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Geniuses, they say, often have a streak of madness. The statement may, at best, be only partly true for every Brian Lara there is a Sachin Tendulkar, for a Shane Warne there is a Muthiah Muralitharan.
Streak of madness or not, a tragic flaw seems to be common in most of the exceptionally gifted sportspersons throughout the world.
It's still too early to say whether Yuvraj Singh belongs in this category, but one of India's best one-day finishers is not without the quirks that accompany the top flight performers.
A subtle ego clash with captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni? Better still, a lunch date with Deepika Padukone on Sydney Harbour and then rumours of a break-up ? Going back a little in time, a publicised scrap with a friend at the player's birthday bash.
Yuvi has been through it all to almost earn that bad boy label.
Having started his career four years before Dhoni, he was certainly one of the candidates for captaincy in the shorter form of the game. But the powers-that-be decided against giving him either the top job or the deputy status ostensibly on charges of an extravagant night life.
A scar, which he may try to shrug off with a 'Oh no, don't-start-that-again attitude', but simply refuses to go away.
While it can provide food for thought for a psychologist, the brutality he often inflicts on bowlers may have a genesis in some latent anger in his personality.
Stuart Broad could be his favourite topic for anger management in recent times, but the rare combination of power and timing that was on display in the first two one-day Internationals against England had left all and sundry gaping in awe.
Crest of a wave
The current year may have seen Indian cricket ride the crest of a wave too often, but it had not exactly been smooth sailing for the Punjab dasher.
Frequent injuries, a forgettable one-day series in Sri Lanka, being dropped from the Rest of India squad for Irani Trophy as well as the Test squad - not to speak of the whispers on his so called 'attitude.'
All these must have put things on the boil. No wonder, Yuvraj Singh imploded.
Here is a match winner, a very special batsman, but who he could also prove a nightmare for his captain. And this is where Dhoni has to use his man management skills to the hilt.
The job was much easier for someone like Sourav Ganguly, who had literally mentored him in the initial years.
For Dhoni, who belongs to the same age group as the temperamental batsman himself, trying to rein him in, smooth-talk him, may not work.
Instead, Dhoni could just try stoking that latent anger in Yuvraj Singh. It may just work!
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