50 First Dates!
The concept of Adam Sandler, trying to woo Drew Barrymoore, every single day for 50 days, to me reflected a sense of achievement, as it was against the tide of Drew Barrymore’s short term memory loss. Every day was a new day, where Adam Sandler had to start from scratch to woo her, and all his hard work would be negated at the end of the day, as Drew Barrymore would have forgotten what happened earlier in the day.
I am applying the same concept to leading to cricket and more specifically T20 sides. Every game gives both the teams an equal opportunity to go one up on the opponent. The skills on display are for a very short period, so flashes of brilliance doesn’t need to go through the test of sustenance across 50 overs. Teams that are used to waiting for things to happen, before going for the kill, would find that the format of T20 is sometimes unforgiving. M.S.Dhoni found that out one summer evening at Mohali, when an unknown youngster’s (Paul Valthaty)carnage helped Kings 11 Punjab, down the Chennai Super Kings, after a spectacular 180+ chase. MSD, has been one of the better captains, who has managed to win 4 major T20 titles, and if you notice, in each of the tournaments, MSD never looked completely in command, but managed to work hard every single time, when he was in a problem, by wearing a smile, and trying out different things to woo the lady called Victory.
Most teams, when they reach the mature phase of the winning curve tend to go off the boil, as they stop focusing on experimentation and start looking for a template to win. While it may be a nice methodology to study the DNA behind successful T20 sides, what works on most occasions is the fact that the single biggest factor is the ability to start from scratch to carve out victories every single time. Taking things for granted, is where you distance yourself from victory, as you believe that you don’t need to earn it, as it is already in your lap. The fact is the victory that is in your lap, is a memoir of the good times, you had as a team, and just that. To retain the victory in your lap, you need to fight doubly harder with sides, who keep throwing newer challenges at the champions.
The Mumbai Indians and the Royal Challengers, both had excellent runs of form, but it was not quite divided between all the members of the side, and secondly these teams opted for a lot of familiar tactics to keep the points graph go northward. The lack of focused experimentation, and the nerve to succeed when not placed in a comfort zone, proved to be their undoing.
The Chennai Super Kings have done well to keep their date with wooing the goddess of victory, time and again. It is very visible in their work ethic, with players like Hussey and Badrinath, who have been examples of sustained excellence over a longer time period. It was probably the creation of a new hunger every day, that made them chase success, resembling Adam Sandler’s enthusiasm and patience in the movie ’50 First dates’.
So, the 2 questions to ask yourself, to bask in the shade of the silverware would be to ask, how much have you done to woo your date? If you can manage to woo the goddess of victory that way, the silverware should be one of the many destinations on your road trip to the peak of Success!
The concept of Adam Sandler, trying to woo Drew Barrymoore, every single day for 50 days, to me reflected a sense of achievement, as it was against the tide of Drew Barrymore’s short term memory loss. Every day was a new day, where Adam Sandler had to start from scratch to woo her, and all his hard work would be negated at the end of the day, as Drew Barrymore would have forgotten what happened earlier in the day.
I am applying the same concept to leading to cricket and more specifically T20 sides. Every game gives both the teams an equal opportunity to go one up on the opponent. The skills on display are for a very short period, so flashes of brilliance doesn’t need to go through the test of sustenance across 50 overs. Teams that are used to waiting for things to happen, before going for the kill, would find that the format of T20 is sometimes unforgiving. M.S.Dhoni found that out one summer evening at Mohali, when an unknown youngster’s (Paul Valthaty)carnage helped Kings 11 Punjab, down the Chennai Super Kings, after a spectacular 180+ chase. MSD, has been one of the better captains, who has managed to win 4 major T20 titles, and if you notice, in each of the tournaments, MSD never looked completely in command, but managed to work hard every single time, when he was in a problem, by wearing a smile, and trying out different things to woo the lady called Victory.
Most teams, when they reach the mature phase of the winning curve tend to go off the boil, as they stop focusing on experimentation and start looking for a template to win. While it may be a nice methodology to study the DNA behind successful T20 sides, what works on most occasions is the fact that the single biggest factor is the ability to start from scratch to carve out victories every single time. Taking things for granted, is where you distance yourself from victory, as you believe that you don’t need to earn it, as it is already in your lap. The fact is the victory that is in your lap, is a memoir of the good times, you had as a team, and just that. To retain the victory in your lap, you need to fight doubly harder with sides, who keep throwing newer challenges at the champions.
The Mumbai Indians and the Royal Challengers, both had excellent runs of form, but it was not quite divided between all the members of the side, and secondly these teams opted for a lot of familiar tactics to keep the points graph go northward. The lack of focused experimentation, and the nerve to succeed when not placed in a comfort zone, proved to be their undoing.
The Chennai Super Kings have done well to keep their date with wooing the goddess of victory, time and again. It is very visible in their work ethic, with players like Hussey and Badrinath, who have been examples of sustained excellence over a longer time period. It was probably the creation of a new hunger every day, that made them chase success, resembling Adam Sandler’s enthusiasm and patience in the movie ’50 First dates’.
So, the 2 questions to ask yourself, to bask in the shade of the silverware would be to ask, how much have you done to woo your date? If you can manage to woo the goddess of victory that way, the silverware should be one of the many destinations on your road trip to the peak of Success!
2 comments:
Karthik.... The movie was bad.... but this article is worse.
My 2 cents - STOP trying to be a HARSHA BHOGLE and try to be mor like bumble David Lloyd.
It seems to me that you're not grounded when it comes to sports. You seem to spurn from ur mba/geek roots.
Take a look at nba/nfl commentary/articles. Its awesome and they are not written by well educated people.
Hope u get a sense of what I'm saying!!
Hi Anon!
Thanks for your feedback. I really have not tried being anyone, but am writing what comes to mind. On the grounding part, I maybe need to spend more time analysing view points, and give some time for writing the article, so that I stop looking like a MBA/GEEK/Harsha bot :-)
I am always looking to improve. I am sure the quality of writing will get better with time, and effort.
Thanks for stopping by. I shall have a look at the articles you have suggested. Could you please forward me a couple of links? I'd be interested to have a look at them.
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