The Winning Way 2.0Learnings from Sport for Managers

by Anita Bhogle

nurture

whip

Embrace

resonate.

fledgling

aberrations,

frantic,

flounder

mercurial,

appalling

elusive

repercussions

seek

conducive,

outdo

derails

stagnate

nurturing

culling.

linger

culling

nurturing

hilt

stalwarts.

quartile’

custodians

culling

benevolent

perished.

reckless,

passé,

conceal.

delude

dwindle.

mercurial

beast,

A young man like Michael Clarke, sharing the dressing room with the likes of Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Ricky Ponting, Mathew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist would have learnt how to win and how to close matches, as part of his grooming in international cricket. An equally talented young man like Mohammed Ashraful of Bangladesh, growing up in a losing environment, could never have learnt the discipline of winning. Self-belief is an essential aspect of development and if you are not winning, you’ll never acquire it.

temperament.

peculiar

paradox.

To know how to win, you must win...

‘We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not a...

lackada...

This ‘hopelessness’ was vividly demonstrated before the semi-final of the Ranji Trophy in April 1991. The evening before the match, in the course of an informal discussion, it was suggested that Hyderabad had a chance against mighty Bombay, as they were then called. One of the players seemed to disagree. ‘Nonsense,’ he said (and here we are attempting a translation from the more colourful Hyderabadi dialect) ‘if you get the openers out, Manjrekar walks in, if you get him out, Tendulkar comes in, then Vengsarkar, then Kambli, then Pandit, how many do you think we can dismiss?’ Bombay batted the next day and went on to declare at 855-6 scored at just under 5 an over. A match had been lost even before it had begun and the action on the field was merely a self-fulfilling prophecy at work. Indeed at one stage when the Hyderabad captain pulled up a fielder for letting a boundary go through, he was told, ‘What difference does four runs make when they have made seven hundred!’ To create this sense of hopelessness in the opposition, the Australians decided they would seek to win, not only every Test, but also every day and every session. When the opposition analysed a game, and broke it down session by session, they had to come to the conclusion that they had won very little, if indeed they had won anything at all. To drive home the point, the Aussies made a chart with the days on one axis and sessions on the other. It meant you had fifteen boxes and you ticked a box if you won, pu...

If you want to create an aura you do not allow the opposition to believe they have a chance.

paramount

conquered

The hopelessness that such domination can generate can be seen through statements the opposition make. After another one-sided Ranji Trophy final, the captain of the losing side said, ‘It was a privilege for us to play against Sachin Tendulkar,’ much in the manner of India’s bowlers who were in love with the idea of merely bowling to Don Bradman on their first tour there in 1948. If you are excited just by being on the same stage, chances are you are unlikely to out-perform the opposition.

wicked

I fear not the man who practiced 10,000 kicks once. I fear the man who practiced one kick 10,000 times. —Bruce Lee