Kuch Kariye, Kuch Kariye

Finally India did it. They beaten the champions to enter the Finals of the Twenty-Twenty world cup. Does this victory has anything to do with Chak De? Though it may not have had any direct bearing on the cricket team, the team did exactly what the Coach Shahrukh tells the hockey team. This cricket team started exactly with one goal - Win the world cup. It had all the politics and problems that the hockey team in the movie had. One senior player unhappy that he is not made the captain, the captain unsure how and what he can demand from the team, youngsters who don't care anything about this but just want to go there and prove themselves and finally the blue billion, which relentlessly hopes to see their Men in Blue to make it happen. Only missing character is the Hero/Coach. May be RaviShastri played the Devil's Advocate by saying that Aussies are the favorites and Dhoni with his team decided to prove him wrong. Whatever was happening in the minds of these players, it produced a fantastic display of sporting talent.

The Indian players celebrate after completing a 15-run win, Australia v India, 2nd semi-final, ICC World Twenty20, Durban, September 22, 2007 © AFP

Dhoni definitely displayed excellent leadership qualities of handling the team. He gave the last over to Sanjay Sharma and I think he made a great decision. The new player responded to the challenge by holding his nerve. And I think Dhoni managed the politically charged Indian camp very well.

While this series was going on we were going through some very related topics in MGTO. We were discussing the four frame leadership model and we got to see many of the dimensions in action.

Prof. Anand Narasimhan is really good. He makes the class so interesting and his comments are the best. He is very well-read and has the ability to link things so well. He is witty, uses humor and doesn't take any BS CP. In one of my earlier posts I wrote about Networking and the last session was on Networking. He got across the message that Networking is important and how it makes a difference when one is in Leadership position. I observed that people don't put effort into Networking because either they are lazy, or they fear about other's perceptions or lastly not skilled enough.

Finally as a cricket fan, I have completely forgotten about the Legends and I think all the other fans too didn't miss then much. It's time for them to retire and help the younger team to take over. As shown in the new Airtel Google search commercial, it is time for the heroes to retire and for kids to take over.

Have loads to catch up but I am looking forward for tomorrow evening when India meets Pakistan in the Finals. See you in the next post