Beyond “Boundaries”

It has been just two days since resignation but already its been tough.It is always a struggle when we miss something which is a routine for quite sometime.I have spent time watching Cricket Matches and songs on Television. I am really running out of ideas as to how to spend the next few days.I think I am well past those days when I used to have a voracious appetite for books.I simple don’t have the patience to sit through an entire novel these days.But today morning , I chanced upon Paddy Upton’s blogs.I read only a couple of them but I just can’t have enough of it.The thought process of this man is simply mind blowing.For those who have not heard of him, Paddy Upton is the ‘Biokineticist’ & Sports Psychologist of the Indian Cricket Team.

One topic that instantly caught my fancy was “Self Organized Learners”.To put it in simple terms,he calls those willing to practice this theory as “people who think for themselves”.The best thing is that he stops with just a couple of lines,instead of dwelling on it,allowing the reader to come up with his/her own interpretations and relate to his/her own thought process.This set me thinking,and I tried to come up with my own interpretations of what he meant.The following are my personal views where in I have tried to come up with a summary as to how we can assimilate his thoughts.The individual,sits down,thinking on what could be the possible solutions to a particular scenario.The same applies to all players in a group.At the end,each individual shares his/her views to bring out the best possible outcome.It sounds so simple,but it is very tough to practice.The process behind it is amazing, a closer look would reveal that each individual has set his mind thinking to find a solution without any external help,and also learn the best practices of others.Thus,after each group analysis,the individual emerges a better person than what he was before it,and also the quality of the team improves after every outing.This is not a scenario where people are thrown the long end of the rope without a clue.At the same time,there is no focal point or “senior mentor”.Each peer latently helps the other!

Imagine each and every one of us thinking to ourselves ” I am no Edison.I am no Einstein either.I may not have the capacity to invent anything( who cares for it??!!),but still,I definitely can do certain things,the best way as only I possibly can!”.Sounds great!

Paddy Upton’s theories are tailor made for guys like me,who don’t have the patience to sit through personality improvement lectures for long hours.Only the tip is revealed,and the rest is left to our imagination.I am this sort of person who loves sitting alone,and imagining,living out, dreaming- (I just can’t find the right phrase)- about the things that I want to do in the very near future,I see it visually, as to how we see a cinema..and I try penning it down in words.. yes a perennial “dreamer”.. but who does not love to dream??

It also set me thinking on a few other things that I have been trying hard to practice.Just two weeks before my resignation,I had decided that I wanted to be good( or at least diplomatic,at best) to each and every one I was gonna get in touch with.It was difficult,believe me,at times people really tested my nerves but I quickly realized it was not impossible.I knew that it was possibly the last time I was gonna meet a few people in person for the near future,so I had made up my mind that,at least by the time I leave,parties from both sides should have only pleasant memories.I was reasonably successful I should say.I even went to the extent of taking people who bitched about me ,behind my back to my manager for a treat,with me bearing the expenses.I personally believe that it works out best when you try to be good to people who were not so good to you, as it stings them hard!One of the foremost things that made it possible was cutting down on expectations.Frustration arises mostly when expectations are not met,leading to bitterness and anger,so I had lowered my expectations.Nope it was not a Saint life,where one has to cut down on the root causes( which, in my humble opinion is never possible for mortals like us).It was just plain simple life in the sense that one needs to hold back on the urge to chase things that we covet/desire , but when it comes along,there is no harm in enjoying it to the fullest.I have tried to put this into practice,and it has been quite an emotional bliss so far.

Yeah I think we can wind up on that cos else,it would be me blowing my own trumpet a bit too much.This prompts me to ruminate on another happening that has set me thinking.A clip of Mr.T R (Vijaya T.Rajhendhar) losing his cool when a reporter asks him why he is not able to draw crowds like others.What followed was utter chaos,with T.R making desperate efforts to promote himself.This happens sometimes to us too.We try to comfort ourselves with the fact that we are the best,or better than other/other(s) who we think are our rivals,without pausing to think if we really have solid credentials to back ourselves.It becomes really dangerous,as after a point,our growth as an individual might stop,if we refuse to come out of the cocoon,as we first fix it up in our mind that we are correct, and then try to reason out facts for it,though ideally it should be the other way around.So that could probably be my next challenging activity.To go back in time and check out if I had acted with that sort of mindset in any such situation,and if possible set it right at least now.Look at the classic digression in topic.I had started out with Paddy Upton’s “thinking for ourselves”,only to end up talking about myself, and our TR,moving over to “thinking about ourselves” instead.Paddy Upton and T.R,though in contrasting styles, have set me thinking!
More to come..

