Had a pleasant opportunity to be with noted Carnatic classical and cine musician P Unnikrishnan (in black on my right) and the Director of Madras Management Association Grp Capt Vijayakumar (on my left) among other friends – far right. The MMA – recent winner of the best Management Association across India for the umpteenth multiple times – held an interesting & insightful panel discussion on Management Lessons from Cricket for Success on 6th November 2023 at their well-appointed Auditorium. Other noted panel speakers were Syed Kirmani, former Indian wicketkeeper legend on his experiences of ’83. Film and Tamil television anchor ‘Bosskey’ himself a noted cricketer in his youth along with Ravi Shastri n Shrikkanth was hilarious at his ‘punny’ vernacular best! Shebani Bhaskar, a Chennai girl who has captained the USA women’s cricket national team and now a commentator for India games at the current WC made quite a few significant points on attitude of players and deep friendships across the world even with opponents. Singer Unnikrishnan was himself a fine cricketer who had to choose music over cricket as a career having played at the highest level when young! He spoke about classical music reminding him of cricket as a 360* game where all-round skills of every possible kind are tested in a performer. He also said the discipline in both are about practice, more practice and still more practice. Kirmani or ‘Kiri Bhai’ gave it a perfect start in a virtual presentation from Bengaluru about the importance of humility and Self belief in right proportions that made us the 1983 champions over the complacency of the dominant West Indians. He also spoke about M S Dhoni, as his find in an East Zonal match as a youngster and becoming the greatest Indian captain. This was echoed by Bosskey who raved about MSD as being “above human and just below God” as a leader. He also said one has to be daring to believe in oneself and “still be different even when the world is indifferent” to your performance!
Lalitha Balakrishnan, noted retired academic of Chennai surprised us all as the moderator with her passionate detailing of various aspects of the World Cup in particular while tossing the ball to different panelists for delivery! All in all a delightful slice of cricketing fervour that echoed and resonated with one firm belief that India will win the ODI Cricket World Cup again after 1983 and 2011 to mark the 40th year of that first memorable victory – with enough Management Lessons for all of us to stay RESPONSIVE – REFLECTIVE – RESILIENT – “RRR” in short! Shall we all Indians be soon dancing to “Natu Natu”? We will soon know that! But win or whatever, we certainly can enjoy the game more by LEARNING from watching it or as these lucky few who spoke, from PLAYING THE GAME!