Angels in the outfield is one of my favourite movies of all time. The film depicts the story of a young kid, Roger, and his dream of reuniting with his family. Roger's father had casually remarked(knowing well that it will never happen) that they all can be family, if California Angels, one of the hopeless baseball teams in the league, win the coveted championship.The film revolves around Roger and the real angels(who appear from the sky!!) who turn up during the games to help the California Angels win the league matches, as also help build a team out of siloed, abusive, arrogant yet talented individuals. However, the angels refuse to help during the championship match saying " it has to be played and won on it's merit". This, to me, was the most inspiring thought in the entire movie.
Drawing a parallel, the Indian Cricket team played and won the final on its own merit and brought home the world cup after 28 long years. However, the most inspiring moments in this match,came from the captain, MS Dhoni. Belittled for the team's performance during league matches, especially in bowling and fielding departments, he stood up and delivered when it mattered the most...at the centre stage in a World Cup Fi"nal!! Leadership talks about strategy, planning, execution and so on but how many of the leaders "walk the talk?
Well, MSD did on the night of 2nd April amidst the expectation of a billion people across the world. With accusations of team compostion(Sreesanth in place of Ashwin) and his own patchy batting performance, the captain played an innings(91 from 78 balls)of immense maturity and immaculate temperament.The strategy was to counter the off spin of Murali and Suraj Randiv and not expose the in form left handers(Yuvraj and Suresh Raina); also having played Murali earlier, he thought he will be better equipped to pick up the doosra better than others.However, the line of thought and planning, which was in consensus with the team management, pointed to the Captain to take the lead...and he never shied away from it..despite such huge expectations.His admonishing Gautam Gambhir for playing a cross batted shot, punching power packed fours through covers and negotiating the dangerous Malinga is what inspired a Imram Khan to mention that more than a captain, MSD is a leader!!
Even his post match celebrations was quite muted and not as ecstatic or emotional like some of his team members..perhaps, his humble beginnings have taught him the transient nature of it all (accolades and brickbats)....which brings us to an important attribute of a leader...being emotionally detached from your own performance, success or failure!!
MSD won the game for India on his own merit, led by example and not by words....you can almost hear the angels in the sky applauding amidst the bright fireworks that lit up the Saturday sky!!
Drawing a parallel, the Indian Cricket team played and won the final on its own merit and brought home the world cup after 28 long years. However, the most inspiring moments in this match,came from the captain, MS Dhoni. Belittled for the team's performance during league matches, especially in bowling and fielding departments, he stood up and delivered when it mattered the most...at the centre stage in a World Cup Fi"nal!! Leadership talks about strategy, planning, execution and so on but how many of the leaders "walk the talk?
Well, MSD did on the night of 2nd April amidst the expectation of a billion people across the world. With accusations of team compostion(Sreesanth in place of Ashwin) and his own patchy batting performance, the captain played an innings(91 from 78 balls)of immense maturity and immaculate temperament.The strategy was to counter the off spin of Murali and Suraj Randiv and not expose the in form left handers(Yuvraj and Suresh Raina); also having played Murali earlier, he thought he will be better equipped to pick up the doosra better than others.However, the line of thought and planning, which was in consensus with the team management, pointed to the Captain to take the lead...and he never shied away from it..despite such huge expectations.His admonishing Gautam Gambhir for playing a cross batted shot, punching power packed fours through covers and negotiating the dangerous Malinga is what inspired a Imram Khan to mention that more than a captain, MSD is a leader!!
Even his post match celebrations was quite muted and not as ecstatic or emotional like some of his team members..perhaps, his humble beginnings have taught him the transient nature of it all (accolades and brickbats)....which brings us to an important attribute of a leader...being emotionally detached from your own performance, success or failure!!
MSD won the game for India on his own merit, led by example and not by words....you can almost hear the angels in the sky applauding amidst the bright fireworks that lit up the Saturday sky!!
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