Michael Porter and the Indian Cricket test team

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As India capitulated to one other overseas cricket series defeat to England last week, any Indian cricket fan is bound to ask the question – why again after coming so close? It’s not that the Indian team has been vanquished by the English cricket team, as the Indian team was in a strong position in all but one of the tests. The Indian team, ranked no.1 in test cricket, had all the elements at its disposal – a limited overs series before the tests so as to acclimatize to the conditions, a supposedly great team with the world`s best batsman as its aggressive leader, a great fast bowling unit, many of the players having played in England before, etc. Like Jerry Mcguire asked “Show me the money”, the Indian cricket fans are asking “Show me the victories”.

I as a corporate professional and an avid cricket fan tried to analyze the possible reasons for the Indian cricket team`s failure to win series abroad using a framework (what else can typical MBA`s do?) – Global Management guru Michael Porter`s value chain framework. Porter`s value chain framework analyzes the performance of a firm as a portfolio of activities. Applying the same concept I have tried to analyze the Indian team`s performance based on their main activities and support activities. Scores have been attributed to the various elements with green – positive, grey – neutral and red – negative.

After analysis Porter`s value chain framework for the Indian test team reflects as below:

Main Activities

1.    Preparation(Score : negative)

The Indian team made some structured efforts but did not have a comprehensive preparation for a difficult tour like England`s. Some players like Pujara, Ishant Sharma and Ashwin played in the county league to get used to conditions and hence they were able to perform decently well. However the Indian didn’t play enough practice matches to get used to the conditions and hence repeated the same mistake that they did before the South African series as well as the last English tour in 2014. Infact the Indian team cut short a practice match ostensibly so that they don’t tire themselves!

The other strategy adopted for getting match practice was to play the limited overs series before the tests. But hey, white ball cricket is a different proposition from red ball cricket, especially in England, where the red ball swings more. Poor preparation indeed! To add to the misery most of the players were just back from a grueling IPL.

2. Bowling (Score : positive)

As discussed earlier, after a long time the bowling team is consistently bowling out opposition teams in overseas tours as evident with the present English tour and the previous South African tours. Both the fast bowlers as well as the spinners are able to consistently put the opposition under pressure in various conditions. In the present tour as well as the South African tour, there have been superlative performances by the pacers as well as by the spinners like Ashwin`s in the first test and Jadeja in the last test of the English series.

3.Batting (Score : negative)

With the exception of the Nottingham test, the Indian batters could not put decent scores to put England under pressure. India now produces excellent white ball batsmen like Shikar Dhawan, Hardik Pandya, etc. but except for Virat Kohli and to some extent Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, Indian batters cannot last in tough overseas conditions in tests with the red ball. Most of the batsmen, so used to playing limited overs cricket in docile Indian pitches, don’t have the skills sets to bat in bowler friendly wickets and surprisingly are unable to play spin too.

4. Fielding (Score : neutral)

Most of the Indian players are excellent outfielders but poor slip fielders – again effect of limited overs cricket. With the exception of KL Rahul, the close in fielders have poor catching skills. On top of that India also faces a genuine problem of lack of quality wicket keepers as seen by the pathetic display of both Dinesh Kartik and Rishabh Pant in the absence of Wriddhiman Saha.

Supporting Activities

a. Coach & Support Staff (Score : neutral)

Ravi Shastri was an average player in his playing time but it is man management skills which has probably got him the job and not his technical. As a compared to a tough no nonsense but technically sound coach like Anil Kumble, Ravi Shastri is holding on to the job just by pleasing Virat Kohli. However in tough and crunch conditions, key critical and tough inputs which needs to be sent by Shastri seems missing which a technically more competent coach would do. Also repeated blunders in team selection shows Shastri in poor light. Similarly with the lack of test batting skills in the Indians, the team needs a highly technical batting coach like probably Rahul Dravid as compared to Sanjay Bangar.

b. Team composition and skillsets  (Score : neutral)

India probably is the only team which can boast of a vast bench strength thanks to IPL which has thrown up new talent like Rishabh Pant, Vihari, etc. Fast bowling department, which used to India`s weak link, has an array of excellent talent with wide array of talent to choose from. Gone are the days in the 80`s when India had only Kapil Dev to bank upon.

However in tough overseas conditions, India`s main weakness has been in their traditional strong base – batting. Indian batsmen`s technique are good for limited overs and home conditions but are suspect in overseas conditions. The other major problem has been lack of quality openers with Murali Vijay and KL Rahul having the technique but unable to perform consistently while Shikar Dhawan is good only in one day cricket. Yes, there are very few quality test batsmen globally now but India should be better off considering the amount of talent available and money involved in cricket.

c. Execution / Attitude (Score : neutral)

While the team`s urge to win isn’t under doubt, the ecosystem in the team also needs some introspection. One of the issues has been the constant team change by Kohli which probably has affected the morale of some players. Kohli `s captaincy too has been average in crunch situations especially in field placements in critical situations and also his dominant attitude is also leading to issues in the team. The team selection process too leaves much to be desired especially in the Lords test by playing Kuldeep Yadav and not playing Cheteshwar Pujara in the first test the blame for which lays on the coach and captain. Lastly, the players of today don’t seem to like the Test cricket, with the exception of a few, thanks to other money spinners like IPL, one dayers, etc. The new bunch of players loathe the tests and is evident in their approach.

To conclude, Indian test cricket has a major structural problem thanks to IPL, limited overs cricket, coach – captain influence on the team and lack of focus on preparation. India probably will remain as no.1 test team thanks to wins in India and focus will shift to one day’s cricket once they win tournaments. But still... I leave it to the readers to judge.