Cricket-What after winning in Australia?

Now that we have won a watershed victory in Australia and unequivocally announced our arrival as a Cricket Playing Nation and also a Cricket Paying Nation, it is time to ask some important questions off ourselves.

Australia in Cricket, and the US in other areas of endeavor have sufficiently demonstrated what rampaging, irresponsible victors can do to their professions and themselves.

No question that India is on the ascendant in Cricket and its administration and so shall we tread the same path or shall we strive make things better?

Humility in victory and in power could do a world of good to the sport and to each one of us who either play or enjoy cricket.

That Cricket is funded by India for the most part globally, could either be wielded as a sword or an opportunity to serve.

Those who live by the sword die by the sword, or shall I say sledge.

Leadership of the cricket playing fraternity is now ours, and so let us exercise it with great care and self discipline.

We therefore need to discern what we covet more, the sport or the power of running or ruining it.

Let us not therefore grind old axes lying in the shed of history but go beyond and look at enhancing the game and restore sportsmanship to it. Leading by example is the only way to lead in the true sense and servant leadership its highest form.

That said, we must also realize that we have as a tendency to be too thin skinned and react emotionally to issues and often lose out on issues when encountered with the least bit of frustration. We could begin by accepting that principles, Strategy and tactics are three individual concepts and don’t always appear to work coherently in the short run. Eventually principled approaches win. It is important to be right, but seldom wise to be righteous when dealing with others. Let us not be preachy and yet let us strive to reach principled goals by carrying others with us whatever strategy and tactics may need us to do to achieve these ends.

Clearly it would need acuity and pragmatism and not just crusading zeal to persevere over the vested interests of the current power centers in the sport. So strategy, tactics and timing would play an important role. And yes we can’t stop sledging and start losing matches to uncivil teams in the short run, not until we have created a climate where sledging is looked down upon. Much like what happened with smoking, going from being perceived as Macho to just plain silly. Not smoking is now a viable option. Just the same as we cant start sledging teams that usually don’t sledge just because we have learnt a new art and need to perfect it.

Where do we begin? It might be a great start to involve more cricketers in the administration. Let us realize that professionalism and sporting abilities are not mutually exclusive and familiarity with the trade only enhances professionalism. We today have a spectacle in our cricketing administration that completely ignores walking-the-talk and it suffices to just talk-the-talk. Should the current crop of administrators really love the game as much as they beat their breasts about it they would not hesitate to co-opt cricketers with wise heads into the management of the sport.

Do steer clear of the inane, weathercock, news channel experts that we are faced with night after night.

To sum up, discretion is the better part of valor. Always has been and always will be.