVERY TIME I to be a very harsh and rude captain partying habit if he wanted a future in who shouts at everyone and stuff. But cricket. “It looks to me that his prob- HAVE A BAD I controlled that. I always knew that lems are compounded by distractions GAME, THEY SAY, you can’t get a team in place with ag- off the field,” said Dev delicately. “The gression – you’ve got to understand off-the-field glamour can wait.” “HE’S PARTYING everyone. The challenge for me was to “I’ve made mistakes,” Singh ad- understand each player and try to get mits. “I think it’s a part of growing up. WITH SOME the best out of him.” But never in my entire career have I And, as captain, how would he deal stayed up late before an international WOMAN”. EVEN with an unruly player? Say, a gifted game – maybe before a domestic game one who perhaps likes the parties and or a club game, maybe once or twice – IF I AM BLOODY girls a little too much? but an international game, never.” PRACTISING’ “I would straight away go and talk The real cause of his problems, he to him,” says Singh. “I would go and sit says, is the media: “If I go out once, detractors, from himself – to grow and talk to him, and tell him: ‘You’ve they write it 10 times. Every time I up. At 27, with maybe a decade of his got so much potential, and I really have a bad game, they say, ‘He’s party- career left, he still has the potential want you to do well. So, get control, get ing with some woman’. If I am not even to become a cricketing legend – or he balance in your private life.’” there, even if I am bloody practising could let his chance for a legacy slip By this point, I am interviewing on the field, they write that. The me- away. Despite some regular flashes of Singh in the suite’s small dressing dia has become all about masala, hype, cricketing genius – his string of fantas- room while he’s in his underpants. controversy.” He lapses into sarcasm: tic ODI and T20 performances, those He’s changing for his last shot, but “But it would also be nice to write the incredible six sixes – he seems to have doesn’t seem to mind me – he’s used real thing about the person.” as yet tapped only part of his gift. And to the locker room, I guess. The Dolce OK, so let’s clear it up once and for that has shown up most clearly in his shirt is proving a bit tight, and I call all: how much does he go out? “I can Test career. for someone from the fashion team to go out six times in a month, and some- “If I was not concentrating, if I was help him out. times I won’t go out once in six months not working, I would have been out of GQ’s assistant stylist walks in – “Is – if I’m playing, you know. But going the team,” he says flatly. “I don’t play it tight? Oh, sorry!” – and backs rapidly out doesn’t only mean partying – it can in Test cricket that much. It’s been out at the sight of a half-naked Singh. be dinner, watching a movie.” Sourav and Laxman, and it’s been very He grins at her. It’s another one of All right.