Guru Team India!!!

Happy Ugadi to my blog readers!! Ugadi symbolizes the start of a new year in Telugu calender and will be celebrated grandly by every Telugu family all over the globe. But this time the celebrations started precociously on 2nd of April when Men in Blue crushed Lankans to grab the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. April 2nd marked the beginning of new era in Indian cricket.

Again, whole India was united in celebrations. 12.1 billion people forgot all their worries, insecurities, differences and shared the joy with each other. The sense of Indian was all over and national integrity was at its peak.

Enough of celebrations!! Every story has a moral. This victory song of the Indian cricket team has many morals. Many of my blog readers are engineering students gearing up for careers in software industry. Corporate culture has a lot to do with team management. We can learn a lot about team leading and working skills from this Indian team. Lets make an attempt to do the same.

Moral 1. Every Team Member will have a responsibility. Don't try too hard. Just fulfil your responsibility. Look at our team, Sehwag's responsibility was to give team a flying start and Tendulkar's role was to anchor the innings. Zak was asked to pick up a wicket when ever a partnership is building. Munaf is just his supporter. Yuvi was asked to step up as all-rounder. Raina is the man who has to stand the death over pressure and score valuable 20s and 30s. Ghambhir is asked to build up a partnership with Tendulkar after Sehwag gets dismissed. Kohli was asked to strengthen the middle order. Everyone did their job and that's crucial.

Moral 2. When someone in team fails, stop abusing him and try to make up the loss. Everyone fails some or the other day. If we consider our team, there are many failure stories. Yusuf, Piyush and Sreesanth never performed in this world cup. Munaf and Nehra also struggled initially. Dhoni found it difficult to score a double digit score. Harbhajan never played to his full potential. But we always had a backup. Zak, Yuvi and Ashwin masked bowling weaknesses. Raina covered up lower order failures. Viru, Tendya, Gauti and Kohli made our batting look invincible. On the big day their most powerful weapons, Viru and Tendya, failed to fire and we saw Captain Dhoni and Gauti stepping up to the cause and playing match winning innings.

Moral 3. Believe your team-mates. They are worth it. Don't doubt their potentials. Our players believed each other and gelled up quite well. Consider Yuvi. Everyone criticised his selection. Even Yuvi was in a very poor form and was not 100% fit. But the captain and his team believed Yuvi. Sachin inspired him to the core and brought out the match-winner in him. He was judged as man of the series. When many players like Munaf, Bhajji, Raina, Nehra, Yusuf etc were struggling in form, the team backed them up. Our team believed each other very well and played as a unit.

Moral 4. Don't yield to pressure. Do trust your team and its performance. Contribute individually to team's success. When our team tied its game with the English and lost to proteas very few had confidence on this team's winning chances. But the team never lost confidence on itself. All players understood that the team itself is important than individuals and contributed to the team glory. The players believed all the time that they as a team can win this cup. That's the spirit of a team.

Moral 5. Strategical mistakes do happen. Few wrong decisions might have been taken. We cant change it. But we can always try to minimise the damage. In semis against Pak, MS Dhoni wrongly read the pitch and took Nehra in place of Ashwin. They didn't curse themselves for doing it. Its a part and parcel of game. Mistakes do happen. Nehra stood up to the occasion and bowled brilliantly to be the best bowler of Indian side in that match. Chawla inclusion in squad was also a mistake but Yuvi covered it up. When your team has taken a wrong decision, step up and play hero to mitigate the loss. Its easy to curse but difficult to perform.

Moral 6. Learn from your team-mates. Its a very good habit. Teach your strengths to your teamster and correct your mistakes from them. Indian fielding was very poor during the initial games. But once Raina made it into the squad the whole fielding standards rose. Kohli brought out his best and Yuvi went back to his original backward point. Yuvi, Raina and Kohli formed an impregnable covers. Looking at them even less athletic men started to dive on the field. Observe how a 38 year old Tendulkar dived at the boundaries to stop runs.

