Those of you who watched the India-West Indies world cup cricket match yesterday, will know what I am alluding to ... Rampaul bowled a beautiful delivery, there was barely a shadow of a nick with Sachin's bat, and the ball sailed through to the wicket keeper. There was a loud appeal for "caught behind" which was turned down by the umpire, but Sachin walked. He knew he had nicked it. If he had wanted to play purely opportunistically, he could have benefited from the umpire's decision and stayed or waited out a review. But the point I am making is that he walked. He declared himself out, he was his own umpire. This when the stakes are REALLY high .. it's the WORLD cup after all, and it is CRICKET (by GOD!!) ... and it is tens of thousands in attendance and many more glued to their TV sets ... and what does Sachin do ? He walks ...
Cut now to leaders in corporate ODIs ... there's all this contemporary blah about ethics, transparency, and governance, right ? Well, how do you think leaders are actually faring there ? My cynical self wants full page status on this theme, but let me try and not indulge that. Let me focus more on the "learnable point of view" (if Tichy does not mind a liberal turn of his original phrase) ... Can we as leaders truly learn to own up ? Can leaders be their own umpires ? Can we learn to walk ?
Its all well for Sachin, did you say ? Do I hear you saying that he is God, he is not in a foxhole, desperately craving safety, stability and security ? Well, would you like to perhaps imagine that he never got into the foxhole because he dared to act from convictions and not from compulsions ?
Think ...
3 comments:
Thnx Kaka, I dont expect every one to walk not even the great Tendulkar-atleast not always. Remember the Srilanka test series where he was ruled out twice on review once claiming to have touched the ball when he hadnt and once claiming to have not touched when he had. Hence my expectations are much more modest i.e. the game is played by the rules and verdicts accepted graciously.I see the bigger problem as people being their own umpires and giving verdicts as per their convenience
Well we saw what Ponting 'the wild dog trainer' did!
I find it very funny that this walk is taken as example for owning up.
I have two reservations against this being taken as an example and also putting a perspective on corporate leadership.
1. It is not a critical situation. India had qualified. I would like to see Sachin walk in say the IPL Final where he nicked one to Dhoni as well as when he nicked one of Steyn who was in the middle of an awesome bowling spell at Durban just two months back. Ironically it was the same ump Steve Davis I think. The true mettle must show when you are consistent even in a crisis.
2. Who is to say he nicked it? I still think that is the umps decision. Even in the corporate world; who is to say that a person should own up when the consequences could be dire. That in other words could be suicide (probably on behalf of the team) which is against the law in India. Either way we expect teams to own up rather than individuals.
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