This 15th November, the God of cricket has achieved one more milestone in his long career. He completed 20 years in international cricket. It's not an easy task by any means. During this time-period he has made and break many records. Oh, ok I am not going to talk about those because it will take months to compile. I'll definitely be short of words, if I'll try to talk about him.
Today only I come to know that Sachin has started his career on 15th November. Coincidentally it is my b'day also. So, this year onwards I got one more reason to cheer that day.
I really don't remember the days when Sachin started playing. I was just 10 on the day when Sachin started playing international matches but since I remember, Sachin is bearing the weight of my hopes (as well of other billion people) in every match with his natural elegance and humility.
Sachin I thank you for playing cricket during my life and making 15th November so important.
Leader is not the one who perform well on there own. Leader is the person who also make others in their team perform well. Sachin Tendulkar, who not only performed extremely well today against Australia but also inspired Suresh Raina to perform well.
This is even bigger when keeping in mind that Suresh was not performing from last many matches. But this is the result of Sachin's aura which makes him hitting a good half-century knock.
Sachin has done the same in the past also. Remember last series of India-Australia when India visited Australia. Rohit Sharma played the best knock of his life till now when sachin was at the other end.
This is the ability of great leaders, which is definitely can be seen in Sachin Tendulkar.
So, all of us witnessed the debacle of Indian cricket team in 2009 T20 world cup. I'll not go for what mostly are saying that M. S. Dhoni was the reason of team's bad performance there in England. There were whole lot of other issues also. It's just that the decisions taken by Dhoni did not went that straight and missed there target. After all it's just a game. Win and loose are just a side of coin. Australia too was out in first round itself. It does not make them an easy side. They are still tough to play. But of' course everytime we fail we should take it as an opportunity to learn things. There are couple of management lessons which we can learn from the cricket story.
Put your best foot first: One of the major reasons of Indian team defeat, which people are discussing about is sending Ravindra Jadeja up in the order in place of in-form Yuvraj Singh. And when Yuvi got a chance to play it was probably little late even for him too. It helps in understanding that everybody has to put his best when working in a team. You do not want to rest when project starts and slog when it seems to miss the deadline.
Be Aggressive: Again it comes to Ravindra Jadeja, he was on the slower side when it came to scoring run in T20 side. Might be he was instructed by Dhoni to keep the wicket. In the process, he might loose the runs. And this was the reason alone due to which they won T200 world cup 2007. What this incident suggest is that it's better to be aggressive when working on any project. If you'll be slow then you might end up in chasing deadlines always.
Don't wait till it comes to the height: One of the major reason of losing matches was the bouncers by West-Indies and England teams. They used it effectively. Similarly don't wait till the work-pressure will come to your head. It's always better to keep work-pressure low. Only then you can keep balance between personal and professional life.
Don't let fatigue grow: When we work we need to rest too. At last people are saying that players were not fit due to long cricket schedule and IPL. So to take rest is one of the most important aspect of keep yourself fit to work and take pressure.
Believe all your team members: I still question the decision of not giving the ball to R. P. Singh, who was in good form and he gave just 13 runs in his earlier 3 overs with one wicket too. Albeit, Dhoni asked Ishant to bowl, which cost him quite handsomely. So, it's better to understand all of your team-members, there strength and weaknesses and ask them to play the part accordingly.
So, what is the difference between these two pics. They both led Indian cricket team bowling attack once, out of the team for a while and trying to come back to the side now. But who is selected for this year's T20 world-cup Indian team. It's R. P. Singh. You might have heard almost all the people about Sreeshanth's attitude problem in and out of the cricket ground. Even if he takes a wicket in last over of someone, who has already done enough damage to the Indian team, he dance like he has taken a wicket in first ball of the first over.
Aggression is good, but we must understand that there is a very thin line between being aggressive and being funny. Sreeshanth surely has crossed that line many times and make himself funny. Either it's a dance on the field after hitting six or it's the slap episode of IPL's first season last year. Just to re-iterate the fact that R. P. Singh is the most wicket taker in this year's IPL season. I remember after taking every wicket he used to smile, and did not shout like an animal.
Shreeshant was once a part of Indian cricket team. He has speed but I personally feel that he is overvalued bowler. He has a speed and aggression which is good but as I already mentioned that to be successful you are supposed to learn to contain your aggression and put it in one clear direction. You can not become Zaheer or Glen just by shouting at the opponent batsmen. You need to bowl well and get there wicket. And mind you just getting one wicket does not complete your job. You need to keep doing it regularly.
