Lessons In Leadership From Indian Cricket– The Gavaskar, Kapil Dev Era

Indian cricket made a few great strides in international cricket in the 1960s and 1970s with some of the stars of that era. Ajit Wadekar, the captain, spinner trio of B. S. Chandrashekhar, Bishen Singh Bedi and Erapalli Prasanna, fielder par excellence Eknath Solkar, captain and heartthrob of many, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Salim Durrani and a few more.

However, Indian cricket’s status started to rise with the advent of the super talented Sunil Gavaskar on the scene. In his debut series against the West Indians at West Indies he notched up a mammoth 774 runs with four centuries, in four tests with an average of 154.8. The Indian team registered its first series win in the West Indies.

Sunil Gavaskar dominated the world’s fiercest pace attack for the next decade-and-a-half. This had a huge impact on the team and its ability to compete. The cricketing world saw another great sportsman Kapil Dev. Tall, strong and athletic, he was India’s genuine medium fast bowling act. A smooth and languid action that produced swing and pace with great variety. The Gavaskar-Kapil era saw an Indian team building the platform to be a serious contender in international cricket. Under Kapil’s captaincy, a well-knit team won the 1983 world cup. A defining moment in the cricket history of the nation. The same team went on to win the 1985 Benson and Hedges (B&H) World Cup in Australia in 1985 under Sunil Gavaskar’s captaincy.

The key ingredient of the success of the 1983 team undoubtedly was Kapil’s inspiring charismatic leadership backed by equally great performances with the bat and the ball. The unforgettable 175 against Zimbabwe was probably one of the greatest knock ever played. There were some other key factors. The team played fearless cricket not burdened by expectations, since there were few and each player contributed at various stages. An Yashpal Sharma, or Sandhu or Mohinder Amarnath chipped in with contribution brought out from the skin of their teeth. Each player played to their potential and this collective performance was pivotal to the success.

The same team spirit led to the 1985 B&H Cup. This team did it with that belief that they can win. A belief powered by the 1983 win. Once again Gavaskar’s leadership was pivotal. Around the nucleus of the 1983 World Cup Team, was built another unit that was energised by the infusion of a few super talented young cricketers with youthful energy. Mohammad Azharuddin, Ravi Shastri, Sadanand Vishwanath and Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, to name a few. Creating a nice blend of experience and youth. This added that extra bite to the team, that was already running high on the belief that they could do it. Fiesty performances from the new crop of players along with consistent performances from seniors like Gavaskar, Amarnath, Madan Lal, Kapil Dev, Vengsarkar were crucial for success.

This was also the series where the Indian Team brought in some new experiments. Gavaskar brought him down the order at No 4 for the first time in his career to give solidity to the middle order. And gave his opening slot to Ravi Shastri. He took the role like fish takes to water. Shastri became the player of the tournament.

*The success of these teams gives us some important lessons for leaders in organisations.

**Everyone in an organisation need not be super-talented.

Just as in 1983, organisations require leaders who bring people together under their ambit of empathy, performance and shared vision. Celebrating the power of the collective.

Like Kapil commanded respect from his team on the back of inspirational performances, leaders will command respect from team members when they lead from the front with great performances.

Leaders who have the capability to understand their fellow colleagues and plan the team’s charter, are in a better position to succeed.

A great organisation with many great team leaders without a leader of all of them who draws them together, will meet with only that much success. It will always be a case of unfulfilled potential.

Similarly, a great leader with a talented bunch of professionals without the right attitude and mindset can accomplish half as much.

Often teams in organisations get overawed by the target. The fear of failure saps them of positive energy. When the focus on execution is high and teams are performing to potential, chances of success increase.

*We get some lessons from the follow-up success in 1985, in Australia. 

In the era of fierce competition, the road to success is by building newer areas of competence on existing areas.

Leaders must be conscious to bring in new talent with new capabilities and upgrade existing capabilities, create an ideal mix to achieve business milestones consistently.

An organisation must be flexible in its outlook to try out different experiments at various points, in accordance with the business situation. Leaders should be prepared to sacrifice their personal positions and points of view, for the benefit of the team.

At the core, the success of a leader wherever he or she is, will come from the ability to understand the feelings and emotions of their teams. As Swami Vivekananda said, “The test, the real test, of the leader, lies in holding widely different people together along the line of their common sympathies."

This is the first of a three-part series on Leadership Lessons from Cricket by the author.