Sourav bowls over Odisha audience with leadership mantra

Reported by Ayaskant Das
Bhubaneswar, Jan 31:

Building trust, instilling belief in team mates and an ability to adjust are the three qualities a leader needs whether it is in the field of cricket or elsewhere, said iconic cricketer turned celebrity braocaster Sourav Ganguly in the Odisha capital today.

“Building an atomosphere of trust, instilling confidence in team members and making them feel they are an important part of the team is the key to success of any organisation. This is what I tried to do during my tenure as a captain to bring the best out of a player,” said Sourav, one of the most successful captains in the history of Indian cricket, addressing the third in the series of motivational talks organised by leading Odia daily ‘Sambad’ to mark the 30th year of its publication.

“Whether it’s in cricket, as in my case, or in any other field, the initial years till one becomes a leader is very crucial in one’s career graph. When I was selected to play for the Indian team in 1999, I realised how insecure and nervous players could be. They get apprehensive about cementing their place in the team. When I came into the team, there were settled players in the team like Mohd Azharuddin, Sachin Tendulkar, Sanjay Manjrekar and Navjot Singh Siddhu. At that time, I realized a leader is one who lifts the confidence of newcomers, like Soumya Ranjan Patnaik must be doing in his organisation,” Sourav told a packed audience at the Swosti Premium hotel here.

The other quality that a leader must have is an ability to adjust and accept the points of views of team mates, Ganguly said.

Giving an example to illustrate the point, Sourav recalled a match against Australia where he asked pacer Zaheer Khan to bounce to the burly Aussie Mathew Hayden, who had a pechant for hooking.

“The next over, he just pitched it up and swung it away from the left hander,” he said drawing peals of laughter from the audience.

“I must admit I was fuming inside. But when I asked Zak (Zaheer) about it after the day’s play, I was convinced that his reasoning was sound. This incident taught me one of my biggest lessons in captainship: that one should always be willing to listen to other points of views,” the man adored as ‘Dada’ said.

Recounting another lesson that he learnt from his buddy Rahul Dravid, Sourav said; “I had asked ‘Jami’ (Rahul) to talk to a new player, who was struggling at the time. Rahul himself had not been doing particularly well in the one day format at the time. But I was moved by what he told this young player. ‘Pressure situations are opportunties and that is how one must face them,’ he told the player. This was certainly one of the best things I learnt in cricket.”

The former India captain said he himself tried this lesson out towards the fag end of his career when he had been stripped of the captaincy and his place in the team had become doubtful.

“I did not give up because I wanted to find out how strong I was as a person. I had easier options but I just did not want to go down thinking I did not try,” Sourav said.

Successful handling of pressure situations is a hallmark of a great leader. If you treat pressure as an opportunity, then you become successful. Every situation is a challenge in life, he shared.

“When I got picked for India in 1996 and batted at number three, I asked myself what if I didn’t score runs. This is what pressure is. You make your shoulder and foot heavy by this,” he said.

“The higher you go, the more the spotlight is on you. This is where the fear of failure creeps in. Even Sachin Tendulkar had fear of failure despite scoring so much international hundreds. There comes the role of a leader who helps them out,” he added.

“When you are at the top, you have the pressure of staying out there. Even the Tatas, Birlas or Ambanis have to compete hard to sustain their position in the market.”

The selection of a person in a team must always be based on his abilities. The leader makes him feel that he is here by virtue of his qualities and he is safe as long as he performs well; otherwise someone else will takes his position. The leader creates a sense of belief that he can perform.

The Bengal Tiger recalled his association with his former roommate and colleague Debasish Mohanty and shared many lighter moments off the field with the Odisha speedster.

He also revisited the era prior to making debut in international cricket and his connection with Barabati stadium in Cuttack.

“We used to put up at Barabati stadium’s dormitory when we used to play Ranji Trophy matches in this stadium. When I was in Cuttack last year, I sneaked into the dormitory to recall the yesteryear memories. I noticed that it’s all the same now,” Sourav reminisced with a chuckle.

The interactive session was likethe proverbial icing on the cake. The diverse audience put questions which were ably fielded by the cricketer-turned-commentator.

Eastern Media Limited Managing Director Monica Nair Patnaik said, “Sambad – Odisha’s most widely read and largest circulated Odia newspaper – has completed 30 years and to celebrate the ongoing journey we have been organising ‘Motivational Talk’ since the last three years.”

“I grew up in a household where members vied for the television remote control to watch their favourite programs. But there was one person who had his hands on on the remote and he was my father. My father watched only one thing on television: cricket matches, highlights and cricket news. When I used to ask him how you would relate to Sourav Ganguly, he used to say he is mera player hai… (my player),” Monica Nair Patnaik said.

Expressing his gratitude to the readers and advertisers of ‘Sambad’, Eastern Media Limited (EML) Chairman and Editor ‘Sambad’ Soumya Ranjan Patnaik said, “We had various suggestions to commemorate the grand occasion of completion of 30 years of the print media wing of the media conglomerate. We have always tried out different things. Thirty years ago, when people couldn’t dare to bring out morning newspapers, we pursued our dreams insanely to achieve our goals to bring out a morning newspaper instead of evening editions. We decided to give greater emphasis on literature and reach out to every segment of the society. Keeping this in mind, we came out with a slogan ‘Saat Ru Saturi… Samaste Khusi’ which means we would cater to the age group of seven to seventy.”

“We introduced computers to the print media with an aim to be loved by all. Our slogan ‘Akhi Rahiba Lakhi’ (the visual impressions would last long) was immensely successful with the introduction of color pages on Sundays. We delivered special color pages on Sundays, which was appreciated by all and was a trendsetter in the industry. We filled people’s life with colors. Our competitors followed us and brought out color papers,” Patnaik said.

“We accommodated two pages for sports news when print houses were not giving much space to sporting events and news related to it. The series of ‘Motivational Talk’ has one thing in common i.e. in the first edition the speaker was Anil Kumble, followed by Harsha Bhogle in the second and now Sourav Ganguly. This signifies how crazy people are about cricket in this nation,” Patnaik added.