Overcoming catastrophic leadership

It’s 19 years and 2 days since one of cricket’s biggest scandals erupted, consuming in its wake some of the biggest names at that time.

It was April 7, 2000, when the world woke up to the term match-fixing and Hansie Cronje, who until then was one of cricket’s most respected captains, became the face of of tone of the biggest scourges in cricket.

By the time the dust settled on the scandal, it took with it then Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin and few others like Ajay Jadeja, Nayan Mongia and Salim Malik from Pakistan. Azharuddin, who had played in 99 tests up to that point, never got to play his 100th test and his career ended in disgrace.

After Azhar’s life ban, the board appointed Sourav Ganguly as its captain. Kolkata is not a hotbed for producing great cricketers and Ganguly’s ascension to the throne took many by surprise. He brought to Indian cricket what it required at that point — a sense of belief and aggression that it had solely lacked previously.

When it was found out that their own captain was playing against the team’s interests, most players were shaken. Though very few of them have come out and spoken about that period publicly, it dealt a very harsh blow to the team which had honest and upright men like Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad, Anil Kumble, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid.

Sourav Ganguly’s mission was two fold — to restore the fans’ faith in the game and raise the standards of Indian cricket. He was blessed to have a core of great players to help him — Tendulkar, Dravid, Srinath, Kumble, Laxman and a young Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh. Commentator Harsha Bhogle decribes Ganguly as a ‘war time general’, someone who took the attack to the opposition and raised flagging spirits.

After being terribly let down by Mohammad Azharuddin, the team found someone they could trust in Ganguly. More importantly, they found someone worth playing for. Over the next decade, Indian cricket climbed greater heights and began to win series abroad, something they had never done before.

Indian cricket changed for the better after the match-fixing scandal. Where previously there were players and officials who compromised on their integrity, now there was a sense of professionalism and purpose in their approach to the game.

During his hearing, Hansie Cronje tearfully apologised for corrupting young, impressionable players. Years later, another young and promising player, Mohammad Amir, was lured by then Pakistan captain Salman Butt to take money in lieu of spot fixing. While Salman Butt was banned and never played for Pakistan again, Mohammad Amir, who was only 18 when he committed the crime, was banned for 5 years. He returned to the game in style, his spell in the Champions Trophy final against Indian in 2017 was one of the most destructive ever.

In one of the interviews, an official said that the biggest crime that Hansie Cronje committed was to taint the minds of young and impressionable players, skewing their outlook towards sport and life. The same can be said for Salman Butt and Mohammad Azharuddin to varying degrees.

Catastrophic leadership comes in all forms — indifferent, manipulative, toxic and abusive among many others.

All of us look to leaders not just to guide us but also kick us in the backside when we need it, put an arm around our shoulder when we’re down and lift us up to the next level. When this doesn’t happen, it throws us off track as we don’t know where to turn to for counsel and guidance.

When leadership lets us down, we can lose confidence in ourselves and abilities and worse yet, treat others in the same way that we have been treated.

Here’s what Sourav Ganguly succeeded in doing — he instilled belief in the players and made them realise that the game was bigger than a few players who chose to bring disrepute to the game.

Bouncing back entails regaining confidence, being made to feel that you have something to offer, finding your feet and bringing your abilities and talents to the forefront after they have been in cold storage for a while. It doesn’t occur overnight and it’s a process.

In short:

Do work you believe in.

Find people you trust and push you to improve.

Work with people who believe in you.