2020 morals from a Twenty20 performance

October 28, 2009 by Edmund Gall

Based on the recent performance of the T&T men’s cricket team in the Airtel Champions League Twenty20 2009 tournament, hosted brilliantly by India, here are some of the useful lessons learnt.

Resilience

You’re going to get knocked for six at some point in life.  Learn from the experience and then try again.  In T&T’s semi-final match against the Cape Cobras, Dwayne Bravo got hit all over the place, ending up with figures of 43 runs for no wicket off 3 overs.  It didn’t stop him from turning in a match-winning Player-of-the-Match performance with the bat of 58 runs of 34 balls to lead T&T into the inaugural final.

Make the most of what you have

Daren Ganga may not have had a group full of the best players in the world – in fact, only Dwayne Bravo was viewed by the outside world as a possible threat.  Yet the management staff were able to turn this group of unknowns into a Champion team off the field, and Daren Ganga was able to marshal them to five victories on the trot on the field through clever bowler rotation and field placements.

As testimony to a true team performance, during our five victories, four different players were named Player-of-the-Match: Sherwin Ganga, Adrian Barath, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo – three of them unknowns. This didn’t go unnoticed by the cricketing media.

Playing without fear: Confidence can be self-fulfilling

In a TV interview during the memorable victory against IPL Champions Deccan Chargers, on their home ground, just before T&T came out to bat to defend 149, Lendl Simmons was asked if he thought the score was too low.  Conventional wisdom gave thought T&T’s score was 20-30 runs too low.  He replied that whether the score was 150, 100 or 75, the T&T team felt they could defend any score they’d posted.  This in the face of a Chargers team whose top-order included the renowned, world-class players of Adam Gilchrist, VVS Laxman, Andrew Symonds, Rohit Sharma and Scott Styris, each of whom can dominate bowlers at will.

Bless him, Lendl had the confidence of youth, the kind that lives more in the heart than in the mind.  He went on to turn in figures of 16 runs for 1 wicket – the key wicket of Gilchrist, who till then was threatening to win the match for them, hitting 51 runs off 36 balls – off three overs to help T&T restrict the Chargers to 146 for nine wickets, and knock them out of the tournament.  The first of the genuine tournament shockers.

Good leadership shows

At the end of the tournament, the two players who were mentioned by cricketing media the most for their outstanding leadership, on-field and off, were Simon Katich of Australia and Daren Ganga.

Risk-taking

In every match, T&T’s openers, William Perkins, first with Lendl Simmons and then with Adrian Barath, would regularly hit out with unexpected venom to immediately place the opposition under pressure.  It didn’t seem to matter that the world’s best bowlers were firing the ball upwards of 90 mph at them.  It was extremely risky shot-playing, sometimes ungainly (the scoop), but if they hadn’t done that, then T&T wouldn’t have gotten the foundation needed to build or chase challenging targets.  Through their actions, the ball would either pierce of sail over the restricted in-field of the Power Plays in regular fashion, prompting the TV commentators to describe it as shot-a-ball, Caribbean cricket!

The element of surprise

Before the tournament started, the T&T team were relatively unknown, and ranked by the bookies at 22-1 to win the tournament.  Everyone expect them to be out at the end of the Group Stage.  Their first three opponents underestimated them.  After all, how could a team of unknowns from the Caribbean, with the WI Team reputation of slackness and collapse preceding them, ever compete with the best teams from England, the IPL and Australia?

These teams all lost, and the manner of their losing – through a complete, team performance – helped ensure that T&T were not underestimated for the rest of the tournament.

Never give up, though everyone else has

In their first League Stage match, when Dinesh Ramdin was run out, T&T were 118 for six wickets, needing another 53 runs to beat the tournament favourites, NSW Blues, and only 4.4 overs left in which to do it.  The required run rate was over 12 runs per over, a burdensome rate for the best of teams, much more so for a team with the last recognised batsman at the crease.  Things were going according to script – the clearly better team on paper was about to hand T&T a sound beating.  Surely.

They didn’t plan for that batsman, Kieron Pollard, to rise magnificently to the occasion to hit 49 of the required runs off 13 balls.  In all, he blasted 54 off 18 balls, including 5 fours and 5 sizes, a hot, tournament-leading strike rate of 300%.  Rather than being bowled out cheaply, T&T won the match with nine balls to spare.  It was such a breath-taking slaughter with the cricket blade, that it prompted Simon Katich to joke that NSW Blues offered Kieron a batting contract ten minutes after the match ended.

Organisation and devolved leadership

T&T’s world-class performance during the tournament was no fluke.  Interviews with T&T manager, Colin Borde, and captain Daren Ganga showed that the building of the team started years before.  Not being satisfied with the team’s performance and attitude, especially that of the players who returned from the senior WI team, Daren and the management team implemented a structure of discipline and reward that changed the culture to one where “respect of people and cricket [was] the most important thing, and that all sacrifices should be made to ensuring the quality of our cricket is improved.”

