Leadership lessons from IPL 2022
‘It takes a village to educate a child’
Similarly, it takes an ecosystem to succeed in a punishing, competitive cricket league like IPL. It is long with 70 league matches, features 10 teams, is still in the bubble, and is played in punishing peak summer, in hot and humid Mumbai/Pune, Kolkota, and finally in Ahmedabad. The teams are spared all the punishing travel this year. But then, it is an important distraction from the challenges people are facing today.
‘The captain is as good as the team’
And guess who said that? If your answer is Sourav Ganguly, you can not be blamed for your general knowledge :) This is a quote often wrongly attributed to him! Then who said that?
He is a leader, who said that. Not necessarily held a lot of leadership positions in Indian cricket, but some yet. A very aggressive player…
Speaking of leadership, who is your favorite captain among the 10 IPL captains? How many of them have demonstrated genuine transformational leadership?
Check out this rating… Spot on! (Don’t shoot the messenger)
If you are a Rohit, Jadeja, KL, or MS fan… you will not be happy.
Hardik has been a revelation as a captain. The usual aggressive, on-the-face player, has been very different from the captain, GT.
Why do we say it takes an entire ecosystem to succeed in a team game like cricket. We unfairly focus on superstars. The contribution of RCB bowlers in their match against LSG, and the brilliant captaincy of Faf du Plessis.
Forget the headline below, but see the mentor’s expression. Gambhir said the captain is as good as his team. Perhaps Rahul lost a big opportunity to raise the bar of his captaincy to leadership and make an impact. It is one thing to be a transactional captain, but very different to be a real, leader, on a big stage.
Captaincy is not easy in cricket or any other sport. Leadership was never meant to be easy. Hence it is said, 2% of the adult population are leaders. The rest are followers and some aspiring leaders. Sacrifice?
Thyage naike amrithathva manushuhu
