Raj Reflects |

A good time to draw up a succession plan

If we listened carefully, we will have realied that succession planning has been the catch phrase for a while. From Ratan Tata to Steve Jobs, Narayan Murthy to KK Modi, from Dalai Lama to the Chinese Government, we have heard them all espouse, if not entirely implement, succession planning.

Somehow, the catch phrase seemed to have escaped the attention of those who matter in Indian cricket. Else, we would not have been left dealing with a situation that with so little positive peer-pressure on the team now. Such pressure would have been among the factors motivating the team to higher levels of adaptation and self-confidence.

Time to stay calm and look for solutions

The heart bleeds after the Indian cricket team has been mauled for the seventh successive time in an overseas Test cricket but the mind must stay calm and analyse the slide that has hurt, upset, disappointed and angered us. It is only a sport and we have to hope that Indian cricket will come out of the morass that it finds itself in at the moment.

Yes, India’s woeful showing in overseas Tests needs to be addressed but let us not incite passion in doing so. It is critical that we remain collected as we sit down to find solutions to some problems that the Indian team is so obviously facing now. It is important not to become a part of the cacophony that follows each such defeat.

Yuvraj’s moment that stays etched in the mind

There are some images that stay etched in the mind. The passage of time and the overload of images do not seem erode them. In fact, they appear to become a huge part of our lives and it is no surprise that sport gives us many such memories to cherish forever. And the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 threw up many such moments.

And when I sit down to think of game changers, my favourite image is of Yuvraj Singh going down on his padded knees, his left hand holding the bat aloft, a clenched right fist rising up and letting a guttural scream at the end of the quarterfinal against Australia. The screaming drive through covers signalled the end of the glittering trophy’s stay in an Australian shelf since 1999.

It is a fact that Yuvraj Singh has not played in any of the 20 one-day internationals that India has competed in after the World Cup final on April 2 and featured in two Tests against the West Indies when it became known that he had a tumor in his lung and needed rest and 55 tablets a day to recover from the ailment.

The biggest sporting moment for India this year

The sands of time are trickling down on the world of sports too. And before we turn the hour glass around to start the year 2012, it would be nice to revisit some of the moments from Indian sport that made 2011 the year that it was.

They spilled on the roads, countless faces painted with national colours, waving the Tricolour, airing slogans as India broke into one large and spontaneous celebration of the conquest of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 on April 2. There have been few more telling demonstrations of outpouring of collective National pride than late that night. That cricket is one of the few refuges for nationalism was cast in stone that night.

Studies in Contrast: Umesh Yadav (left) and Varun Aaron (Photo courtesy: hindustantimes.com)

They have shown that all it takes to succeed is an idea, a dream, a lot of hard work and an element of luck. The rise of players like Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron and Ajinkya Rahane has come as a confirmation that dreams are no longer a prerogative of the metros likes Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

A little over two decades ago, when cricket telecasts were still being produced by Doordarshan, it was hard to imagine so Indian cricketers coming from such diverse locations. The selling of TV rights to cable and satellite companies has had a huge role in the spawning of such dreams in small towns like Rae Bareily and Jamshedpur, Kochi and Cuttack, Moradabad and Gadag, Allahabad and Ikhar, Jalandhar and Ranchi.

Sports broadcasting: Need to go beyond the international

The drive from Jakarta to Sentul was taking longer than usual that Friday evening in July this year, no thanks to the traffic escaping Indonesian the capital. Contrarily, time seemed to fly as our cab driver engaged us in a gripping conversation about the ensuing English Premier League football season. EPL teams like Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Aston Villa and Blackburn Rovers had all swung through the region and the cab driver waxed eloquent about these teams and their players with ease and the devotion of a passionate follower.

There cannot be a better example of how the evolution of media technology had brought English football – and many other world class sports events – home to millions of fans in Asia. The synergy and inter-dependence between broadcast media and sport, especially at the international level, has completely altered how we consume what has come to be called sports products from across the globe. All of us love watching a spectacle, irrespective of whether our athletes take part in it or not. And sport does provides great content for TV and earns stupendous revenue from the sale of rights.

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A good time to draw up a succession plan

Time to stay calm and look for solutions

Yuvraj’s moment that stays etched in the mind

India’s sporting year that was

Cricket dreams know no barriers

Sports broadcasting: Need to go beyond the international

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