The last one month has been eventful for all the supporters of the Indian Cricket Team.First and foremost hats off to those champions who have made every Indian proud with their stupendous achievement.There has been a lot of talk about Sachin Tendulkar in recent times and his “impending retirement”.Each and every time this has happened, the maestro has let his willow do the talking.. Proof: Highest run getter in the recently concluded one day series.Yesterday I chanced upon a quick interview which only strengthened my ever increasing awe of the “GOD” of Indian Cricket.This is how it went..
Interviewer:”Lot of youngsters look upto you for inspiration in this Indian Team..what is your response..??” Sachin:Well I am just 5″6 and most of the guys are taller than me so they can’t look up to me.. they have to only look down for me..!”A single line that said it all .. humility, modesty,cheekiness, sense of humour.For all those arm chair apocalytes who perenially keep cribbing about him and his achievements.. please take a note of the following..

1.”Have you ever travelled to Pakistan at the tender age of 16 without your parents for playing representative cricket at the international level..??”
2.”Have you ever been challenged by the legendary leggie Abdul Quadir and promptly dismissed him for 28 runs(Four sixers and a Four) in a single over in an alien land on your maiden tour ??”
3.”Would you stand up to the challenge of the rigours of competitive sport at 16 sacrificing all those fun filled moments ,pani puris etc with your friends..??”
4.”Have you ever made a brilliant century on the fastest wicket in the world , facing four fearsome fast bowlers at the age of 19..?”
5.”Have you ever felt the weight of a billion fans each time you set out to do your job..??”
6.”Have you ever carried the hopes of the entire nation for 16 years..??”
7.” Have you managed to stay free of all controversies for more than a decade after having realised that you are a national icon and a role model for the entire youth of the nation..??”
We Indians should be proud that we were privileged to be born in an era when Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar played competitive cricket.Inevitably age will catch up with him.It is he who is best qualified to determine when he has to hang up his boots and NOBODY ELSE.
A few of the other happenings were also eye catching…
A- The Indian Media lambasting SreeSanth for his antics on the field.This was a ridiculous act.We need a character like him who can match up to the opposition in terms of sheer agression.Guys like him can lift the spirits of the entire team.Agreed that he has to match his antics with solid performance but we dont need the home media lashing out at him especially during the middle of a crucial series.Mind you not only Sreesanth does it..Glenn Mcgrath,Andre Nel,Flintoff have all been consistently doing it .. so why pick out Sree alone..??If Aussies do it , its termed “mental disintegration and Aussie aggression” , but when some one else does it, it is dissent.. why such double standards??
B- Andrew Symonds and the entire Aussie team complaining of Racial Abuse and accusing Indian audience of not behaving themselves..This was certainly ironical..For ages the Aussie crowds have consistently mocked at our Sikh cricketers by placing banana peels and melons on their heads imitating the turbans and “putkha”.Where did the ethics go then?? And Aussies have no moral grounds to complain about racial abouse.. Did not Darren Lehamann call Muralitharan a black “C*Ck’??The Aussies successfully diverted the attention to off field events during the middle of the series and once again the media fell victim to it.
c-Ricky Ponting crying like a kid who has been stripped of his candy that Murli Kartik should have walked in the final ODI when he nicked to the ‘keeper. This provided great comical relief , perhaps even better than most kollywood comedy flicks. Was it not the same Ricky Ponting who came up with those famous words when asked about sportsmanship in the game ..”The umpire has a job to do and he is paid for it. Why should I walk when he has a decision to make..”!!! Is Mr.Ponting suffering from selective amnesia??
It is now plain fact that Aussies have been rattled by the Twent-20 semifinal loss.The Aussies are poor losers and dont know how to handle defeat.With other young teams breathing down their neck,their days at the top are definitely numbered.

After all the hype ..at last things have come back to normal( if I can use the word because no Indian defeat can be termed normal..!).. but sooner we start viewing things in the right perspective .. the better..

1. First and foremost ,let us stop blaming the coach entirely for the defeat because one must remember,cricket is played by 11 players on the field and not the coach… we have players with more than 10000 runs,over 300 wickets.. and can a coach be blamed if they dont perform?? Is it not sheer foolishness that we expect a coach to take the blame if they cant force runs of straight deliveries(ganguly),attempt a steer to point of a world class spinner when he has a slip in place(sehwag), getting dismissed by a routine inswinger on target(sachin),attempting to stem the flow of runs instead of going for the kill when you have the opposition at 94/3 in 25 overs( harbajan)

2. Let us first realise that the WORLD CUP is not the end of it all. It is but another event in the cricketing calendar..!

