Judging from the amount of foliage, it is a recent deci- sion. I look at it and I wonder if its arrival betrays a state of mind.

He's been one of the most troubled Idnians over the last twelve months, and I've gone to Madras to find out if recent changes in Mohammad Azharuddin's life have added to the burden or, indeed, have made him a lot lighter.

When India won the Hero Cup, a triumph for Azhar both as captain and as batsman, he had worn a moustache; somth- ing that didn't exactly make him look photogenic. But it was a happy moment for him and he admitted to me this week that it was perhaps his best moment as captain of India. Is he looking to the past then, to more successful moments, to help him combat the current turbulence in his life?

Azhar is also looking extremely fit. Everytime I see him, he seems to take a little more off his waist. He asks me to punch him in the stomach. I do, and find that it is rock hard. I wince as I feel my own gut, and ask him if this thing isn't becoming an obsession with him. ``No'', he says. ``I have to keep fit if I have to survive. There are so many talented younger boys coming along, and if I have to compete with them, I have to show that I am fitter than them.''

Only two and a half years ago, he looked so different. His cheeks were puffed and his chin wasn't starved of com- pany. The cortisone shots he had to take to protect his groin had given him an embarassing look. Worse still, with the ex- tra weight he was carrying, he feared he was becoming slow in the field. And he couldn't bear that to happen.

``I had definitely become slow. In fact, even now I am slower than I was, but not as slow as I was then. This is going to happen as I grow older, and so I have to remain fitter to prevent it''

And then I ask him if he is bitter at having lost the job he had for seven years. ``No, not at all,'' he says. ``You have to accept everything in life. When I got it (the captain- cy), I did not expect it. I never thought I would be captain of India for almost seven years. But I cannot keep thinking about it. I am still in the game and I want to play cricket for a few more years. So I have to keep looking ahead.''

I told him that I had spoken to Manoj Prabhakar a couple of weeks earlier and that, trying to hide a smile, he had said, ``Let us see how Mr. Azharuddin performs under the same kind of pressure that we were under. Let us see!''

Azhar smiles. ``When is there no pressure? When you are playing for India there is always pressure, and I have no problem with that.'' I try pointing out that maybe what Prabhakar was saying was that the extra security of a guaranteed place in the side, which Azhar had as cap- tain, was now gone. ``Nobody can assume that kind of security. I asked them to perform when they were playing for India. If I don't perform, I won't be in the side either. And I have no problems with that.''

He gives me the feeling of someone who is quite at ease with himself because even if there some disappointment, he conceals it well. Maybe he knew it was coming and was ready for it. ``I think they (the selectors) have made up their mind,'' he had told me during the last Test in England. At that time, he was very keen to be captain. But now that the job has been taken from him, it no longer seems to be the end of the world. And that is good for Indian cricket.

In this transition, which can often be bitter and sad, he has shown a lot of class. Azhar was the first to call Tendulkar on hearing the news that he had been deposed, and Tendulkar himself promoted, to the top job. Azhar himself had been personally informed by the chair- man of the selectors, and didn't have to hear it on the television newscast, as has happened in the past.

And Tendulkar's first statements to the media after taking over the top job were full of praise for his predecessor. ``From him (Azhar) I want to learn later how to be patient,'' Tendulkar tells me. And later in the day, manager Sandeep Patil tells me something similar: ``We need Azharuddin in the side. He isn't only a good player. I think he is a great player.''

I ask Azhar whether he was bitter at the intensity of the ciriticism against what was happening in his personal life. I think I struck a chord with that question, because he ponders a while. ``I want to make this clear once and for all. Whatever I did in my personal life was my decision. She had nothing to do with it.''

I smile to myself at the little shyness that goes with his use of the word 'she', without naming his lady-love. ``Too many nasty things have been written about her. Only two days ago, I saw another article. That is not fair. I think that media should concentrate on what happens in the eighty or ninety yards from the wicket to the boundary line,'' Azhar says.

``Didn't the people have a right to know,'' I ask, ``espe- cially if what happened in your personal life affected your performance as captain and as a key batsman for India?''

Azhar's response is quick, and from the heart. ``I am hurt that people doubt my commitment as a player. I have said so before and will say it again - when I go out to play for India, there is nothing else on my mind. Play- ing for your country is a great thing. Nobody can take that for granted. And I know that people within the media have been raking all this up because I didn't perform well as a batsman. But by doubting my commitment they are saying that I didn't try enough. That hurts me. It is funny, because I have been through bad patches before and nobody said anything then. Now, because I have not scored runs, peo- ple are jumping to conclusions. That is not fair.''

