EYES ON THE BALL AND COTTON IN THEIR EARS

@KeepUpWithKaustubh

The road not taken in HR corridors

Many moments of doubt preceded the history of our win down under. Moments of doubt, moments of controversy and so many endless moments of fear. Is Kohli too aggressive? Is he even captain material? Is Ravi Shastri too mellow? Does he even know how to steer a team this powerful or is he simply Kohli’s lackey?

The many Indian faces that roared off their seats in an unbelievable cheer screamed in unison. Though we saw it coming, so many of us were swept of our feet with disbelief. After 71 years of trying, India bagged its first ever Australian test series win in what is being hailed as Virat Kohli’s ‘proudest moment’. Chateshwar Pujara, Jasprit Bumrah, Rishabh Pant, Mayank Aggarwal brought on their fresh zeal. India paced up the pace attack, and our adversaries didn’t know what hit them!

But as the winning team tore through the stadium – all the naysayers were silenced. The doubts were done away with and the fears were quelled.

Only one thing remained: India Creates History.

The Indian team has always been mired in controversy, and sometimes because of no fault of their own. We just love cricket too much and often can’t help ourselves. We’re all guilty of cricketing too much and I unabashedly own up to it. You know why? Because cricket is not just a gentlemen’s game in India. It’s a rulebook for life.

Take the test series for example. My biggest takeaway? Trash the trash talkers.

When the many viewers criticized our team for sledging or the on-ground aggression, Kohli wasn’t so easy to shake up. His eye remained on the ball and his head was taped to the trophy. When the team was pointed fingers at and Jadeja and Sharma had a tiff of their own, the viewers had much to say then. When the playing eleven lineup was revealed and it was met with an overwhelming amount of criticism, the country roared in anger. What changed their outcry filled with rage into a cry of awe-inspiring joy? The trophy.

Sometimes your strongest supporters are your worst soundboards. Steer clear of them and race to the trophy Indian team style. With the trophy in hand, most people sound like friends.

Because whether we like to admit it or not, our zeal for cricket makes us really hard fans to have. So the Indian team has learnt to trash the trash talkers, no matter what soil they belong to. I imagine the next time you take a stroll down the hallway of your office and see a colleague whisper “but the boss will not like your original idea” or some such statement of doubt, trashing the trash talker is exactly the strategy you need up your sleeve. Whether you’re aiming for the test series trophy against Australia or a promotion or bagging a pitch, you need to get your eye on the ball and cotton in your ears.

A team is not a standalone act in the same way a workplace is no one man show. A diverse group of people come to a team with their strengths and weaknesses. A leader needs to know how to harness it and the team members, with their incredible diversity, need to know how to hit a six that shocks all. This series, the Indian team did just that. The boys came together for a match where it didn’t matter who they were alone, but what they could do together took precedence.

While that was part one of their big win, part two was even harder to do. The tumultuous Australian team was going through their own hard team with a temporary captain and recovering from the recent South African ball-tampering scandal. That was the clincher. Our boys needed a tailor-made strategy that hit home in a time as messy as this. So Ravi Shastri and Kohli designed one. Carefully handpicking the playing 11 and the substitutes, newcomers like Mayank Agarwal were asked to step up their game. Risky moves like these either end up in a trophy or a mob attack in India but our boys didn’t flinch once. Blindly trusting in their guiding hand, they set off on a match of a lifetime.

We live in a time wherein we’re encouraged to question the authority so much that we’ve forgotten how to rely on our leaders. We doubt, we probe and sometimes we lose because we can’t confide in those who lead us. Maybe trusting your leader is a revolutionary thing to do in a time like ours and that is precisely what the team did. More than the fear, they listened to their boss’ voice and it led them straight to the winners’ podium. So the matter of the moment is: Trust your boss. They know what they’re doing, they’ve made it so far for a reason.

In fact, to be totally honest, what is an Indian team but a group of individuals with a resolve to win and an indomitable will to tear through the pitch? A match isn’t won by wickets and balls, it’s won with will, determination and incredible leadership. If you’ve got the gut for it, the bat is just for show. If you’ve got the gut for anything in life really, the rest are just ornaments and accessories you need to go all the way. What matters is the tenacity in your belly.

Of course a great leader does come handy. Upon winning, Kohli thrust the trophy in the hands of debutant Mayank Sharma to lift in a display of great leadership so for the bosses: give your new guys a shot because they will shock you and rock your win and then give them their moment of glory because it’ll go a long, long way.

In a country as passionate as ours, cricket is a language of its own. A language that hides so many lessons for our everyday life: leadership lessons, education for the young and the greying and business learnings for those starting up their own enterprises. The trick to unveiling is this: watch closely and look for the little moments. The Australian test series may be over let this New Year be a test series of your own and remember to fixate your eye on the ball. The Indian team had one clear objective and that was to win. It didn’t matter if the trophy hadn’t come home in over seven decades or if the odds were stacked against them. What mattered was their aim and they put faith in that vision without fear. Like Ravi Shastri eloquently said about the series, “This is not a team of Gods or Demi Gods, but it is an Indian team which has come here to conquer the world with passion and to win”. Are you here to win or are you here to throw away an opportunity of a lifetime?