3.Let us stop stupid acts such as vandalising player’s homes,holding demonstrations against them..For those who are not aware .. The Indian Cricketers are not public servants but are contracted by the BCCI which is a PRIVATE BODY and hence the players can not be held accountable..Pray SIR/MADAM.. did any of the players ask us to shun our activites and sit glued in front of the television and watch them..?? and of course RAHUL’s wife will not give her dinner preparations a skip if TEAM INDIA is playing nor will SACHIN’S kids ignore their homework.. then why should we..???

4.Cricket is a glorious unifying factor in India and there in lies its greatest strength and weakness..The biggest problem is that in countries like Australia and South Africa, the country men have a host of sporting events to look forward to but sadly in India,we have nothing but cricket…!

5.Dont single out players as targets because we have to keep in mind that BCCI is a private organisation that “selects” its players.. We did not go for public voting to choose our cricket team..! and even when we vote as in general election.. do we hold the elected representative by the scruff of his neck when things are going wrong?? If that is the case, what reason have we got to be ANGRY with a DHONI or a SEHWAG if India loses??

6. Commercialisation of the game has spoilt it..In case of those who want to blame the players for appearing in adverstisements,direct your accusations at the BCCI for being money minded..A CRIKETER’S career is unpredictable and could be cruelly short..there are a lot of factors-loss of form ,bad luck,injury concerns.. so is it not logical to make hay while the sun shines?? And how many of us are regular in paying out taxes?? Dont we always look for shortcuts??!!!

7.So what do we do now?? Simple.. Stop blaming and start working..!

8.We need to keep sentiments aside and be prepared to say good bye to some of the old legs in the team..The one glaring thing about this team is that it lacks freshness that all other teams pocess…We looked jaded..Either we need to have exuberant youth (as in Sri Lanka and the Windies) or seasoned professionals who are supremely fit(as in Australia),we have neither

9.In all probabilities,Greg Chappell would go..And it is time we had an Indian who could talk the “players language” at the helm..Greg’s services could still be utilised at the academy level( for his professionalism).. because the “process” has just not worked..look at Sri lanka in 2005( we thrashed them ) and how well they have come back now..that is real progress.!Better to have someone who played cricket in recent times and can be one among the players instead of being a preacher.. Even if we have another foreign coach.. he will still be abused by the seniors.. because not many would like to be told to play straight and stop bowling wides after 10000 runs and 300 wickets.. Imagine this, even after the end of professional engineering course, how would it be if someone keeps repeating basics like asking us to shut down a system properly after use .. day in and day out?Not many would take it the same way.. ( but we stil wont follow the instructions..! do we??!

10.Rahul has been an exceptional player and a selfless cricketer..He has been an astute thinker but sadly he has not been a motivating leader..The passion is missing..

11.So who next ?? I am sure my next few lines would raise a few eyebrows.. I think it is time to pass on the mantle to SACHIN TENDULKAR..I say this not for the single reason that I am his ardent fan.. A few might argue that he has already been a failure once but the team that was handed to him in previous years would struggle to beat even a county side.. We need a leader who can hold his own in both the test matches and one dayers ( That leaves us with very few choices) , leader who can give the team a feeling of stability(That rules out Saurav), A leader whom the youngsters can look up to as their role model..He should be handed over the team and then the seamless process of gradual transition must begin..We need to groom a team under him and a leader under him( Yuvraj or Dhoni( even Kaif if he can find back his touch)..After a year or so, it would be time for him to hang up his boots and for the next generation to take over..

12. Finally no need to feel aweful about the loss to Sri Lanka because we definitely lost to a better performing team..It was a joy watching them in action..

13.For those rational ones who have had enough, switch off the television sets and get back to normal life..For those eternal hopefuls who cant bear a world cup second stage without India ,cross your fingers and pray that bermuda should defeat bangladesh..Finally for the genuine cricket lovers(Yours Truly included) come along and cheer for either the West indies( for their charisma) or the SRI LANKANS( for their flair) …We have had enough efficient abusive cricket from the hot-headed Australians,one dimensional South Africans and cocky New Zealanders and it is high time an asian team like SRI LANKA handed them a defeat.. Cheers WINDIES and SRI LANKA..!! (COME ON.. Even Sri Lanka wears blue.. so we can still be THE BLUE BILLION..!)

A lot has been said and written about the performance ( or , rather the “non performance” ) of the Indian Cricket Team and the various underlying reasons make interesting reading..

BOUNCING ‘EM OUT
“Straight Drive”
Indians have never been good tourists and the failure to adapt to the bouncy conditions has been our undoing..and just a single practice game before international matches did not help our cause either.All said and done it was perplexing indeed that players like Sehwag,Dravid,Sachin too could not produce any convincing performance..

