Sledging & Management Philosophies

The recent Series to England and the subsequent Twenty20 world cup has shown us a refreshingly new Indian side. A team full of energy, passion and more importantly we have seen a bunch of guys who unlike the earlier Indian teams give it back to the opposition who sledge us!

Coming to think of it as managers, there are quite a few management principles and concepts that must have been employed to bring about this dramatic turn around!

Let’s try and explore a few of them!

Disclaimer: All the characters used in this mail are fictitious. Any resemblance to anyone playing or retired by now is purely co-incidental.

MBO (Ma, Behen & Others)

The early Englishmen did well to learn Hindi for strategic maneuvering of Indian kingdoms. But unfortunately they failed to learn certain words which might be of help to them on a cricket ground against India. It took a Yuvraj Singh to train them on words associated with "Ma, Behen & Others" (use ejusdem generis!) so as to improve their awareness set! Now it is solely up to the likes of Flintoff and Kevin Peterson to ensure that knowledge transfer happens across the English team. As we say in the corporate world, they are still on the learning curve.

Balanced Scorecard

Indian scorecards have traditionally been unbalanced. Either everyone scores or every one falls cheaply… Either we bowl well or we bat well! It took us a Naplan and Korton to put us in perspective to have a balanced scorecard for winning games. These perspectives include:

1. Batting Perspective
2. Bowling Perspective
3. Fielding Perspective
4. Sledging Perspective (Most Important)

The fourth and the final perspective ensured that people play with just the bat & ball and not with words. Sequels by the same authors helped the Indian team develop “strategy maps” and build a “Strategy focused Team India”!

Six S(T)IGMA Principle

This is a strategy put into use by when an opposition sledges you even after getting hit. A perfect response to such a behaviour according to the SIX S(t)IGMA principle is, abuse the bowler first followed by hitting him for 6 sixes in 6 balls attaching a permanent stigma to him.

This was what happened between Yuvraj and Stuart Broad! The Six S(t)igma principle helps you find 3.4 bowlers out of a million to hit for 6 sixes!

GAAP (Generally Accepted Abusing Principles)

In an era where you get sledged left, right and center at the middle (i.e the pitch!) it is but natural to evolve some generally accepted principles to abuse so that the entire team follows a standard practice.

Usually Friendly Teams: Forgive them once and think twice before abusing.

Other Teams except Australia: Abuse immediately when a player sledges you with the choicest of words continuously without using the same word twice! If necessary, you can charge towards the sledger with a raised bat and pray that the umpire doesn’t stop you!

Australian Team: Spare none of them. DO NOT think about your own match fee. You need to make some sacrifices for the cause you believe in!

Porter’s 5 fours model

When Indian team was once meek and submissive, it was indeed a Porter from the Ranchi railway station who put some sense into MS Dhoni! These were his words of wisdom: “You get sledged by any bowler in the first delivery of an over… Take your time, abuse him tirelessly for 15 minutes; Get back to your crease… And murder him for 5 fours in the rest of the over!”.

High Gene factor & Motivating Factor

Genetical factors controls the behaviour pattern. Consider this criteria in choosing the team. For example, a Yuvraj Singh is naturally programmed to decimate anyone who sledges him, because that is in his gene. And it is a natural response to a rather unnatural stimulus. This is the High Gene Factor!!! Now these people will be the motivating factor for the rest of the team. Remember… Herzberg says that lack of High gene factor leads to dissatisfaction. We don’t want any of our opponents to be dissatisfied with the quality of our abuse!

The 7 S strategy

One thing that led to the Indian revival is the religious following of the 7 S strategy. Namely,

1. Sehwag, Virendar
2. Singh, Yuvraj
3. Singh, Robin
4. Sharma, Rohit
5. Sharma, Joginder
6. Sreeshanth
7. (Finally and most importantly) SLEDGE

Why would anyone with even a remote cricketing sense choose a Joginder Sharma otherwise? This is a conscious effort to adopt the 7 S strategy!

360 Degree Bheedback

One thing in a cricket match is that you have a Bheed (Crowd!) surrounding the batsman on all the 360 degrees. The recently concluded Twenty20 series saw a lot of injuries to the spectators due to balls flying all over the stand.

The way Indian batsman cleared the boundaries and deposited the ball on the stands, the crowd was pushed back so that they don’t get hurt. This was nothing but a new strategy called 360 degree Bheed back! The objective according to this strategy was to push the bheed back as much as possible so that you have clear and safe hitting opportunity!

BCG (Best Chosen Gaali!) Matrix

Before the start of the season, the team management met to develop a matrix of Gaalis which must be used according to the quadrant in which you operate during the match conditions! The operating quadrant is decided by two parameters namely, “Gaali growth rate” in the game and “relative Gaali share” in the total number of abuse hurled by the Indian team!

HAY(den) PLAN

This is a specific plan used to evaluate the job of sledging excellent, talented but arrogant players, especially Australian batsmen. (The name of the plan is self-explanatory). This basically includes:

• Know-How (Basically know how to sledge)
• Planning and Organizing (Plan and organize when and what you want to abuse)
• Communicating (Communicate the abuse clearly)
• Freedom to Act (Empowering the bowler to respond if the batsman talks back)

Markovian (Maar – Kaao – ian) Model

I don’t think I need to further explain this model. It deals with succession planning, once a bowler sledges an Indian Batsman you need to help them with their succession planning and that is called Maar-Kao-ian model. Just hit him and destroy his “Career Anchor” so that the opposition already starts thinking about the succession plan!

So people, the Indian team management has indeed acted like true managers in deploying some of the effective tools and models to effect a dramatic turn around.

Hope to see the Men in Blue continuing this amazing run.

Chak de India!