Monday, January 16, 2012

Cricket and IT - They go hand in hand

After our Indian cricket team recent failures in overseas, too many things have been said and written and why not, it is because of people like us ("Fans") that the Indian Cricket players make their living, if we didn’t exist then they wouldn’t. So it makes a lot of sense when the angered Fans call for the heads of some players, have opinion on everything that surrounds Indian cricket.

Of the many theories floating around about our players, these - They don’t practice enough, they have fun during tours, Don’t last all the 5 days, Transition is not happening -, are what being heard loud and frequent enough.

Since I belong to the IT industry, I can co-relate all these things and I find it ridiculous on the part of the "Fans" to accuse our players this way, why? Let me explain


  1. They don’t practice enough

Most of us who are in IT do our work, let take the case of a programmer, between the office hours (typically 9 -6, or whatever time suits the individual) and then during non-office hours most of us (almost 100%) either only check emails or watch TV or spend time with the family and not practice programming even when at home/outside office similarly, our cricketers play during the match and when not playing match they have their right to spend time the way want, how can we expect them to keep doing the same thing even during non-playing time

So lets stop bull shitting and don’t expect out players what we cant do


  1. They have fun during tours

Lets take the case of a programmer who travels to onsite on business visa (obviously for work), but tell me how many come back without seeing the places around the city that he happens to visit, actually to be frank they plan well in advance and sound to all their friends onsite that they are coming and to make sure that they can have as much fun as they can, does it mean that they didn’t go their for work and just fun, no it is having fund while work is our mantra and so is the mantra of our cricket team, so why blame them when they are doing exactly as we are??

Lets stop being stupid and correct ourselves first


  1. They don’t last all the 5 days

I equate the 5 days test match to a project, what is the dream of every manager in IT, to finish project well ahead of time so that it saves both time, money and human resources.. Well our players are also doing the same they are finishing the 5 days match in 2, 2.5 or max 3 days, instead of appreciating/rewarding them we tend to make them look like villains. Imagine what all our players can do in those extra saved days - they can attend dinners to raise fund, sign autographs, endorse more products, visit schools, do charity - all these helps in improving revenue and at the same time improve India's image

So lets give credit to our players instead of admonishing them


  1. Transitioning is not happening

Tell me all you IT folks, which project you have handled/worked on has had a smooth transition or a successful transition - well 95% answer would be none. The people from whom knowledge has to be taken will always delay or give ridiculous deadline, we need to understand that by taking their work away we are in turn being responsible for loosing their job. Obviously we start complaining, not understanding how difficult and painful is it for those giving up their work and most of the time when you check the status of a project in transition it is always "In Progress". Well the same is happening with our players, lets give the seniors their due credit and give them time to decide on the transition, because only with their full co-operation would this be successful.

So please stop being naïve and don’t always complain about transition - it will happen when the time is ripe


Now the only problem is when the board of directors (selectors) would have a knee-jerk reaction and take some Hotchpotch decision which would have a permanent effect on the company (Indian cricket team). My only suggestion or request to them is not to kill the golden goose and instead do the following


  • Start accepting more projects in countries like Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, West Indies, Canada, Ireland - give them the MFN (most preferred nation) tag
  • Always accept projects from Australia, South Africa, England, Sri Lanka for in bound and not on-site, this way we can control the end result
  • Keep allotting more shares, more salary to the VP's of the company (seniors in the team), this ways once their revenue are intact they will start involving in better decision making exercises

And for all those people from Non-IT, you have every right to point fingers at the Indian cricket team, ask for the heads of the seniors, request for wholesale change in the team, burn effigies, throw stones at the players house..

Because as they say "The play should go on, even if the actors are dead"