Moral 7. Appreciate your teamster performances. Celebrate individual milestones as team milestones. This team is best at this. They all applauded each other contributions. They all celebrated each other milestones. Importantly they all played for each other and celebrated with each other. If any player performed well, Tendulkar never hesitated to praise him even though he is his utmost junior.

These are few morals I could learn from our team on their campaign for glory. If you found anything more please do share them with our blog readers by commenting this post with it.

Good luck....

Its time we bleed blue!!!

Is cricket a sport? May be 'yes' for the English or the Aussies or the Dutch but for the Indians its always a 'no'. Cricket is something more than a mere sport. I dare call it a religion or may be more than a religion. In this country with many diversities, there are very few things that bind us together and Cricket is one of the most prominent of them. The euphoria spread around this cricket maniac nation is of nobody's surprise as its team prepares itself to take on Srilanka in ICC World Cup final to be held at Mumbai's Wankhede stadium on April 2.

In less than 24 hours, India will start its battle with the Lankans to claim the World cricket championship. So what will be a better time than this to Bleed Blue? As I bleed blue, I have made an attempt to analyse the strengths of Indian team for tomorrow's match. Why don't you bleed blue by reading it?

As always, India's prime strength for tomorrow is its strong batting line-up. Its top order, studded with stars like Sachin, Viru and Ghambhir, never failed to make a strong beginning. Since Knock-outs, its middle order is well capitalising on the starts they have got. The biggest plus for India throughout this campaign is that situations are throwing up heroes for them. When middle order was looking very weak during the initial games, Yuvraj came up with good knocks in the middle order and even filled the slot of fifth bowler. During a very crucial game against WI, Kohli played a good innings and improved the team batting unit's confidence. During the vital quarters and semis matches, Raina stood up for his team. Against Pak in semis, Munaf and Nehra came up with extra-ordinary performances just when they are deadly needed. Bhajji found back his rhythm just before the crucial grand finale. When India had bowling worries, Ashwin stood up for his captain and this off spinner even opened the bowling attack. This Indian pack is a lot different from its previous teams. This team comes up with its ultimate under pressure unlike its predecessors that used to crumble under pressure.

There were many consistent performers from this team like Sachin, Viru, Yuvraj, Ghambhir, Dhoni and Zaheer. Sachin and Sehwag are giving India a flying start in every match. They intimidate every bowling attack they face and put up their team in a psychologically strong position. When ever Dhoni needs a wicket, Zak delivers it for him. He is one of the tournament's leading wicket taker and most of those wickets came under immense pressure. Yuvraj has turned to be India's genuine all rounder. He scores runs and picks up wickets. He has given his captain a flexibility to experiment on bowling attack and has been a consistent match winner. Dhoni is also consistent. Surprised? Folks, Dhoni has failed with the bat throughout the tournament although he is doing a satisfactory job with gloves. But as a captain, Dhoni is at his best. He is a tough cool captain who never looses his nerve or allows his team to panic.
Two players caught my attention in epic Indo-Pak semifinal clash. Munaf and Harbhajan. Yeah, even Nehra was good but he wont be available for finals. Munaf varied his length well on that day. In previous matches Munaf was pity predictable, he used to bowl at a bit back of the length and at a 120-125 kph case. But on that day he was a quite different bowler. He bowled at a pace near 137 kph and even crossed 140s few times. He mixed up his lengths very good and his line was precise. Harbhajan allowed the ball to turn and come up by bowling slower deliveries. Crucially, Bhajji looked like an intelligent bowler that he generally is.

One more important issue is India's fielding. They were electric on field. Kohli, Raina and Yuvraj are live wires on field. Looking at them, even the less athletic players are also putting up some extra effort to stop runs.

Confident top order, strong middle order, decent bowling attack and up-to mark fielding efforts. A great mix that has everything to win the championship. I dont find any reason to doubt India's victory chances. Do you?

So now cross your fingers and wait for the match to begin. And remember, please stand up in attention when the national anthem plays before the match.

So you think you haven't bled enough blue? Then bleed more blue by commenting :)