Cricket - Advise from M.S.K Prasad

Former India international and now cricket administrator for Andhra Cricket Association M.S.K. Prasad was at the M.L.Jaisimha Academy recently and he addressed the young cricketers present there. He spoke well and passionately.

Have a big goal
He stressed on the importance of having a goal. That one would want to play and represent a particular level as they set out each season. Setting a clear goal is important he said so you can work towards it. He said that one must have a big dream, of playing for India and then work kicks in.

Push your limits
He talked about the importance of hard work and purposeful work. He spoke of how former cricket captain of India Mohd. Azharuddin would tell him that the body is like a machine. The more you use it the better it gets and the more load it is tuned to take. A piece of advise that hints at pushing your limits because the limits as you know them are pretty low considering what the body can take.

Preparation - Using resources such as expert advise and facilities
He talked about preparation and how they should use the facilities well. Using expert advise from coaches like Mr. M.R. Baig (who was also present), using the facilities available, the young cricketers must look to improve their game.

Improve constantly, Reduce errors
While on that he spoke of how great cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar are made. He said that Sachin never repeated the same mistake if he could help it, which is a hallmark of greatness or of quick growth. If we come to practice and continue to make the same mistakes again and again, we are showing no growth or improvement for our efforts.

Dedication and commitment
He spoke of the dedication that cricketers like Sachin would show by practicing for up to four hours, how he prepares mentally, how he has an amazing quest for cricketing knowledge.

M.S.K. Prasad spoke well and from his heart and if his advise is taken in the right spirit and the right amount of seriousness, it is enough to change a cricketers life. But I could notice the disconnect in the boys eyes as he spoke of the vital things - hard work, goals, preparation - stuff that belongs to the realm of mental preparation. I could see them struggling to connect themselves to a big dream. They are not able to take responsibility yet, lacking the confidence to take up the burden of the big dream. It is here that young cricketers fail to get a start, being unaware of the process, of seeing the goal first, of taking responsibility for it and thirdly not being able to commit to it.

In my opinion many a young cricketer can benefit from attitudinal and mental training where they are exposed to process orientation, career goals, preparation aspects so they can see the path ahead and decide on the quantum of work that goes in to play at higher grades or as professional cricketers.

I enjoyed the brief ten minute talk and I am sure that there is much more he has to offer with his experience and his clarity. Perhaps when I get the opportunity, will learn some more from this fine young cricketer turned administrator.

 

10 Non-Fiction Books That Made A Huge Impact

This is a list of 10 non-fiction books that made a huge impact on me.

1) The Power Of Now - Eckhart Tolle

2) Mindset, The New Psychology of WInning - Carol Dweck

3) Man's Search for Meaning - Victor Frankyl

4) I Touch The earth And The Earth Touches Me - Hugh Prather

5) You Can Heal Your Life - Louise Hay

6) The Prince - Niccolo Machiavelli

7) The Snow Leopard - Peter Mathiessen

8) A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson

9) Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson

10) Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell

I am not too sure about the last two now. Maybe I should increase this list to 20.


 

Things we Grew Up With - Of PCOs and CTOs

For many years, even up till the early 1990s, we could not make a long distance call from a public phone because there was no concept of a public phone office! You either were at the mercy of your neighbour or a distant relative and became a PP number. I forget what that stood for but most of us had PP numbers for emergencies. What it meant was that if you wanted to contact me who did not have access to a phone, you called my neighbor who had a phone and who would let me use it in emergencies. Now this could mean phones coming in at any time, inconveniencing the neighbor and all sorts of related issues. But incoming was free so it was ok.

When you had to make a long distance you went to the Central Telecom Office (in Hyderabad we had one at Paradise) and stood in line to make a call. Now since calls were frightfully expensive to make we'd all troop in after 10 when rates halved or quartered and stood or sat in queues. The procedure once you entered a CTO was like this.

We would give our number to the official on a chit of paper and join the queue. He would dial each number and call the respective number forward where we had to speak about our private matters before a full house of eager listeners. Every number was given three tries and  if you got through you spoke else you joined the line back and waited! Wrong calls were charged.

Several times we would spend many hours up to and past midnight trying to get a call across. I remember how I made acquaintances in faraway CTOs while waiting in line. There were many Telugus who would queue up in faraway places like Calcutta, Patna, Dhanbad, Katihar, Budge Budge, Begusarai etc. Most would come with a preset budget - say Rs. 100. Even if they finished their business within thirty bucks they'd keep at it until their 100 bucks limit was reached. Despite the fact that many people were waiting and probably even dying. No, I have earned the right to speak and I shall and to hell with you all. It was interesting because you'd also tell  the person who you wanted to speak that you'd call and they would wait for you. Beautiful.

Only in the 90s after the telecom guys decided that they could let go of their control did they come up with the concept of a PCO or Public Call office which were small STD/ ISD booths where we could go and make calls. These were little franchisees and became a source of living for most. For us the ubiquitous yellow, STD/ISD booths was a new freedom - the mobile phone of those days. The booth owners would act funny as they came up with new rules for their individual booths! The inside of the booths were filled with numbers and names of people who were to be called and they soon became a hub of activity. Many lovers would call one another form the anonymity of the PCOs which had a small cabin - maybe for the first time in their lives some love affairs got some privacy.

Much love developed in STD booths.

So began the story of an India that started to find its voice. People talking nineteen to dozen on what they ate, saw, who they met, what one should do and not do etc. The CTOs dies a natural death once PCOs came in and the PCOs died a natural death once mobile phones came in.

More later.