THE IMPORTANCE OF SOUND DOMESTIC CRICKET
Most of the youngsters who created an initial impression have gradually faded away.. The main cause for our downfall has been the lack of emphasis on domestic cricket..It is indeed startling to note that Parthiv Patel who made his debut at the age of 16 played his first match for his state side Gujarat after having made his debut for INDIA!We simply seem to ignore our prestigious domestic set up.. More stress is laid on the under 19 competitions.. once we spot a talent there.. it is then a couple of matches with the ‘A’ team and before you realise..you find the youngster in the Indian Team..let us have a comparision with the best team on the planet at the moment…”AUSTRALIA”.. people who made their debuts for India in the recent past-Suresh Raina( he was eighteen when he first wore Indian colours) ,Piyush Chawla(17),Parthiv Patel(16),R P Singh(19),Irfan Pathan(18)..barring their U-19 matches..not one among this set played more than 10 first class matches before donning the Indian cap.. let us look at Australia .. Mike Hussey-made his International debut at the age of 30.. having made more than 15000 runs in domestic cricket..Brett Lee(24),Michael Clarke(24)-both played for their respective state sides for atleast 5 full seasons before replresenting Australia.. Stuart Clarke a fast bowler who made his debut at the age of 30!While our youngsters have faded away after a promising beginning.. these Australians ,with a wealth of domestic cricketing experience have easily adapted to the rigours of International cricket… after all not everyone can be a SACHIN TENDULKAR..!

IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF PITCHES
“Straight Drive”
If you had been to some of the first class matches ,you would have noticed that finding balls bouncing consistently above waist height is as rare as spotting bengal tigers in Antartica( hmm not that u get too see many bengal tigers in India these days).. The Pitches are slow,low and lack bounce..to add to the misery,the grass is almost completely shaven off ( it would even put a good barber to shame). Only when we start producing good sporting pitches for first class fixtures,can we expect to produce quality batsmen who can handle good bounce and pace..
“Reverse Sweep”( the other side of the coin)
The board has taken a step in the right direction ..very soon you would find Ranji games being hosted by a non participating state and if the pitch is not of good quality,the host associaton would be facing a heavy penalty.

QUANTITY AND NO QUALITY
We currently have more than 25 first class teams in India and that gives an astonishing number of more than 500 first class cricketers..Unfortunately we can hardly single out 8 - 10 good teams and hence most of the runs and wickets come at the expense of minnows.. look at a country like Australia where you have just six first class teams! It is much easier to look out for quality cricketers in their region..it is only in the recent past that we have gone for this two tier system of the top 16 teams competing for the Ranji trophy and the bottom tweleve teams competing for the plate championship.. but that too hasnt produced any significant improvement.If the Australians dont have any international commitments ,you invariably find them reperesenting their state teams..so the quality of competition is of very high standards as the domestic players compete along side seasoned professionals.. but here in India once the players make the International grade,they hardly look back..
“Reverse Sweep”( the other side of the coin)
From the current season ,seasoned professionals from other countries would appear in our domestic circuit ( already English internationals- Vikram Solanki and Kabir Ali have been signed up by Rajasthan)

SELECTION WOES AND A NEWSMAKING COACH
“Straight Drive”
A situation where in you have 5 selectors representing 5 different zones does not help either.. each and every member tries to “push ” in players from his zone to satisfy the state associatons from his zone ..hence good cricketing talent from minnow states is always ignored.. the shining exceptions have been M.S.DHONI-Jharkand and SREESANTH-Kerala..
Of course we dont even elect our Prime Ministers properly( and look for some “Foreign Origin Inspiration).. talkin about foreign origin the other “foreigner” who has been makin the headlines ever since his arrival has been Greg Chappell..A loud mouthed coach has not helped our cause either..much as been said and written about the man and some of the criticism has been harsh..he has been accused of causin instabilty by changing the batting order..but his real intentions have not been properly comprehended.. the Aussie Batting legend merely tried to push the players out of their comfort zones but the players have not been very receptive..now if you cant bat in any postion between number 1 to 6 n cry over a fixed postionn are you really good enough to play for India..??
“Reverse Sweep”( the other side of the coin)
All said and done it is pretty evident that the national coach has his own favourites in this Indian team.. We follow this wierd system of coach n captain picking the team along with selectors.. in my humble opinion a coach should only refine the resources deputed to him and not involve in selection matters.. in the case of a champion team like Australia.. they first pick out their squad and then only name their captain!