Learnings from the game of 'Cricket'.

Cricket is not just a sport in our country it is been termed as a ‘religion’. Every other day the performance of Indian Team is judged by millions of fans. Some of our cricketers are eulogized while others are constantly criticized. The sport itself has made lives of many players who have been from humble backgrounds; it has given them everything. For fans, the sheer joy of seeing your own fellow countrymen succeed gives the feeling of togetherness. I have been tracking this game very closely for the last 10 years and I can vouch for this. But most of the fans only watch the game and do not observe the minutest details attached to it. They may be the biggest supporters of team but you need to understand the game very carefully to learn some of the things which are part of this game. Cricket can teach you many things which will help even in our routine life.

One of the aspects which I learned very early from this game is that it teaches you to share your success unlike tennis which kind of promotes individualism (though doubles can be an exception). This is very important for anyone who watches cricket to learn and inculcate in life. Sharing your success with everyone who has contributed even in a smallest possible way gives you a sense of satisfaction. This trait will help immensely in life for it gives you some moments to rejoice. It will also make a person more humble and level headed. Team sport; be it Cricket, Hockey or football teach you this. While other games like tennis or snooker give rise to a more individual centric environment which personally I don’t like. 

Another remarkable thing which cricket teaches you is the leadership qualities. The cricketing world has seen some of the most spectacular leaders. The way they handle their resources could easily draw applause from management experts. The times of adversity are a true test of any captain/leader. The leadership styles and patterns are also very different. Sourav Ganguly was a dynamic leader; full of aggression and a will to fight back while Rahul Dravid was more of a ‘leadership by example’ type. This may sound more like a management article but fact of the matter is having good leadership skills always reap good results. 

Also cricket in many ways is as unpredictable as life. The constant need to innovate and improvise is an important ingredient for any business to succeed and similar is the case with cricket. How teams respond when they have their backs against the wall is a case study in itself. It can motivate any one to go all out after your dreams and may be opponents to achieve success. It has also shown us that success and failures are two imposters in life for they rarely show the true picture. 

To tackle different opponents teams often plan very meticulously; strategizing the strengths and weaknesses etc. This in itself is a very interesting exercise as it makes you observe the weaknesses and plan about the downfall of your opponent and then execute the plans. It involves a lot of mental work which would shape any individual provided he has a sharp observation.

But, one of the significant learning from this game is that it creates a feeling of oneness and togetherness amongst all of us fans. If the team does well then it instantly lifts your mood this is the effect. It binds us together be it at high end restaurants or at pan parlour. This emotional attachment with the game gives us the message that we are with our country come what may. Also since it is the team game, the message which it spreads is that to achieve big we need to build teams and not individuals.

Why so much mercy for a celebrity?

In India a celebrity or a man from a well connected family brings about many benefits which an ordinary citizen can only dream of. Robert Vadra has seen it all and made money with such ease that it made you wonder as if it grew on the floor of his bedroom. Very recently, at a party hosted by Sahara Group Chairman Subrata Roy everyone dropped in be it the leader of the ruling party or the prominent actors or the cricketers or the industrialists. This worries me for the simple reason that in India who you know is more important than what you know. These connections or friendships will only screw ordinary citizens like us. This clique of people with power and huge net worth seem to pay no heed whatsoever for the rule of law. Another feature of these groups is that they give each other mutual access to their power to enhance it.

We are all aware of the outrage over the Supreme Court’s order to send Sanjay Dutt to jail for 5 years for his role in 1993 Mumbai serial blasts. Everyone started condemning that order as if the Court’s decision was a sacrilege. And this is our apex court, mocking its decision is simply preposterous. The whole film fraternity started to rally behind Dutt. They will have to for the obvious reason that hundreds of crores are blocked in movies starring Dutt. They are of the view that he is innocent and has already suffered a lot. Even the press council chairman and former chief justice of India Markandey Katju wrote a letter to the governor of Maharashtra in respect to this. His reasons defy logic and are no less than absurd. The likes of Digvijay Singh and our enigmatic home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde have publicly pledged their support for Dutt. But the arguments put forward to defend Dutt have lacked logic and conviction. You can always say he has a family, has suffered a lot but what about the families of those who lost their loved ones in that blast.

But wait, Does Dutt even deserve all this love, affection, mercy? Agreed with time he might have become a good human being, promoting the ideology of Gandhiji but is it enough to warrant him a reduction in term or pardoning of the full term? The answer is NO. For a similar charge another convict in ’93 blasts case has served the punishment which was as per the law. Dutt has some serious charges against his name and on the top of it his late parents tried everything in their power to save their son. They managed that with limited success else Dutt would have been behind bars pretty early. He should’ve been charged under TADA Act instead of the Arms Act. There is also the conversation between an underworld don and him released by Mumbai Police. He also helped them gain their base. There is more to this story than this with Dutt possessing AK 56 rifle illegally. He later claimed that he kept it for personal safety. Now tell me who on earth keeps AK 56 for safety? There too he got away easily but would this have been possible for you and me?

It is deplorable to see this happening; you have all the evidences of a crime and has been proven guilty by the apex court but the same people who are part of this legal system and who have to conduct themselves with utmost honesty are seen in parties such as Subrata Roy’s smiling and chatting away. The ordinary wrong doers still hide their faces in the society while these people with strong contacts and power manage to find their pictures in newspapers. There is complete absence of a sense of propriety.

