Life lessons learnt from my favorite sport
Introducion
Leadership is not about one grade higher than other. The thing is taking responsibility in shoulders to leading from the front. Be it a sport or life the key factor which moves you towards success is confidence. You can lose n number of times until you get the fruit of victory. A good leader is the one who not only boost his confidence but also to his/her fellow mates especially at their hard times. Being a common Indian mindset I grew up watching cricket from my early childhood.The moment when I realize there is something from the game that we can take to our life is when I learned the word couple through English commentators. Yes, When the commentator said “Oh it’s just a Couple of wickets” and I saw the score board of 68-2, I realized that ok couple means two. Also in every part of my career I realized that I have some sort of influence from instances in cricket which help me shape my decision making and Leadership skills. I’ll list out some of the instances here with reference and the impact it made inside me.
Never bow down if your decision is correct (Arjuna Ranatunga)
During Carlton & united series in Australia (1998 to 1999) Srilanka played against England in the captaincy of Arjuna Ranatunga. When Spin bowler Muttiah muralidharan bowled few balls the umpire Ross emerson called it a No ball stating the reason of chucking (throwing) the ball. The same set of umpires Ross emerson and Tony Mcquillan three years back claimed muralidharan offbreaks as illegal for the same reason against Westindies. He had to go through various test in ICC and change his action for his comeback to International cricket. Now Ranatunga don’t want the 26 year old young muralidharan to risk his career due to the unfair decision of the umpire. He already took 200 international wickets at that time. Fierce captain ranatunga had audacious chat with on field umpires and walk back to the pavilion with his team mates when both of them stand by their decisions. As per the team manager advice and match refrees assurance the team came back to the field and muralidharan continued his bowling. Knowing the consequences of stopping the play in middle Arjuna ranatunga takes a firm decision by backing his young team mate. The whole cricketing world got stunned by the brave behavior of a Asian subcontinent captain. Muralidharan then had the most successful career and he is currently the highest wicket taking bowler in International Test cricket.
A Leader who stood by his decision and against the authority at a crucial stage.
A sweet revenge is always beautiful (Sourav Ganguly)
In 2001 India lost the six match ODI series at the last match by a near margin. Flintoff who bowled the last over took off his shirt and ran around the prestigious wankhede ground the home of Indian cricket. Ganguly suddenly went back to the dressing room by hi heads down. He didn’t like the flintoff way of celebration. Though he played well throughout the series he looked at the situation as a humiliation in home ground and for the fans. A year later India faced England in the final of Natwest Tri series. History repeats the same as kaif took final 2 runs from Flintoff where he jumped in excitement and Flintoff on his knees with frustration. On the other End Nail biting ganguly took off his shirt and waved it around in the Lords balcony a ground which is considered as a Mecca of world cricket. The Incident may look like a heat of the moment but it clearly conveys the world that India is no more a soft cornered nation which gives back a slap on right if it receives left. The stage at which Ganguly received the captaincy is at times of match fixing issues going on and he as a captain created a team with composure of both experienced and young players in the team.
Conclusion: Two sides of the coin ( MS Dhoni and Ricky Ponting)
Apart from above two captains there are two different characters when it comes to leadership. Ricky Ponting the most aggressive, expressive and Ms Dhoni calm and cool captains. These two shows that if you are strong in your natural character and do what is best within you can be as successful as they are.
Blog Summary:
The above mentioned article summaries the various qualities of a leader and how a leader should handle the situation. The incidents mentioned happened in the International cricket where Never bow down before the authority when you are correct and show the world who you are after a humiliation you did not deserve. These can be taken as a life lessons to bring confidence and getting motivated.
Meta title:
Leadership Lessons from sport to life
Meta description:
In this blog I’ve given two incidents occurred in international cricket which turned into life lessons for those who wants to improve the leadership skills.
Ad copy for FB/Google:
Never bow down if your decision is correct (Arjuna Ranatunga).
A sweet revenge is always beautiful (Sourav Ganguly)
Mail body for the targeted audience:
Improve your leadership skills just by watching the sport you like.
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Resources:
Sportskeeda.com
Cricketcountry.com
Thesportsrush.com
Stats.espncricinfo.com
