IPL-The lessons of management learnt better by RRs than KKRs.
The team of Rajasthan Royals could not have expected a better start to season 5 of the Indian Premier League and on the other hand Kolkata Knight Riders seem to have had the worst possible start. The RRs under the leadership of their new captain Rahul Dravid have won their first two matches and on the contrary, KKRs have lost their first two.
Ironically, it was Kolkata which looked a better side on paper with all heavy weights while the teams to which they have lost so far this year i.e.Delhi and Rajasthan, sported a pretty ordinary look in terms of their team composition. However, Kolkata had to suffer defeats miserably to both the teams.
The benefit of doubt could be granted to Kolkata on their loss to Delhi as it was a rain curtailed match. So, critics may argue, given the state of pitiable batting line up of Daredevils, had it been a full match, the result would have been different, precisely favouring KKR. But, we can have no such defense in support of the Knight Riders as they played and lost a ‘full 20 overs a side match” to Rajasthan Royals.
So, what caused the loss for Kolkata in their match against Rajasthan today? If this question needs to be answered, we need to carefully go through the composition of both the teams. In KKR team, there were too many seniors who are cricketing heavy weights in their own rights. In this team, captained by Gautam Gambhir, we are seeing more number of seniors. There is Jacques Kallis from South Africa who has been playing the game since the last sixteen years. There is Brendon Mcullum from New Zealand who is not only a veteran but also had been the captain of KKR previously. There is Brett Lee from Australia who also has more than a decade experience in international cricket. In short, the seniors, that this team has, are no way inferior to one another.
Now coming to the main point at to how KKRs lost inspite of having such a neatly composed team all I can say is when a team is stuffed with this many seniors who are all very best in what they do, the captain will not be able to freely express his thoughts and give directions to the team members. If I was in Gambhir’s shoes, I would have felt as if my opinions in case they have to implemented all the seniors need to be consulted. I mean there would be some sort of self confinement in which you would be seeing yourself when you are a captain of a team in which there are seniors from all the parts of the world present. Lots of seniors mean lots of decision makers and it is never a good sign for any team to progress. Even the youngsters in the team would be confused as to which senior’s words should be heeded to and which senior’s words to let go. This sort of situation particularly holds good if the words of one or more than one senior are conflicting with one another.
Not that I am saying this was what the reason for Kolkata to perform badly but what I meant to say was this could also be the reason for their indifferent show. Imagine if this type of set up is prevailing in a corporate world and if an youngster is newly appointed in a company and he is made to report to four or five seniors, each belonging to a same type of cadre. When each of the seniors, to whom he is reporting to, pulls him to do things all contradictory to one another, what would be the end result? Will the youngster be able to achieve anything? This is what I feel could happen to a cricket team which has this number of seniors in it.
Buying this costly players and putting them under one roof is not going to be the mantra of success definitely. Just see how Rajasthan Royals won the inaugural DLF IPL. They were all bunch of youngsters in the team ably guided by none other than the great Shane Warne. He was really a fatherly figure for all the players in the team and so when he took decisions it were binding on the whole team, leaving no one in the team to question them. Of course RRs, at that time, had also the captain of South Africa, Graham Smith with them but given the experience that Shane Warne had, the former’s experience hardly mattered any way. So, Warne was able to mould and structure the team very well which resulted in their ultimate success.
The same situation applied to Deccan Chargers, who precisely, found themselves nowhere as they kept on losing every match and in the end were comfortably placed at the bottom of the table in the inaugural IPL. During the first IPL, they had in numberable seniors just like what KKR is having now. They had Laxman, Symonds, Afridi, Gibbs everyone under one roof. But, immediately in the next IPL which was held in South Africa, Adam Gilchrist, the then captain of the team, was given lot of youngsters to work with. The end result – Chargers were crowned champions in season 2.
Now, I am left to wonder, if this number of seniors presence is what inhibiting the performance of KKRs. May be this is the reason for their two consequtive losses. When you analyse the present Rajasthan team it reminds me of the team which won the inaugural IPL. The captain of this team is Rahul Dravid whose experience is miles ahead of the rest of the members of the team. He has got a lot of youngsters like Rahane, Maneria, Goswami etc in his team who have to abide by the directions that he gives. Even the foreign players that he has got including Cooper, Tait, Owais Shah and the like are not as experienced as Rahul Dravid in any sort of imagination. May be the T20 experience of Brad Hodge is much more than that of Rahul Dravid but again when you compare the international experience of both these players, the one which the latter possess is much bigger and this is what will count in such a case. Obviously, Dravid now is in a position from which he can dictate terms to the players belonging to RR at will. So, there is not going to be anything which is going to bemuse the team members as Dravid’s words are going to be final. There won’t be any ego clashes for sure in such a team. Dravid commands respect from all corners of the cricketing globe and so the players from a team like RR, by default, are going to be behind their captain without any shadow of a doubt. Moreover, selling Ross Taylor and bringing in three decent players in his place, have really come in handy, I should say, for Rajasthan.
This means more greener days are expected for Rajasthan Royals and may be Shahrukh has to wait for the next IPL to know what success is.
Too Royal for the Knights!!!
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