Lessons in fun

Yesterday’s event in a way was reminiscent of my childhood and boyhood. My department had organised an internal cricket tournament aptly named CBO Cricket League (CCL) that had 4 teams. There were 3 matches in all – the first two were knockout matches and the winners of the two games were to clash for the trophy. Though all the four teams comprised my own people, yet I captained one of the teams. It was fun all the way, with spectators cheering all good shots, fielding efforts and catches. In all respects, it was a good break from the daily routine of office chores.

Though, it was all fun – the fun heightened by the likes of me, who were captaining the team, but were more of liability than asset to the team ( I for once neither batted nor bowled, dropped a catch and let ball got past me several times) and by other unfit seniors, yet when I reflect on the event, there were certain subtle lessons to be learnt from it. I sum these up as below:

(1) Competition brings out the best out of people. Those whom we consider ordinary, can surprise you when they are challenged in a competition.

(2) Hunger to win raises your capabilities by several notches and this was in evidence repeatedly yesterday.

(3) Team work builds camaraderie and suddenly individuals having unequal capabilities when put in a team, form a team that’s not an addition but multiplication of their individual capabilities.

(4) Morale of soldiers gets boosted when captain stands with the team. As one of my team members said, ” Your presence gives us energy and courage to give our best”. I stood their under the sun for good 2-3 hours, may not be contributing anything and having sore muscles and cramps at night, but it encouraged the team to give its best.

(5) Success after hard work gives lots of joy and readies the team members to give better to chase more successes.

So, it was not s Saturday wasted in playing a game of cricket; it turned out to be an important management workshop providing so much to learn along with great fun.