Ravi Shastri has pulled back the curtain on what it really means to play cricket for India and it's far from glamorous.
Speaking on The Overlap Cricket podcast alongside Sir Alastair Cook, Michael Vaughan, David Lloyd and Phil Tufnell, the former India head coach described the overwhelming scrutiny Indian players face. He said they are "public property" who are expected to deliver always.
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The video captures conversation where Shastri doesn't sugar coat the toll of being in the spotlight 24/7.
Ravi Shastri opens up on relentless pressure faced by India's cricketers
When asked how Indian players deal with the constant noise and pressure, especially when big names like Sachin Tendulkar used to walk out to deafening applause only to leave in silence after a dismissal, Shastri didn't hold back.
"It’s not easy. There's nothing you can do. You're public property. You're expected to perform - come what may. COVID, no COVID, to hell with that - you got to win. You got to score hundreds," said Shastri.
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He explained that fans in India are not just passionate - they are relentless in their expectations.
"You score a hundred, then you fail in two or three innings, and it’s: 'He's going through a bad patch, get him dropped.' We've got 1.5 billion people, but their memory is this short," he added.
Shastri traced the roots of this national obsession back to the 1983 World Cup win which changed how the country looked at cricketers.
"The interest for the game just went through the roof. The way people saw cricketers was different. The way corporates looked at the sport changed," he added.
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He said things exploded further in the early 1990s with global TV coverage and corporate sponsorships pouring in.
"Then came the IPL. And now cricket reaches over 200 countries. The eyeballs it attracts every day are massive," he concluded.
For India's players, it's a career that brings unmatched fame. But one that comes at the cost of constant pressure and no room for failure.