My conversation with Tanzeem - Selfish traits in cricket..

TANZEEM :

See Jacobs' outburst against Lara. So we have both the best batsmen in the world accused as being selfish.

Me:

stupidity.. maann... even he was selfish.. his runs are added to the team.... and he scores brisk.. that way, being selfish is gooodd... by the way, Jacobs was Lara's deputy......and he is complaining of the entire cricketing administration of west indies..saying they didnot take care of him well.....

TANZEEM :

I have differing views. A captain loses his worth if he doesn't enjoy the confidence of his team mates.

Jacobs says that he doesn't motivate the

Also, he was involved in Lara's innings of 400. Maybe he was referring to that too. Me too think that he prolonged his innings
too much
(well after lunch on the 3rd day)

and finally that cost WI the consolatory win. And unlike what he said, a consolatory win rather than an individual milestone would've inspired the

Me:

Well, firstly, register in chappellway.com, it is very good and you can participate in discussions... I am a member there and I really enjoy the pure cricketing talk there...

And... "motivating a team" is very subjective.. There is a grand old saying - A captain is as good as his team...I agree he is not a great leader... as was the case with Tendulkar... But if we put Ricky Ponting in place of Lara to lead the present Windies team, maybe he could have improved it only marginally better....with that kinda team...

And for losing the confidence of his team-mates, we cant say from outside who is at mistake.... that only means he is not a good leader, which we all agree....and as I told you, Jacobs is blaming the entire cricketing admin.... so he seems no better.... In West Indies today, everybody is blaming everybody else and it is a sad reflection of the cricketing scene there.... so I wouldnt give too much importance to what he says....(But to Jacobs credit, Tony Cozier (I personally respect him the most and regard his statements above most others) has said quite a few times that Jacobs is a highly team-oriented man.)

As for the 400, I agree that win comes first no matter what is better for the team, a consolation win or an individual record... I am sure that when u play cricket, go for a win, whatever test you play in, irrespective of the previous results... within that win, if you can create a record, so be it... but not sacrifice a win for the record... It might be a touch selfish, but , 400 doesnot come everyday. So.... and iIt would be interesting to see what Lara as a captain would have done if any other player under him was approaching the record...

But what is better, whether a consolation win or a record (atleast in this case), is debatable.. A man with a 400 doesnt come everyday and he is sure to inspire a whole lot of people, just the score... is so monumental, but at the same time, a win might have opened up new opportunities for Windies cricket... Never know... So it is debatable...

The 400 might be selfish, but there are innumerable times when he has stood in a crisis... The 196 on a tricky, Trinidadian wicket (rated one of the best Lara's innings by Mike Haysman ) and 176 he scored in the just gone by tests, the 153 against Aus, there are so many others when others have failed to deliver and he has stood.... these are in no way selfish....

Therefore before making generalized statements that he is "selfish" regarding a person of Lara's stature, who has contributed so much to Windies cricket and the one shimmering light of the region's cricketing culture, he should state facts and inform what he himself has done it to try to repair it when he was the deputy....
-----

To add to my previous mail... and to add to his credentials that he may not be really selfish, there was this innings of 36 from 23 balls he played against England... It was a rain shortened match with 20 overs each side, they had scored around 3 runs per over for the first 14 overs... because the pitch was damp and was very difficult to score.. Chris Gayle opened and he was at around 3 runs per over.. Lara came in and I thought he played like a school boy... moving all around .. trying to hit each ball out of the park.... A man of his stature and calibre, really looked a young, 21 year old in one of his earlier matches.... trying to slog and slog.... he got some runs but I think it was very unselfish to slog like Afridi and look an idiot eveyballl.... to score runs.....mind you, he is one of the most stylish of batsmen....

TANZEEM :

It's a slightly free weekend..so me don't bother carrying this interesting discussion forward. By the way,
I'm a member in Chappelway..you may find my name once in a while, when I'm too tempted to write something.

Coming back to our issue, I think that

Cricket is to an extent a slightly selfish game because of the very nature of the game. It's by and large a one-on-one game unlike most other team games and the individual is more likely to stand out in every analysis. And I don't think there's any other sport in which individual records are discussed and analysed so much. Also there is an old school of thought (often attributed to Yorkshire and Boycott) which says that 'do well yourself, then the team will do well'. I have no problems with that. All individual performances add up to the team's performance. The problem starts when the two interests (team v individual) conflicts. And when that happens, there shouldn't be any second thought in anybody's mind on which should come first. At least I don't have. A team victory, whether it is a Test championship final or a dead rubber fighting to save a whitewash, it comes way ahead of any individual achievement, be 400 or 500 or 20000 runs of 50 centuries. Nobody is bigger than the team. And records come along the way in pursuit of a team goal; that becoming the goal itself is wrong; and if that costs a team's victory, it is criminal.


Given this premise, it's hard to find a player who is not gullible to being selfish at varying levels. Sachin has been a big offender of late, Lara has been at times and so does a lot of others.

To the second issue - leadership and motivation. I don't buy the theory that a captain is as good as his team. I think that in game like cricket, even a 5% improvement in
discipline and perseverance
can lead to 15-20% improvement in the team's performance and a captain/coach has a huge role to play in that.


I think that was one of the reasons for John Wright's success with the Indian team given that he was part of a New Zealand team which was short on talent and ability but showed remarkable discipline to do the simple things right. He along with Ganguly (not sure at what levels) instilled discipline and perseverance to a talented team. He made a very interesting observation when India won the Kolkatta Test against Pak last series. He was asked to pin point the turning point of the match. He didn't mention Kumble's 7 wicket haul or Dravid' 100s in each innings first. He mentioned substitute Kaif's effort to save a boundary running from short leg in the last over on the fourth evening which made Afridi take strike to the last 2 balls in which he got out. Such small effort can make a huge impact on the eventual result of the game. I think the same can be done to this WI team which, mark my words, is not short on talent. That India has strayed of late is another story. It just showed what can be achieved when talent and ability gets blended with discipline and perseverance.

Will continue this...