Chaos in Cricketing Community
Posted : April 8, 2007 at 11:19 am [IST]
Since India couldn’t qualify into Super 8, the whole of cricket community is creating a chaos for those who don’t like to see the immense waste of energy or younger as well as older generation into this useless game from Raj legacy. Emotions all over the country as presented by media is running high and wild. Heroes are becoming zeros. BCCI is coming out with drastic but typically Indian brand steps to improve Indian cricket. Why was a similar uproar not there when we lost our deserving place in hockey? Why media makes cricket so big a thing? Why has the game fans ranging from Lalu Yadav and Ram Vilash Paswan to Rahul Bose and perhaps most of the actresses of Indian cinema? Perhaps, it is because cricket is a commodity where vested interest makes a lot of money without doing much and so put a lot of money promote it.
I have never been knowledgeable nor enthusiast of this game. But I feel the reason of poor performance of Indian players and team (if it is really a team) is different. I remember the time when India could win only Sri Lanka, and then Zambia and Bangla Desh. Unfortunately all those teams have improved and gone better than India. They are better teams and at least some of the players are match winners.
For winning a match of cricket, some players must have exemplary concentration and consistency to achieve the best out of every ball they face or every ball they throw at the opponent’s batsman. One is to be Arjun all the time to hit the bull’s eye and ’sthitpragya’ ( without personal emotional attachment) too. And to get to the level, one will have to innovate new techniques that can’t be copied by others and develop brute stamina. Unfortunately, Indian players after getting selected in national team stop concentrating, practicing, improving and perfecting their performances; and spend more time managing those who matter to keep them in team and those who can make them richer by getting them ads. The Indian players must be taught the lessons of Kaizen (continuous improvements) and innovation and taken through effective workouts of team working. And in lighter vein, I shall like that some IIMs or person like Surinder Kapur (Sona Steering and CII) may be given the task.
My views may have gross lack of understanding of the game. However, I do believe that today every Indian in whatsoever trade he is, must innovate newer products and techniques that must be better than competition by miles and keep working to maintain the gap.
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Cricket in India: It’s Big Business but Not Businesslike
- Indra
Category: Employment/Education |
4 Comments »
In spite of your self-professed “lack of understanding and knowledge” of the game, I think your take on the whole subject (of the pitiful state of cricket and other sports in India) is pretty interesting. In fact, I don’t think there is any need for “knowledge of the game” to analyze and critique the rather sad state of Indian cricket, in specific, and Indian sports, in general. As I write this, Bangadesh has rather effortlessly walloped South Africa. Ah! The vagaries of cricket!
All said and done, the realization finally dawned…I truly love this pathetic game of bat and ball
Rajesh
Posted by: Indra at April 8, 2007 @ 6:54 am
It’s been a while Papaji when I played or showed much of an interest in the game of cricket. That said, I do keep an eye on the state of Indian cricket from time to time. My $0.02 cents:
- It’s a team effort. Period. We won in 1983 because it was a team effort where players respected, but more importantly, trusted each other.
- Play for the love of the game. Play for the same reason you played on hot muggy afternoons day after day back when you were a kid - cause you loved it.
- Last, but not the least, keep on improving and improvising your skills both as an individual and as a team.
That said, failure in-and-of-itself is not bad. India was in the finals during the last World Cup as far as I remember. Well, so this time, it did not quite work out that way. It’s sad, but the B-I-G question really is: What do they from this point on? Do they rtry to learn from this and do something concrete about it or continue to play the same old players that were playing when I was in my late teens?
Aap sab ka
Puchchu
Posted by: Indra at April 8, 2007 @ 9:52 am
N R Narayana Murthy, one of India’s best-known business leaders has the following arguments and suggestions about the cricket massacre:
The tragedy of India is that instead of seeing what’s wrong with us and taking steps to correct it, we indulge in hysterics and look for scapegoats. India has a long record of playing badly abroad, which precedes both Rahul Dravid and Greg Chappell. So why single them out?
The real problem lies with the system. Not just in cricket, but in virtually any walk of life, we are unwilling to put in hard work and live with discipline. Other countries are so neat, clean and well-organised but Indian cities are a mess, because we’re simply not willing to respect the rules. We can succeed, not just in cricket, but in everything else if we only follow four basic principles: strictly adhere to meritocracy, work hard, train well and follow strict discipline.
We need to pick the best guys available. And the same applies to the coach. People keep asking whether we need a foreign coach. I don’t think that’s an issue at all. We should ask, who’s the best guy for the job? Whoever it is should get it.
Once you’ve given someone a mandate, let him implement it without interference. At Infosys, we have all our debates, arguments and discussions before it’s decided who’ll be responsible for something. Once it’s decided that X is the boss, all arguments stop and everyone rallies behind him.
I know ‘process’ has become a much-mocked term. But at Infosys, we firmly believe in following processes and it’s always worked for us. If Chappell’s process didn’t work, maybe it wasn’t followed properly or he wasn’t allowed to implement it in full. Show the door to disruptive elements
I’ve read that some senior players were allowed to get away with indiscipline and that’s totally unacceptable. No matter how big a star you are, if you’re disruptive to the team, you need to be shown the exit. Never mind if we lose a few matches. If you follow the correct process, positive results are bound to eventually follow.
Frankly, I don’t think having a coaching camp for a few days helps. I’d suggest we pick the 30 guys who we believe are the best in the country. They should all be given good salaries by BCCI and closeted in a hi-tech training centre round the year. Rotate them so that even if 15 are playing a series, the other 15 are training. Ensure that everyone gets to train intensively during the year. Follow best practices from around the world, give the players the best facilities and make them work really hard — eight hours a day. If anyone refuses to practice or follow the rules, axe him immediately. Follow these principles and you’re bound to have a world-beating team.
(As told to Vikas Singh)
Posted by: Indra at April 9, 2007 @ 7:07 am
Pranam
Good thoughts.
I equate this very much to teamwork that one sees
between two organizations - a larger (slow moving) one
and a good, dynamic startup (which is smaller).
Larger means very little as the collective wisdom of
several large industries have found out. Smaller
organizations are lot leaner and faster and more
importantly are much tightly bound to the goal - ‘win
as a team, lose as a team’.
The Indian team perhaps has too many individuals
playing, versus an India “team” playing in those
games.
Having said this I must caveat this all by saying - I
havent watched or followed cricket for over a decade
and half
Warm regards
-Rakesh
Posted by: Indra at April 11, 2007 @ 7:18 pm
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