Cricket And The Art Of Adaptability

Cricket And The Art Of Adaptability

When co-related with the game of life, people in our country, in the face of rapid technological innovations, are facing challenges of adaptability never experienced before. It is visible in all departments of life – in professional areas, in parenting, in relationships. 

Few days back I finished reading this masterpiece of a book `TheWinning Way` by Anita Bhogle and Harsha Bhogle. The book essentially draws management lessons from sport, with cricket of course forming a major part of it. The authors touch upon various aspects with great incisiveness as well as in an interesting manner. A must read!

We are a cricket crazy country, with the mood and performance of our cricket team determining the happiness quotient of the nation. Nothing perhaps best captures the intrinsic nature of our countrymen better than the behaviours that get reflected post a significant victory or defeat of our cricketers. The emotional volatility that the nation goes through in a matter of weeks, or sometimes even minutes, depending on the performances on the cricket field, presents an interesting facet about our people and life here. A much questioned cricketer can in a matter of just an innings or a bowling performance raise his value stakes to a level which is both illogical and irrational. The reverse also happens with equal speed, where yesterday's hero could find himself at the wrong end of a stick for one poor performance. Why this happens is a queer phenomenon and will reserve its analysis for another day.

But beyond the thrills of a victory or the morose feelings of a defeat lies one of cricket's greatest lessons on life and management – and that is adaptability. This presents a scientific side to both the sport as well as life. India, after having climbed to the No. 1 spot in test cricket came crashing down, losing back-to-back test series – whitewashed actually -- in both England and Australia, primarily because they could not adapt to the different conditions that prevail there in terms of pitch, nature of bounce, swing, etc. Sometime back when England toured India, they upfront got a taste of conditions here as they lost the first test quite badly, but bounced back to win the series because they remarkably adapted to conditions here. Australia, who are currently touring India, too are struggling to adapt to the conditions here.

While cricket as a sport offers many lessons, adaptability is at the heart of it. Players who built a reputation by performing in certain conditions tend to lose it all as soon as they are faced with challenges in an unfamiliar territory. The greatness of players like Tendulkar, or Dravid, or Ricky Ponting, or Jacque Kallis lies in their ability to adapt to different conditions by modifying their temperament, game and technique. This applies to great bowlers too like Glen McGrath, Dale Steyn, Anil Kumble, and Zaheer Khan, whose ability to bowl differently in different conditions to produce the desired results for their team brought them richly deserved laurels.

Adaptability requires two critical elements: an ability to rise above the mere fruits of talent and be ready to reinvent oneself from time to time. Never has reinvention been more critical than in the last few years with the burst of 20-20 cricket, as cricketers now have to constantly juggle between not just different conditions, but also different formats.

When co-related with the game of life, people in our country, in the face of rapid technological innovations, are facing challenges of adaptability never experienced before. It is visible in all departments of life – in professional areas, in parenting, in relationships. The world in the last twenty years has incredibly changed, and India, in the post-liberalisation period, looks and behaves as if it has had a DNA transplant. Both success and failure are shortlived. The threat of redundancy and challenges to existing skillsets are incredibly intimidating. A world, driven by information and knowledge, is challenging yesterday's paradigms and questioning established cultures like never before.

The living-on-the-edge syndrome now has a new partner in `walking on your toes`, for the moment you feel it's time to settle down, conditions change unrecognizably. The rewards of talent too are fast paced, making the reasons for today's success irrelevant in the march forward, thereby calling for immediate reinvention and re-adaptability. This can be seen in the surfeit of success stories that get created constantly through reality shows, only for many of the participants to disappear into oblivion.

But amidst the constantly changing context of life, one thing has not changed, and that is, success, still comes and stays with those who are in it for the long haul, and are not carried away by the glamour of instantaneous achievements. Just as in cricket, where the true worth of a cricketer is still measured by his performances in test matches, life will always shower the highest reward to those who are ready play the game of life like a test match, but imbue it with the spirit of the 50 and 20-20 formats.

So, always be in anything for the long term, for success may or may not be as grand as a multi-storey building, but it is for sure a multi-storey journey. Contexts may change, but this fundamental truth will never change.