Cricket cannot be a main sport in the US

With his new book The Winner’s Mindset, former Australian all-rounder Shane Watson wants to share with young cricketers the importance of developing your mind along with your body.

- ANIRUDH MADHAVAN

He goes deep into the subject, taking readers along in a journey to understand how the mind of a professional cricketer works. In an interview, the World Cup-winner talks about training your brain, the mindsets of M.S. Dhoni and Virat Kohli, and which teams he thinks are favourites to win the T20 World Cup. Excerpts:

Q/ Many former cricketers have written books, and some of them tend to be about how great they were. But with your book, it seems like you have a strong message for young cricketers.

A/ I never thought that I would write an autobiography or something talking about my career. I always wanted to... write this book, which is an education around how to be able to get the very best out of yourself from understanding the mental side of you as a human being. [And] to be able to then just access all the skills that you work so tirelessly for, when you really need to perform.

Q/ You have great clarity of thought in your writing. For instance, you mention the A and B factors; A being the controllables and B being the uncontrollable.

A/ So the performance equation is: A times B equals results. The A in the equation are the things that you are in control of. These are the skills that you have, your fitness, your mental energy stores, your health. It is also how committed you are right there and then, and what your preparation is like. The B factors are not in your control. From a cricket perspective, it is like getting a bad or good umpiring decision. You are batting and someone drops a really easy catch or someone takes an amazing catch. So to the B factors, there is a positive and negative side.