Newspapers, News channels these days are flooded with postmortem, analysis, evaluation, and speculation of Indian team’s recent performance at the World Cup 2007. I read and heard a lot of cross fires between the experts, the selection committee, cricket board, coach, and needless to say backed by the opinions of the general public. The team’s failure was supported with many excuses and stained with a lot of blames. While many feel that our cricketers should stop doing ads, there are others who suggest that we should have specialized teams to play different types of matches – 20/20, 50 over match, test match, and so on. Going through all this tittle-tattle I ended up confused with “yes”, “no” or “may be” type of outcomes. However, a little later I was reminded of a hearty laugh that I had had with a friend of mine last week.
We were watching the India – Sri Lanka match last Friday on a “BIG SCREEN” and we were frustrated looking at the way our team was taking the game. Agitated and frustrated, my friend uttered, “What to do with these people? What are they doing? Why can’t they get serious” and gulped down half a glass of his drink. I chuckled and said make Narayana Murthy (Infosys Chief) the chief of BCCI (don’t know, but somehow I feel that Mr. Murthy can straighten out everything in this country). My friend burst out into laughter and I joined him too, as I couldn’t control my thoughts that ran wild thinking what if it actually happens. As our hilarity faded a little, my friend said that it should happen, may be that is one good unique solution rather than sacking the coach or banning cricketers from being celebrities or something else. We continued watching our cricket team’s dismal performance and continually coming out with possibilities if Mr. Murthy was made the BCCI chief. Some of the points that we came up with were:
We were watching the India – Sri Lanka match last Friday on a “BIG SCREEN” and we were frustrated looking at the way our team was taking the game. Agitated and frustrated, my friend uttered, “What to do with these people? What are they doing? Why can’t they get serious” and gulped down half a glass of his drink. I chuckled and said make Narayana Murthy (Infosys Chief) the chief of BCCI (don’t know, but somehow I feel that Mr. Murthy can straighten out everything in this country). My friend burst out into laughter and I joined him too, as I couldn’t control my thoughts that ran wild thinking what if it actually happens. As our hilarity faded a little, my friend said that it should happen, may be that is one good unique solution rather than sacking the coach or banning cricketers from being celebrities or something else. We continued watching our cricket team’s dismal performance and continually coming out with possibilities if Mr. Murthy was made the BCCI chief. Some of the points that we came up with were:
- Payment will be only made based on performance. There will be a performance review after every season.
- Yearly bonus if the team wins 50% of the matches they play.
- No payment for just playing the matches. Players can continue earning money from product endorsements or being brand ambassadors.
- The board will bear the expenses of travel and stay only. No other expenses will be paid.
- Each player will have to complete atleast 200 practice sessions during a year and undergo a fitness test every quarter.
- State-wise quota system will be void and team selection will be purely done on basis of past performance and results of the fitness test.
- 20% each player’s ad revenue will go to the board. The corpus so collected will be used to look after deserving senior cricketers and to help needy children, women, and old people for their education, rehabilitation, and overall well being.
And Finally - BCCI is listed on NYSE, NASDAQ, NSE, and BSE.
And by this time we were rolling down in laughter and soon we were no more depressed with what Indian cricket team was doing on the playground. I had a laughter hangover the next day too thinking about what all we had thought about last night. Imaginations run wild and if you have anything to add to the above, be sure to post it in your comments.
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