It is this mindset of the people at top positions which is threatening the very existence of democracy. An ordinary Indian citizen is made to suffer a lot in jail for crimes like theft while the people, who commit crimes of a higher pedigree with their celebrity status and a position of power, get away as easily as moving away from an innocuous buffalo. The law should be the same for everyone and its protectors need to show some integrity, honesty if they have any.

What makes people work - money? recognition? passion?

We all work for many reasons mostly because we have to. This has always remained a perennial question for every generation. What pushes you to work? It is a foregone conclusion that to sustain ourselves we work but apart from that there can be a few kicks which make you go to office every day. For some people money takes them to their work place while for many others something else gives them the tonic needed to work.

It is my hypothesis that the generation which worked during the course of 70’s, 80’s and 90’s worked more for recognition than anything else but now with the changing dynamics of economy the priorities have taken a paradigm shift too. The bank balances and pay cheques have assumed greater importance in today’s India grappling with the ever rising inflation.

Life is not a bed of roses and in these times living expenses have burnt hole in pockets of many people. In this case the financial rewards help. Money can bring motivation especially for the sales people. For the people with meagre salary money is everything and as gradually we move up the ladder of management structure in an organization the reasons for working change. It is important for any employer to reward his employees suitably for the extra effort which he always demands from them. Granted, many people go to work every day to bring that all important pay cheque. But that amount alone is worth the effort of grinding away for more than 45 hours a week? Is that everything? No.

People strive to better themselves to gain recognition in the workplace. Be it anyone-Boss, co-worker every person wants to be recognized for the work that they have been putting in. It is deeply rooted in the fabric of humans to crave for attention, recognition or even appreciation. But over and above all this, recognition gives us a kind of satisfaction which no amount of money could ever provide. A few weeks back, I read in a newspaper that many companies have now started ‘employee recognition’ program; some way of trying to motivate its employees to work harder. Sometimes ‘employee of the month’ are all the titles on signs and plaques that can be seen in the lounge of many offices. Employees will remember that moment. It is just that feeling of appreciation makes any job bearable. Also it cannot be ruled out that recognition wins loyalty.

But the thing which can provide endless motivation to do any work is passion. When any person becomes ‘passionate’ about the work he is doing then rest assured that he doesn’t require any other thing for motivation. Passion brings out the dedication, grit, determination and what not. It is the passion to play cricket which makes Sachin Tendulkar the greatest of them all. Nothing seems impossible when you are in that sort of frame of mind. A person, full of passion will not stop even after achieving heights. And in the process you achieve a certain degree of satisfaction that you did your best irrespective of anything else. However, for an average person to suddenly infuse passion for his work is simply asking way too much. It is important for anyone to not let that passion taper off. Only some of the enlightened souls (read Sachin Tendulkar, Amitabh Bachchan and Lata Mangeshkar) maintain that for a long time.

For any individual it is important to find the right reason which makes you work or even study. That reason should stay with you for preferably a longer duration of time which would help in achieving excellence. In the end it all depends on how a person perceives work. For some of them work is their ‘dharma.’ And for some it is no less than irritation.

Why the attraction to 'Unpredictability'?

In life we all crave for that feeling of stability, security and confidence which is kind of provided by the people who are predictable and mechanical in nature, but wait those people do not make life as interesting as you would want it to be. Many of the interesting people I have met have an edge of unpredictability attached to their personality.  Even many of the psychologists are of the opinion that it is human nature to get attracted to the people who are capricious and elusive in their behavior. While they may not quite give us the sense of stability but they do manage to stimulate the mind and make life free from boredom.

That is precisely the reason why people or couples I should say enjoy each other’s company when they are still discovering each other. Every new discovery is the cause of an excitement. And as time catches up, everything falls into a pattern. Nothing changes except that you know each other and then you start considering life as dull and uninteresting. The predictable sameness irritates; no excitement whatsoever. It is the unknown that entices and tempts.      

There is nothing more predictable than sunrise every morning and sunset that follows in the evening and yet we take it for granted. It is the unpredictable rainstorm that attracts rather than the unchanging pattern of sun.  Similarly, in life and relationships we get intrigued to the people who are unknown quantities with little known traits, and hence exciting for us. Even in a sport like cricket an unpredictable captain enjoys the advantage over others with his imaginative yet practical leadership. Unpredictability arouses interest. Only animals behave in set patterns and that makes them vulnerable but humans have the competency to cross the boundaries of habit and routine. Behavior that is inconsistent keeps people on their toes and spawns curiosity around a person. A relationship in which you expect the unexpected is the one that keeps you in a state of happy excitement. It also should provide us a sense of security but not enough that the bonding becomes dull.

Unpredictability can also be used as a terrorizing tactic if taken to an extreme. We all are fear which we do not understand or which is unknown to us. People in powerful positions always use this move purposefully to their advantage for unsettling those around them so as to keep them guessing.

 
However, being unpredictable doesn’t warrant a spur-of-the-moment reaction. For unpredictability to be used as an effective tool a proper method needs to be in place. It is also vital to understand our behavior and the usual prototype it falls into and then try to make hash of those usual patterns in an intentional manner to inject some zeal into life.