I think he has a point, because I have yet to meet any- one who can say with conviction that Azhar is not a team man. That includes (former Test spinner and erstwhile India captain )Bishan Singh Bedi, who has been Azhar's severest critic in these last few years. ``He was no captain, but one of the finest teammen I have seen,'' Bedi told me, a couple of years ago. And I suspect that Tendulkar thinks so too, because while he is guarded in what he tells the media, he is quite forthcoming in private conversations.

``You know,'' Azhar muses, ``they (the media) don't always know the facts. But that doesn't seem to stop them from going ahead and writting things anyway. The latest seems to be this story that I got fifty thousand pounds for giving an interview to an English magazine. Some very famous names have written about it. Fifty thousand pounds ....!!''

His anguish is understandable, and I begin to wonder about how irreverence in gossip circles is giving way to plain cruelty. I remember how a Bombay-based film glossy recently put a statement from starlet Urmila Matondkar about Vinod Kambli being a very ugly man on its cover. Did they have a right, or even a reason, to do that?

``I am feeling very good in the nets,'' says Azhar, steer- ing the conversation into less murky waters. ``Only yester- day, Anshuman Gaekwad (the national selector who is now in Madras, attending the preparatory camp as an observer) was reminding me of the number of off-side boundaries I hit during my innings of 182 at Calcutta (against Graham Gooch's Englishmen in 1993).''

I ask Gaekwad about it. ``Yes, I am trying to bring him back into that frame of mind. Everyone talks about his on- side shots. I think he was a fabulous off-side player too.''

``The only thing I was disappointed about with that in- nings,'' recalls Azhar, ``was that I didn't convert it to a double century. I remember when I was on 178 from about 175 balls, and then I played two maiden overs from Graeme Hick. But then I became greedy and wanted to reach the double cen- tury mark very quickly.''

His use of the word 'greedy' is interesting. He has used it before - and each time he does, he seems to associate far stronger negatives to it than many people do; almost as if desire at the batting crease was fraught with peril.

It is so typical of the simple approach he has always had to his cricket. It strikes me, not for the first time, how different he is from Tendulkar who seems so programmed, so focussed, so ambitious. Apart from being generously talented and innately decent, threre is nothing the two have in common.

I ask him about Tendulkar as captain and Azhar is off the blocks instantly. ``I think he will do a very good job. He is a very very good thinker and I rate him the best batsman in the world. He is always involved, and a very good team man. I am confident he will be a good captain.''

Is Azhar being diplomatic, or genuine? I think, the latter.

I do not know how much longer Mohammad Azharuddin will stay in the game. I don't think he knows either. But I have a sneaky feeling that not being captain any more will in- crease his life as a player. The pressure and the scrutiny if he had continued as captain would have killed him. It has certainly wounded him, but as he packs his kitbag I wonder if he can get those wounds to heal in time. ``I am a lot more relaxed now,'' he smiles. ``I don't get too many calls. Not too many people want to meet me. I have a lot more time now.''

For a man who was thrust into leading men, rather than being born to do so, losing the job at the time he did might well be blessing in disguise. Will the freedom he now has lead to more runs? Will he rediscover the off-side? Willl his strokeplay once again make field-setting a completely useless pastime? Or will he, like Gundappa Vishwanath, the batsman and person he most resembles, ride away quietly?

Sentiment, you see, counts for nothing. And Mohammad Azharuddin knows that. He also knows that his bat, rath- er than his moustache, will be his most visible ally in the days to come. But if you can still understand why he chooses to grow that moustache, you would have known another side to the mind of an international sportsman.

Talk to Harsha

Editor's Note: For those who are waiting for Harsha's personal web-site, some news:

The site will be up on Rediff's sports page Tuesday, Au- gust 20.

Initially, it will comprise three distinct components. The first, Commentary Box, will be a collection of Harsha's articles on various matters cricketing. The second, Back Chat, will comprise reader's queries, and Harsha's responses. Please note, all questions are liable to be edited for size - after all, you don't want to wait minutes while a monster file downloads, do you? And second three will be The Pavilion - a chat site where Harsha will, at pre-fixed dates and times, appear live to discuss with netizens around the world the game that both he, and you, love with a passion.

The site will, obviously, grow with time. And in order to help that growth, it would be nice if you could give us feedback about what more you would like to see in here. Your comments, and suggestions, will be studied by Harsha, and he will do his best to incorporate them into the site.

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