Cricket - 2 Views I Don't Share

Do Test Players Make the Best Selectors?
I read sometime ago an article by Makarand Waigankar on how badly chosen the selectors from many associations were. This, he says, despite the presence of many test players around. Most Chairmen have played few test matches. I can understand the angle from which he is coming but I am not fully in alignment with his thought that Test players alone can make great selectors. It's like saying that the guy who came first in the Civils should lead the country.

For one, other than Mumbai or Delhi where have Test players by the dozen most other associations do not have that luxury. Secondly, being a good player does not automatically make you a better captain or coach or a selector or an administrator. I am surprised how often people make these connections. Yes, there is a respect that comes with having played better and greater cricket and having the benefit of the exposure. People do respect you for that too. But not for long if you don't deliver in other roles. Many times great players have made bad captains, coaches, selectors and administrators. The answer is simple - they are all roles that need specific skill sets.

Now what would you rate a selector on. Knowledge of the game, an eye for putting the right team together and thirdly, integrity. In fact most selections come with this word first - just and fair. Selections have to be just and fair to earn any credibility and only then comes the eye to spot the talent that will deliver. To be fair as a selector requires meticulous preparation, information gathering, analysis, understanding player motivations and psyche and doing what's best for the team finally.

If a Test player has all these, well and good. But just because one has played Tests, one does not automatically qualify - though in Waigankar's case, or in Mumbai's case, the concerned Test players may first be filtered for all these qualities and only then must the bar go below. The selectors must have time, energy, an understanding of human psychology, of the technicalities of the game certainly, commitment, loyalty and capability to build teams to deliver for the purpose i.e. to win games. It may however be possible that others may have all of these and an enthusiasm to do a good job and they must certainly qualify too.

Should the Game Only Promote Entertainers?
I saw an article by Ted Corbett about how one is better off choosing KP over Andy Flower because KP is an entertainer. I disagree completely. The game of cricket is a team game and we go to wtch great teams compete, not merely great individuals who compromise their team by their individualistic behavior. Many have been sacrificed for the team's greater purpose - the game is greater after all and so is the team. To back KP and not back the Coach on the basis of who entertains more is not acceptable. Give me a fighting unit any day where the team members stand next to one another like brothers, fight together as one, play for the team and their country, feel the pain, any day. That is what sport is all about to me. I'd any day sacrifice the person in the unit who sticks out because of his hubris simply because he is compromising everyone else in the team. And if the Coach feels that the team is greater than the individual and that the individual is harming the team's interest, I'd not hesitate to counsel the player and then, if he still behaves in the same manner, remove until the lesson is learned.

For entertainment I have far better options than watch ill mannered, egoistic players strut about on losing sides or resort to posturing.  

Jonathan Livingston Seagull, A Story - Richard Bach

Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a seagull. Unlike the other seagulls of his flock who consider their only purpose in life to be eating, Jonathan is interested in flying. In fact he loves flying. His obsessive liking for flying and for speed makes Jonathan study his techniques to increase his speed. He goes much higher, folds his wings and then attempts a dive that threatens his very life. He succeeds in going higher than any gull has gone, four times as faster. He flies at night, something that seagulls never do. But for all his efforts, he is ostracized for putting others in danger. The flock you see, do not want to fly, to see a magnificent world.

In his continuing and lonesome quest for excellence Jonathan soon finds himself meeting others of similar desires and thoughts. Far fewer though. He also finds himself a mentor, thanks to his great capacity to learn and implement all that he learned. Sullivan explains why there were so few because it takes many lives to seek this perfection, this excellence. Jonathan learns and practices until he starts to evolve the art of flying into a fine art. A state that is reached when he is truly himself, when he accepts himself as being full and complete as he is. His mentor Chiang tells him that heaven is nothing but bring perfect. Perfection described as being there. Chiang explains - "to fly as fast as thought, to anywhere, you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived." It is about being unlimited, perfect, and not being limited by space and time. As one learns more and more, one starts working on the highest skill, of practicing kindness and love.

Jonathan becomes a master himself and starts training younger gulls. He explains that each was an idea of the great potential - an unlimited idea of freedom, an image of the great gull - and all that they were doing through flying was to express themselves. The key was to overcome all that limits them. Jonathan tells them that they were nothing but thought - and if they can break the chains of their thought they could be free.

It is an incredible amount of stuff to say in 93 pages and in such clear terms. The metaphor of the seagull is perfect. Do we stay low, limited and restricted as the flock does or do we soar high? The risk it appears is great, but is it? Richard Bach speaks of many things but most of all our being perfect without knowing it, our need to achieve our potential and how that effort to seek perfection gives us our freedom and our peace. Brilliant read anytime. Don't overlook it thinking it's for college kids. It opens a whole new
world now. Loved it even more this time.

10 Slim Books That One Must Read

10 slim books that one must read when in school. And then again and again.

1) The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran

2) Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach

3) Love Story, Eric Segal

4) Animal Farm, George Orwell

5) The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway

6) Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

7) The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

8) Siddhartha, Herman Hesse

9)The Outsider, Albert Camus

10) The Untouchable, Mulk Raj Anand / The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

Did I miss any?

The Maltese Falcon - Movie Review

There is a precious falcon shaped statue from the 1500 that is worth an unbelievable sum because of the jewels it has encrusted on it.

Many people are chasing this Maltese falcon statue and it so happens that one of the chasers hires the hero Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) and his partner Archie Miller. Big mistake. Miller gets killed and Spade is prime suspect. Spade soon realises that there are more characters after this Falcon than he can fathom and he plays his cards carefully until he sees himself to safety and gets the others arrested. Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade is brilliant with his trademark style and dialogue delivery. I also enjoyed the performance of Sydney Greenstreet as the Fat Man, brilliant.