India all-rounder Vijay Shankar on Tuesday emphasised the impact national and state T20 leagues have on the financial security of the players. "Definitely. In any IPL side, even if you go for the base price, your life is actually secured," he said in a panel discussion in the CII Tamil Nadu Fitness & Sports Summit 2020 at the Taj Coromandel.
Vijay’s introduction to international cricket was a trial by fire. He struggled to put bat to ball in the Nidahas Trophy final in 2018 against Bangladesh but luckily for Team India, Dinesh Karthik’s late cameo saved the day. Vijay though was the subject of vitriol and jokes on social media. And it wasn’t just limited to the virtual world.
Asked how, as a cricketer, he manages to stay away from negativity, he said: "With social media, whatever you do, people have the freedom to comment on it. They have their own views and they can come up with anything. I'm someone who's not much into social media. And even when you're not into social media, it somehow gets to you. These things can definitely affect you. And it has definitely affected me when I made my T20 debut in Sri Lanka.
"It was pretty hard for me to come out of it. For the first one week, I found it really hard to go out of my house. Because, people would come up to me, and they would always ask me about the negative things that had happened. After the first two-three days, I was literally shattered. Every time I went back to sleep, I was in tears. So, all I could do to come out of it was train really hard. I didn't give myself any free time, for that's when you generally get a lot of negative thoughts. Immediately after that tour, we had the IPL and I had a very good season. Everything changed from there. So, according to me, changing the perception is very, very easy. It just changes overnight."
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