In the last more than two decades ever since our economy was liberalised, the Indian corporate sector has gone on to make a mark around the world. Interestingly, the Indian cricket team has not had that kind of success playing test matches overseas and we continue to bask in the rare successes we have tasted in the past.
The tales of Indian automobile exports reaching markets like Latin America and Africa and of Goan iron ore fuelling the growth of Chinese economy have been part of folklore for a long while now. On the other hand, our cricket teams, with the exception of Sourav Ganguly’s team and Rahul Dravid’s team, have not been successful playing test matches on foreign pitches.
Recently, Virat Kohli’s team lost 1-4 to Joe Root’s England leaving millions of cricket crazy fans in and outside the country disappointed. Can Indian Cricket Team learn a lesson or two from the success of Corporate India abroad?
We all know that sports is the realm of youth while business is the realm of old. In other words, in sports it is the aggression of youth, which is most visible, while, in business, it is the wisdom and experience of old, which counts the most.
In business, execution may be done by younger folks, but the strategy is almost entirely left to older people in senior management roles, who have learnt from the mistakes of their youth.
Indian team, especially under Kohli, lacked both the wisdom and experience of old, which has brought much success to Indian companies. A number of choices made by Kohli & Co in team selection were very typical of over-ambititious but naive youth. Even inexperience of the captain in changing strategies at crucial moments was exposed by senior cricketers like Sunil Gavaskar.
Take the case of playing two spinners at Lord’s when the overcast conditions were so much more in favour of fast bowling. Moreover, Kohli’s decision of frequently changing the playing eleven has been critcised by several ex-cricketers including Sourav Ganguly.
The younger cricketers like KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant excelled in one or two innings but were miserable in the overall series. Indian companies, on the other hand, have learnt quickly from their mistakes, which has helped them in succeeding in the international market.
Mostly in cricket, the inexperience of a young team is compensated by the calmness and experience of a seasoned coach. Unfortunately, the coach of Indian Cricket Team, Ravi Shastri, has not exhibited much wisdom in the current series. Worse still, his efforts to “find positives” in a 1-4 loss to England are rather embarrassing.
What Indian team needs is a seasoned coach who can calm the nerves of a young team and tell them their shortcomings objectively, like a mature CEO. In fact, if looked closely, test cricket (and not ODIs and T20s) by the virtue of being a longer format sport needs the mental strength, cunningness and maturity of a seasoned businessman. But the question is: Will the Indian Team learn the lesson? Only time will tell.
