Beware of the psychological warfare trap!

No sooner did the Australian cricket team land in India than their captain, the redoubtable Ricky Ponting, started his mindgames. He has said that the added burden of Indian cricket fans’ expectations (subsequent to India becoming World T20 cricket Champions) would make it that much harder for the home team. While Dhoni has apparently not reacted (a wise move, I say!), Sreesanth and Robin Uthappa have (unfortunately, in my opinion) made some comments. The media has hailed this “tit for tat” tactic as a manifestaton of the new India that can give back better than it gets and so on. But I would offer some unrequited and gratuitous advice to the youngsters: let your ball and bat do all the talking. Do not get caught in the trap that the wily Ponting has laid for you. Do not let your focus be distracted by the Australians’ mindgames. Remember that in the Mahabharata, Arjuna saw only the eye of the fish (the target) and was thus able to shoot his arrows bang on target. The other competitors saw a whole lot of other things around the target and little wonder that they were not as successful.

Your immediate goal is to win the series against Australia. And do not let anything get in your way. Enjoy yourselves- and good luck!

They raise you the higher that the heavier you may fall

Ancient Rome had a saying that went something like this: “They raise you the higher that the heavier you may fall”. Our cricket team would do well to remember this. I am not for a moment saying that what they have achieved by becoming World Champions of twenty twenty cricket is not worthy of praise. Their achievement is wonderful and must be celebrated (as indeed it was by tens of thousands of proud and jubilant fans braving inclement weather to line Mumbai’s roads and greet the team).

But Ponting’s Australian cricket team is already here and while they may not overtly accept that they seek “revenge”, we would be naive to believe that they will not go all out to crush India. Australia’s repiutation of being “all conquering” has been badly dented by Zimbabwe, Pakistan and India in the last 2 weeks and make no mistake, they are smarting badly.

What I am saying is something that is well-known in the world of investment banking- “you are only as good as your last deal”. And so it is for our cricket team. All said and done, the twenty twenty win is now a part of history. For Dhoni and his team, the current reality is the 7 match ODI series against the Australians. Both teams must adapt to the change in format quickly and go back to “classical” 50 over strategies and tactics- and that may not be as easy as flicking a switch. But the basics remain the same, no matter what form of cricket it is: bat well, bowl well and field well.

Good luck India and Australia. And as always, may the better team win!

PS: Yesterday morning, as I was headed to the airport, my cab driver asked me something I had been pondering myself: do Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly really have a place in our ODI side? He felt not. Post your views and we can have an interesting discussion on whether or not India’s batting triumvirate is history.

Two Indians among the world’s richest

Turns out that over the past 6 months or so, the market capitalization of Reliance Industries has more than doubled. With this, Mukesh Ambani’s net worth too has gone up from being around $20B in March (the Forbes list of the world’s richest men) to around $45B in September. Not bad, eh?

So now we have L N Mittal and Mukesh Ambani featured among the world’s five richest people. If you are wondering who the other three are, well, it’s Bill Gates and Warren Buffett from the US and Carlos Slim from Mexico. 

Forget the billionaires. Even in terms of millionaires, India has the fastest growing number- thanks to rising salaries, eye-popping bonuses and stock options. And in turn, this financial independence is enabling many professional managers are turning entrepreneurs. This is good, because new business models will emerge, new ideas will come out- and collectively, all these will propel India to become one of the world’s top 3 economies in the next 15 years.

Surely, another “chak de India” moment, would you not say?!