Speak with your skill, sports psychologist advices Yuvraj

It's probably high time for the cash-filled Indian Premier League teams to organise sessions for their players on how to deal with intense, unrelenting media scrutiny. At the moment, the last tribe on earth Yuvraj Singh would like to meet is the press gang.

It is believed that Yuvraj is livid at a recent newspaper report that said he is under-performing for Kings XI Punjab. "Media has no right to fabricate stories, they just want eyeballs," he wrote on Twitter recently. The southpaw has not got heaps of runs in this IPL (although he stayed unbeaten in Kings XI's great chase against KKR), but it has to be taken into consideration that his poor form coincided with his return from injury and not everybody is giving him that allowance.

Preity Zinta, Kings XI Punjab's co-owner rushed to his defence by negating stories written about her big batting star. But invariably, the media gets blamed for every controversy even if another force has had a big hand on the trigger.

Sports psychologist B P Bam felt that there is probably something wrong with the left-hander's focus rather than form. It could well be that Yuvraj is thinking too much about what is written and said about him while at the crease. "What can the media do? Public attention is focussed on this type of cricket. They feel every ball has to be hit, but that's not possible. Yuvraj will just have to get used to the public focus," said Bam, author the book Winning Habits: Techniques for Excellence in Sports.

"You cannot ignore the media, but you have to separate the roles; keep a clean slate and go about your job. Else, how will you keep your opponents in check? I don't think our players are used to such public focus, but one has to cope. That's the price you pay. You should speak with your skill and not your tongue."

Bam, who has worked with international sportspersons reckoned Sourav Ganguly is very good at handling pressure: "Ganguly was recently criticised, but he said that he has been loved for so many years and the public have a right to feel disappointed at times.

"Yuvraj must learn to focus on what he has to do and that is to get runs. He is a tremendous player and if he gets this right, he will be unstoppable."