The Ganguly Chronicles

Sourav Ganguly -  Picture Wikipedia

In his playing days, Sourav Ganguly rarely sported a smile. Not so now. The greatest ever Indian cricket captain makes his entrance in a dark suit minus the tie with a semblance of a smile at SAPs TechEd 2013 as the Guest Keynote speaker. It's a corporate coup by SAP. Who other than Sourav Ganguly is better qualified to talk about leadership? The man has seen the whole circle of life. The crowd of 7000 plus at Bangalore goes wild. It's apparent that the prince of Kolkata still holds a special place in our hearts. After all, this was the man who single handedly bought in the blade of aggression into the Indian team and took on the world unapologetically. It was all about guts and glory in equal measures.

Sourav is exceptionally articulate and completely at ease with such a big crowd. It's a walk in the park for someone used to hitting those towering sixes in packed stadiums. The clarity of thought is crystal clear. He sticks to the basics. Something we all need reminding at every stage of our lives. "The day you start wearing the white clothes till the day you stop wearing it, the pressure will always be there. And that is the pressure of performance. Those who say they haven't felt the heat at various stages of their lives is either lying or they are in a job that doesn’t demand anything. You wouldn't want to be in a job that doesn’t demand anything".

The prodigiously gifted batsman took up the cricket bat for the first time at a relatively late age of 14 and set school cricket on fire immediately. Five years later, Ganguly made his debut in the Indian One day squad in 1992. He didn't get much of a chance then and finally got his big break on the tour of England in 1996 where he announced his arrival among the big boys with back to back classy test hundreds. In a sport marked by media glare, criticism and continuous scrutiny the biggest challenge was to maintain focus and deliver. "When your start you career, you want to establish yourself. The best way is to create a zone for ourselves. A zone where we block out everything irrelevant. And find our best way to perform. A zone where you become better at what you deliver".  It’s all about self-belief.

In 2000, Sourav Ganguly was named Captain of the Indian Cricket team. "I still remember my first day as captain in the Cochin One-Day International against south Africa. It was a very special day in my life. And I still remember, when I walked into the dressing room there was Azharuddin, Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Ajay Jadeja, Javagal Srinath. I still remember my throat trembling as I made my first speech as captain.  Asking those 11 people in the dressing room that I needed this performance from you tomorrow was the toughest day of my life... I had to tell Azharuddin you will bat at no. 4, tell Sachin Tendulkar you will open with me and that’s the way I want you to play." An hour later he was back in his hotel room feeling very unsettled and flipping the TV channels, his mind blank. “My wife asked me what the problem was. I said for the first time in my life I realized that I am a leader of men and I had to make them do things the way I wanted. That team meeting changed him completely. "When I walked out of the room after an hour, I was a completely different player, a completely different person. I realized that tomorrow I will have to walk in front and 15 men will walk behind me”.

To Sourav Ganguly, leadership is about uncompromising honesty and clear communication. "It's a very likeable word that I am the leader, I am the captain of the side. But what goes with it, I wouldn’t say tough but something very complicated. It's very important to make sure you know what you are doing. For me, the biggest and only word to be a successful leader is trust. People around you, your colleagues, and people working under you should have trust. Not everyone will deliver, not everyone will succeed. But at the end of the day they would know whatever I have done, whatever feedback I have got from person who is my boss is a honest one and I can go home knowing exactly where I stand”. He emphasizes that you can only make your team walk behind you consistently over a period of time only if you get their trust. That they believe that this man is honest, and this man does exactly what he says.

Ganguly knew that as a captain, selection was the all-important thing in a player’s career. "When I went to a player and said - I can't pick you or I'll pick you for next 10 games, his world would either crash or his world would lighten up. When you become a leader of a team, it’s very important to make sure you communicate the right thing. If you think he's not part of your team, it's important that you make him believe that. Sometimes this honest true word can make a difference in his life. Because he can go out of the team environment with a realization it’s a sport which is competitive, it’s a sport or world where you have to be better than others. At least he knows I have got an honest opinion from my captain... It’s not that I tell him he is good enough and then go into selection meeting and say he's not good enough and I don’t need him in the team. You make or break or as leader when you do such a thing".