On the other hand R. P. Singh does not have that much speed as Shreesath's but the swing he got is lethal. And I never saw him getting satisfied with one wicket. That's why he is a purple cap holder of the tournament. He was neither depressed when he got a hit for six nor shouted when he took the wicket at the next ball. This shows the real character and the distance he has covered to reach here. He surely now an exprience bowler and I hope this experience will help him in taking wickets in coming T20 world cup as well as in following series. I believe that he'll do well and get many wins for Indian cricket team in future.
I will not hesitate in calling ourselves a cricket maniac people. And this is the problem with whole country. Whether cricket match is played or not we talk only about cricket. And so called news channels (they claim it) also can not see beyond it. Nowadays every news channel is having a full dedicated 30 minutes program for sports. But those sport news does not look beyond cricket. Aren't any other sports being played over the world.
Why the heck they call it sports news. Better they call it cricket news. I did not see any news about hockey team and team members since long. I do not know where Joginder Singh right now. Where is he participating or how is he doing practice etc. As a matter of fact most of does not know the top 10 players of India in all the games other then cricket team members, because we do not hear any news about them.
The bottom line is even the news channel does not show the news. It's only business now. They are oblivious to what news channel mean and what should it show to the people. They sell only what is hot currently in market. I do not see any difference in news channel and Bollywood movies or television shows.
Yesterday what a day for Indian sports. Amazing, is isn't??? First Sushil Kumar grab the bronze in wrestling. Then Vijendra secured at least Bronze (He can win more if he wins next fight). We got another victory in one-day match against Sri-lanka.
But this is the first time in my whole life where I feel Indian Cricket win is smaller than other sports. I watched Vijendra's quarter-final match more aggresively than T-20 cricket match (India vs Pakistan). And I am eagerly waiting for Vijendra's fight in semis tomorrow.
These are hero of the day, in fact of the century. Did we ever won 3 medals in a single Olympic. The answer is NO (though I haven't researched it but quite sure). The story began after wining Gold by Abhinav. These are really the dawn (read DON) of Indian sports. I am sure, they have ignited billion hearts and we'll soon see 30 and then 300 medals in a single Olympic given politics will not work as barrier.
India is participating in Olympics from last 80 years but today in 2008, the world's second most populous nation won first ever Olympic GOLD medal in solo category. The history is created and it's created by Abhinav Bindra.
He came ahead strongly to the Zhu Qinan, the defending champion, who won gold in last Olympics. I was lucky enough to see medal distribution ceremony live on DD-Sports today. It felt proud rather very proud when they play our National Anthem. I was so excited even I was just watching it on television, I cannot even think of the level of excitment of those who were physiclly present there or of the winner (Abhinav) itself.
Possibly the dawn of Indian sports has arrived and I hope if everything (politics, sports authorities, corporate) goes in right direction we can be next super power in sports also.
We all know how Jaipur's Rajasthan Royals are performing in ongoing season of IPL. As of now they top the chart among eight good teams. There are some of the very big names in other teams as well which are not doing so well in the tournament. e.g. Hyderabad Deccan Chargers. It has Gilchrist, Gibbs, Symonds, Shahid Afridi, Rohit Sharma, and Laxman. They all have capabilities to win the match on their own. But the result is they are one of the bottom three teams in the tournament so far.
So, what is the conclusion. It's yet to come, but before then that you must be thinking why I am talking about cricket in this blog and gave the label "Management"? It's because I feel there are couple of management lessons which we can inherit from cricket.
1. You should be flexible to work in different areas. In our corporate life we all are a part of teams. We do not have existence beyond the team. So, team is always first not the individual. Never ever put aside team's interest for your personal interests. Take a example of Rahul Dravid. He played at all the positions (from 1st to 6th) for the benefit of the team. He had put keeper gloves for more than 1 year just to make the team balance right. Similarly, we all have strengths in some particular area and if we are assigned a work in some other area we generally don't accept it easily. But if the teams needs you to excel or work on some other area you should be more than eager to do that.
2. Better team is worth more than best individuals. Take an example of Rajasthan Royals. They don't have big names, which is indirectly helping them. They are performing good because they are playing as a team. On the other hand Deccan Chargers are struggling to win even their 2nd match inspite of having so many big names. In our corporates we should try to make a team with those people who must have team spirit not the very intelligent individuals without team spirit.