Operating from their central Trinidad base, the dedicated management team devolved leadership.  Though Daren was undoubtedly at the top of the leadership tree, team management appointed various players as directors for batting (Kieron Pollard), bowling (Ravi Rampaul), fielding (Dinesh Ramdin), spin bowling (Sherwin Ganga and Samuel Badree) and auxiliary directors (Ryan Emrit and Navin Stewart) to look after concerns off the field.

These actions helped T&T to be a well-oiled machine on a world stage, especially when contrasted with the insularity and competitive indifference of the senior WI team.  Something that the WICB can learn from, perhaps?

Discipline, on and off field

From the same interview we learn that Daren Ganga placed a premium on team discipline from the start of his tenure as captain: “I’m not talking about just cricketing issues, I’m talking about respect for people off the field, the way you carry yourself, your mannerisms – all these things reflect on your game as well.  If you are not punctual, something is not clear in your mind.”

Daren would pull up players for not tucking their shirts in.  It was about sacrificing individual comfort for the common good, which helped to develop camaraderie and team spirit.  Manager Colin Borde cited the example of a player who was late for a meeting by only 35 seconds but was chastised by the entire team.

True unity and passionate celebration

When you look at the T&T team supporting each other while fielding, willing their batsmen on from the dug-out, and storming on field when another formidable target was chased successfully, you knew without doubt that true unity was on show.  It was recognised with envy by opposing team captains, such as Somerset’s Justin Langer.  It was not the faux unity that dribbles from the lips of shallow politicians.

That free-spirited celebration was eagerly anticipated by existing and new-found fans.  Commentators looked forward to Dave Mohammed’s unique post-wicket celebrations, such as the alligator death roll.  When Lendl Simmons flung the ball skyward after another stupendous catch, or Kieron Pollard stood shaking powerfully with his arms wide open after snatching victory from the hands of the NSW Blues, who couldn’t help but feel goose-bumps?

Sportsmanship and bon vivre

It was not just that T&T won their matches, but how they won it.  It was not a win at all costs display.  When Dave Mohammed took a wonderful catch but stepped on the boundary rope, he immediately signalled that it was not caught.  When Kieron Pollard focused on the ball and inadvertently blocked Herchelle Gibbs on his run to the bowling stumps, Kieron immediately apologised.  When Kieron later trotted up on his follow-though, jokingly with a glint in his eye and cheeky grin to Ryan McLaren, it sparked a laugh from McLaren that lightened the mood and showed that cricket can be enjoyable to watch and play.  T&T did not win ugly.

How to handle closed doors

When Daren Ganga’s employer, Petrotrin, attempted to force him to take a year’s unpaid leave to prepare for and participate in the two-week tournament, who could fault him for feeling despair?  It took the call of Government Minister Conrad Enill, at the prompting of Opposition MP Austin ‘Jack’ Warner, to force good sense to prevail at Petrotrin.  Locked doors can be opened given the right key.

When T&T didn’t get any special, tournament-specific sponsorship from T&T or Caribbean businesses, they did not despair.  Sponsorship was obtained from Venky’s, an Indian poultry company, leaving T&T and Caribbean marketing professionals kicking themselves at the missed opportunity.  Just because the expected doors aren’t open, doesn’t mean there are no open doors.

Respect the competition

When Kieron Pollard and Sherwin Ganga – well, Kieron, really – blitzed NSW Blues, it was a deliberate decision.  Kieron and Sherwin realised that of the remaining four overs, two of them would be delivered by the world’s best bowler, Brett Lee.  Hence, if they were to have any chance of winning from the seemingly impossible position they were in, then whoever stepped up to bowl alongside Lee would have to be targeted.  That unfortunate soul was Moises Henriques, whose figures were 6 runs for one wicket off two overs before Kieron flayed him for 4 fours and 5 sixes off his next 9 legal deliveries.

When William Perkins showed no respect for Lee’s quality in his opening spell in the final, he paid with his wicket – going deservedly for duck.

Gratitude

After each match, T&T players thanked their team-mates, supporters in the stadia, supporters back in T&T and the Caribbean, their sponsors, the opposing teams and the organisers of the tournament for their contributions to getting them to where they’ve arrived.

After Sports Minister Gary Hunt was quoted as saying no reward was contemplated because the team “didn’t win” the final, and T&T callers to radio chat programmes opined that the T&T team did not deserve financial reward for their performance, the T&T team presented the Government with the gold coin used during the toss at the start of the matches as a token of gratitude for the financial support received over the years to develop T&T cricket.

Just because you’re surrounded by ungrateful people, it doesn’t mean you need to be one of them.

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