LEARNINGS FROM THE ICONS

The second week of?July?is memorable for sports lovers. Three of our foremost cricket captains celebrate their birthdays over a four-day period. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the second Indian captain to win the World Cup, turned 41 on?7 July. Sourav Ganguly, regarded by many as India’s greatest captain ever, turned 50 on?8 July. Sunil Gavaskar, undoubtedly the greatest opening batsman in history and a world-beater, turns 73 on?10 July.

The greatness of these three legends was not confined to cricket grounds. There is a lot that aspiring cricketers or sportspersons can learn from them, in terms of discipline and career management. That apart, Mr. Gavaskar, Sourav and MSD are ideal role models for all those who are keen to make a mark in sports management. Let me elaborate.

Keeping a cool head under pressure. Projecting confidence even when you are highly stressed. Focussing on only the factors that you can control.

These attributes can be contagious, in that the members of a team could pick them up, if they see their leader displaying the same.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni was known as ‘Captain Cool’ for a reason. There must have been times, at least early in his captaincy career, when he would have felt the heat, but never did he display his emotions. The final of the ICC World T20 2007 was a case in point. With one over left, Dhoni weighed his options and brought on Joginder Sharma. Pakistan’s Misbah-ul-Haq was in great nick. Dhoni would have felt nervous when Joginder first conceded a wide and was then hit for six. All the captain did was run up to his bowler and tell him something. Dhoni’s poise would have rubbed off not only on the bowler, but also the fielders. Sreesanth, who was fielding at short fine-leg, kept his cool and held Misbah’s attempted scoop to give India the title. The only time Dhoni gave us a glimpse of what was going on in his mind was when he leapt and punched the air in delight. After doing that, he returned to his clinical self.

?Another praiseworthy leadership trait displayed by Dhoni was his penchant for attending the post-match media conference whenever the team he was captaining, be it India or CSK, lost. As captain, Dhoni never shied from taking responsibility for a defeat and absorbed all the heat that was hurled at the team as a result. He would send someone else, like the player of the match, for the post-match media conference, whenever his team won. Unfortunately, we live in an age in which ‘leaders’ do exactly the opposite. Leaders / managers who lead from the front when the going gets tough and step away from the limelight when the going is good, are respected not only by their teammates, but also opponents and competitors.???

Dhoni won many fans for promoting himself in the batting order in the final of the ICC CWC 2011. He had been out of form, but he put himself in the firing line, ahead of Yuvraj Singh, who was having a dream tournament. The captain believed that he could neutralise the threat that Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lanka’s spin legend, posed to his team at a critical juncture of the game. Having made up his mind, he did not waste time worrying about the likely repercussions, if he were to fail. He put his team ahead of himself. The rest is history.

When it comes to man-management, not many cricket captains can come close to Sourav Ganguly. If he felt that a player was talented, then he backed that player to the hilt. He stood up for his players and did not hesitate in taking on the authorities on their behalf, if required.??

He was appointed captain of India at a difficult time in 2000. The game and its fans were struggling to come to terms with the match-fixing controversy at the time. The situation called for exemplary leadership, and Ganguly provided just that. He was lucky to have teammates like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath, all of whom were men of integrity and epitomes of professionalism. With Ganguly at the helm, this group created a team that brought glory to Indian cricket in the first decade of the new millennium. India started winning Test matches overseas, which was something that had happened very sporadically in the previous century.

The names of the players who either debuted or flourished under Ganguly’s tutelage, speak for themselves – VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Gautam Gambhir, Ashish Nehra and of course, Mahendra Singh Dhoni. All of them had long and distinguished careers. One of the characteristics of a leader is his ability to nurture future leaders, and Ganguly was brilliant in this regard. As many as seven of the names mentioned above were part of the team that won the World Cup in 2011, six years after Ganguly last led India at the international level.

Before Ganguly and Dhoni, there was Sunil Gavaskar, who rewrote the record-books with his batting exploits in the 1970s and 1980s. Ironically, his feats as a batsman have overshadowed his achievements as captain. Unlike his two successors, Gavaskar did not have a potent bowling attack, which was capable of winning matches on a regular basis. This made him rely primarily on Kapil Dev, his spearhead. He had no option but to start thinking in terms of winning only after he had eliminated every possibility of defeat. That is why his record as captain does not look impressive statistically. But then, statistics rarely tell you the complete truth.

As captain of the Indian team that participated in the World Championship of Cricket in Australia in 1985, Mr. Gavaskar found himself in charge of bowlers, all of whom were in form. What followed was extraordinary. He did some radical things, like using spinners as attacking bowlers in limited-overs cricket. This was a time when it was believed that ‘slow’ bowlers had no place in the abbreviated version of the game. However, Mr. Gavaskar thought differently. He utilized his resources splendidly and India ended up winning five matches out of five.?

What managers can learnt from Mr. Gavaskar is to never hesitate to attempt something, just because it is unconventional, if you believe in your teammates and in yourself.

Mr. Gavaskar was also a visionary. Ever mindful of the relatively short career-span of sportspersons and the need to keep abreast of changing times, he founded Professional Management Group, India’s first sports event management and marketing company, in 1985, and donned the hats of newspaper columnist and television show host, even when he was an active cricketer. He was the first Indian sporting legend to show not only his fellow sportspersons, but also sports fans, how an ‘off-the-field’ career in sport could be created, and how it could either follow or complement the careers of those who excelled on the field.

Happy Birthday to these three legends!