He acknowledges it's not easy. "It’s a tough thing to keep everyone happy, you cannot keep everyone happy. But at same time if you keep yourself truthful, you keep yourself honest, I think you'll make a massive difference to everyone's life. For me that is the biggest thing I learnt when I became the captain of Indian Cricket team".

As a captain, Sourav Ganguly molded a tightly knit fighting unit which took on the opposition with all guns blazing. The mighty Australians, riding on a winning streak of 16 test matches were beaten 2-1 in the historic test series of 2001 where Dravid and Laxman scripted the greatest fight back in cricketing history. In 2003, India reached the world cup finals for the first time since 1983 eventually losing to the Australians. Between 2000-2005, Ganguly went on to captain India in 49 test matches with 21 wins and 13 losses. In this period, he led India in 146 one day internationals with 76 wins and 65 losses.

“Good teams are the key to success. In a team environment, no one man can do the job and win the deal”. Sourav has a word for the corporates - “All people who are in a position to select, position to give jobs in a company must understand that they are not doing anyone a favor. They are doing themselves a favor by picking the right person for the job”.  He adds a word of caution of the dangers of power going to the head. “It’s a very small thing we forget. You get to a position of power, when everyone looks at you and calls you Sir. You reach a point where it’s easy to forget the essence that it is the people around you who keep you powerful ".

The gods of cricket are fickle. What goes up eventually comes down - and hard. And who knows the vagaries of life better than international cricketers. In late 2005, Sourav Ganguly lost his place in the Indian cricket team after a string of poor form and a very public row with a certain Mr. Greg Chappell (whose excellent coaching methods would have probably worked better for the Indian football team). Rahul Dravid was given the reins of the Indian cricket and Sourav Ganguly was left in the cold.  It was 10 months before he found his way back in the Indian team as a batsman on the tour to South Africa. One can only imagine how difficult it is at the age of 34 having to fight for your place in the same team which you have led to glory for 5 years. The learning curve must have been harsh and the adjustment - a nightmare.

His comeback in 2006 was the stuff dreams are made up of and a testament to his skill and character. On how he felt about coming face to face with Greg Chappell again in the make or break series - "What made it easier, I knew exactly where I stood with the coach and that was a good thing. I knew it was all on me. I performed, I stayed – I didn’t perform, I perished. It’s sometimes good in everyone’s life to have the cushion around you removed. I was out of my comfort zone. It actually worked for me because I realized I couldn’t afford to make a mistake".  And perform he did. Though India lost the South Africa series, Sourav accumulated the highest runs on the tour.  Ganguly soon got back his place in the one day squad and regained his Midas touch with the bat. In 2007, the run machine scored 1106 test runs with 3 centuries and 4 fifties. He also scored 1240 runs in the ODIs.

In 2008, at the age of 36, Sourav Ganguly announced his retirement ahead of the test series in Australia. In the 4 test series captained by Dhoni, Ganguly sailed out into the cricketing sunset in a blaze of glory, scoring 324 runs including one final century in Mohali with the Indian team winning the series 2-0.  It was a befitting end to a glittering career of 113 test matches and 311 ODIs  which put him firmly in the hall of cricketing greats and a million hearts.

Ganguly stresses how important it is to deal with the other side of the hill. "Another phase of our life which we all go through when you finish at the top and get back to reality. You start; get to top and after a period of time you get back again down. That doesn’t change for anyone. For all of us, that’s a massive adjustment we have to make. It's even a bigger adjustment than when you became the leader of a group. The biggest realization is when you know that you are no longer the captain. That's where the real test of character starts. To accept the situation - and react to it. The cleverest thing to do is to let the other person take over. Whoever is your boss, create an environment he takes over, so that he feels unchallenged. If he feels challenged, you won’t be around for long time. You have to realize that - this is where I stand, this is what I need to do, this is my job and I have to deliver. That’s another huge part of professionalism and huge part of finding a solution. It's a tough thing, but then all of us have to do it. I have seen everyone doing it and in the future everyone will keep doing it."

The impact that Dada has left with his words is overwhelming. It is amongst the truly inspiring speeches I have ever been privileged to attend. Sadly, that is so rare in a world where most managers/bosses are anything but inspiring and have little clue of leading from the front.