11 April,2011 10:38 AM IST | | Arindam Chaudhuri
It's just one man who has won us the Cup! And it's not Sachin or Yuvraj. The man is Mahendra Singh Dhoni!
Just before the India-Pakistan match, I told a channel that although the 2003 team that reached the final was more talented than the current team, it would be this year's team that would win the Cup.
The only reason was Dhoni! That's the kind of importance I attach to leadership, whether in a country, or in a game.
The 2003 Indian cricket team had a better bowling lineup, and an equally good batting lineup, perhaps better because of Ganguly's presence.
But Sourav failed to win us the Cup. Though a great captain, politics plagued the team playing under him. Moreover, it never played as a unit under Ganguly, as it did under Dhoni.
In 1983, after winning the cup against West Indies, India returned triumphant. Immediately after that, the West Indies whitewashed India 5 to nil, on tour! The reason was the leadership of a lionhearted captain like Kapil Dev, who created a spirit of camaraderie. In league matches, leadership is as important as the team. As the competition enters into its final laps, leadership becomes far more important than the merit of the team.
As a management teacher, I know that what Dhoni did was straight out of a leadership book! When Sachin and Sehwag got out, the result of the match depended on just one man: Dhoni. Just like I had anticipated, he entered at the fall of the next wicket. The rest, as they say, is history.u00a0 He led from the front, in terms of personal performance as well as well team spirit ufffd and that is the recipe of a winning team.
It was also remarkable that he did not hog the limelight after the win, but shared it with his team. It was also fascinating that all the players reiterated one thing: "We won it for Sachin!" That's what great leaders like Dhoni do. They give the team a greater purpose to strive for.u00a0
Iu00a0 do experience disappointment when Indian athletes fail to win medals at the Olympics. The reason is poor leadership, in the high ranks of the bureaucracy. But I can confidently say one thing ufffd if there is one game that necessitates a wide array of skills, it's cricket with it's batting, bowling, fielding, wicket-keeping. It's one tough game, requiring a high degree of teamwork. A World Cup win in cricket, for me, is equivalent to 25 gold medals in the Olympics.