3. Leaders are very important in every field of the life. They have to lead the team by performing, not just by guiding them. Shane Warne is a leader at par right now. He is not only leading his team from front by taking some crucial wickets at crucial moments but also inculcating the team spirit in his team members. With some unknown names he created a team which is at top in the the chart. While, before the tournament started no one was betting on them to win even a single match in the tournament.
4. Make strategy before every task. Shane Warne is doing exactly the same. He is having strategy for each team and for each batsman. He is using his resources excellently. Whether it is selecting playing XI, or a decision on batting line-up or the bowling changes through the match. All the leaders must prepare the strategy for each task and moreover they have to be ready to change the same if needed.
When cricket in India is on high with IPL, in bangalore we are also totally poured into cricket mania today. Can you believe we played for 40 overs in the scorching heat of Bangalore? But it was a nice experience and I am totally sorry for those who missed this action. Pankaj better luck next time. It was a 3-day test match which is still two days to go. Saturday and Sunday are the two remaining days.
It was 6:40 AM in the morning when I called everybody over phone for the cricket. By 8:00 AM more or less everyone was on the ground with high spirit. It was very nice to see people from GBPEC across batches, from 2001 to 2007. We won the toss elected batting first. Being Totally into test cricket mode we took very cautious and slow start to show our cricket "caliber". Finally in 20 overs we scored 73. Then they comes, our opponent. They played good cricket and with the help of some decent shots they managed to get 100.
yes they are leading with 27 runs, but with 40 overs to go, anything can happen. The game is still on guys. But it was as always a nice gathering. We got a chance to met guys across the batches. Added advantage is a nice health too.
The most awaited news from Indian Hockey came yesterday when Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has sacked Mr. K. P. S. Gill and dissolved the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF). It has ended a black era of 14 years of Mr. Gill in Indian hockey. It was a long awaited decision, at least from when Indian hockey team has failed to even qualify for Olympic this year. Followed by a bribery scandal involving K Jothikumaran, an IHF secretary. This is the first time when Indian team will not participate in Olympics since they began playing in 1928.
In this so called "youngistan" era many of us don't know what is our national sport. For them I must iterate that it is hockey, not cricket. From last 14 years Mr. Gill has put all his efforts to throw Indian hockey to abysmal depth. But the fact is that only Gill is not responsible for current state of hockey in India. IOA, red tapism, lack of funds to hockey, not enough facilities are some of them. But there should be someone who should take responsibility of all this, and in my perspective it is always the head the organization. But the funniest part of the story is Gill is still not ready to accept that Indian hockey is in crisis. Anyways IOA has placed a five member committee consisting of old Olympic players. Australian Ric Charlesworth will advise them.
But will it make any difference? Will it give a new heights to Indian hockey? Will it increase the fan following of hockey? Yes, I think it will make a huge difference to Indian hockey. Here are the reasons why. First point is Indian hockey is at its bottom, whatever will happen from here will be good. The second point is that if the leaders of any organization want to do something only then the lesson will reach to other stake holders of an organization. In this case hopefully they will do. I am looking them as five pandavas who will win the battle of kurushetra of'course with the help of Krishna (in this case Australian though).
So, with this this optimistic approach I must say Good Luck to new leaders of the IHF. Hope they will do something for Indian hockey but not only for their own.
PS: The idea behind recently started ICL, IPL is always compared by European Football clubs, but we can also compare it with long back started Premier Hockey League (PHL).
Today's hot news came when bhajji slapped shreeshant in the ground after losing a match. It is really a big news in the country where cricket is religion and cricketers are icons. In our country, cricket is not just a sport but a passion and most of all follows the sport as well cricketers.
Recently in IPL cricketers got huge amount of money because cricket and cricketers are followed by Indians with great zeal and passion. We follow them blindly. We watch the channel in which they come. We read the news which talks about them. We use the brands which they endorse. Many of us follow them as our icon. But if those so called "ICON" will behave like this, it will give wrong message to our youth.
So is it right time to accept that these cricketers are not the icons but only a normal people. I believe "YES". The time is now. They also behave like a normal person. They celebrate when they win. They become sad when they loose. They not only become sad but also loose their temper at times. They are just a human beings nothing more than that. So, what is different in them to follow?
I believe that when it comes to select our "Icon" we should follow the persons who have something to follow. Who worked really hard in each field of life and whatever the situations are they never lost their control. They kept their head cool and respond accordingly. They never react to the situation but respond. Who are those person is up to you to find.
The conclusion I want to make here is we must enjoy cricket, we can read their news and follows their scores, records etc. But we should not treat them as God. We should have respect not only for the cricket but for all the sports. But we must not treat cricket as a religion for sure!!
