In the past 20 years, Indian cricket has seen several updates in almost every aspect, which have made the country a top-rated cricketing team. When Sourav Ganguly became the captain of the Indian cricket team in the early 2000s, he had to build a team from scratch. Following that legacy, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has done a remarkable job as captain and built an empire from the solid base built by his predecessor. But that wasn’t enough for Team India to be the best of the best. So, what happened? What made the Indian cricket team the greatest? Let’s take a deeper dive.
Cricket – The most unprofessional sport
You know what, once I happened to read an article about former India coach Duncan Fletcher’s speech. Once he said, “Cricket is the most unprofessional of all professional sports.” Obviously, this indicates the unhealthy habits maintained by cricketers on their diet, workout, and preparation. Even in international standards, players tend to go with luck rather than sweating out and maintaining a minimum guarantee on their performance. Now I want to tell you something. Let’s take a look at the contributions of Virat Kohli as the captain of team India. Before King Kohli’s regime, team India definitely lacked something. Yes, it is the consistency of the killer instinct.
Tough parameters
Have you ever thought why the army has a filtering process during recruiting? Why do they set an age limit and physical requirements along with educational qualifications? Because the job demands people of high abilities. He/she should be capable of doing whatever they are assigned to do in extreme conditions. A sport also tests the intelligence and physical ability of a person to the maximum in pressure scenarios. So, the athlete should be sharp in all senses.
There is no player in the current India squad with a belly that reminds us of a pregnant lady. Everyone in the squad is fit, mentally as well as physically. In the past 10 years, we could see the transformation. One Aussie legend who I don’t remember mentioned the change brought by Virat Kohli when he was the Indian captain, in an interview. He said that before Kohli’s captaincy, the Aussie team would try running a couple even if an India fielder is there inside the circle but now, the same side would think twice to run a single even if there is no one inside the circle. So what measures did Captain Kohli take? Yes; as the subheading mentions, he put some strict parameters for the players to be in the national squad. But the beauty is, he was successful in creating a healthy culture inside the dressing room. As he is a living legend and a performer like a machine, players admire him a lot and try to follow his lifestyle.
The Transformation
So, what changes did occur? Before answering that, let me give you an experience of someone who is an amateur athlete. He was very weak when he started playing cricket in a professional cricket club. Not surprisingly, he was an underperformer in both on and off the field. He lacked confidence. So eventually, some incidents persuaded him to become a stronger and better version. So soon he started taking care of his fitness and the effort paid off. In the next season, he was literally an updated version, and everyone could read out the differences. He was able to tackle pressure situations much better. So, when he improved his athleticism, it reflected on the performance. This is what happened in the Indian team as well. When fitness became a culture, every player worked on their athleticism, thus making the team a better bunch of athletes. The collective effort made the team strong enough to tackle any situation in home or away conditions. Unlike the past, they can create consecutive series win in away conditions.
Let me give you another story of Dave Brailsford. Maybe some of you may have read or heard the story as this comes in the initial chapter of Atomic Habits written by James Clear. As the book is about how tiny changes affect a cumulative effect, this inclusion of the story created a perfect starter. So the story is about the cyclists of The Great Britain. Since 1908, they had only won a single gold medal at Olympics. Also, they never made a victory in the Tour de France in 110 years until 2003. As a result, the top bike manufacturers of Europe refused to sell bikes for the Brits as they were afraid that it would hurt their sales. That’s when the organization hired Dave Brailsford as the head coach. He put the British Cycling on a new path and instigated a set of courses. His strategy was, in simple terms, to find tiny marginal gains in everything they do. He and his fellow coaches started to make some tiny changes like redesigning seats, rubbing alcohol on tires for better grip, also they demanded the riders to wear electrically heated over shorts to maintain ideal muscle temperature while riding and closely monitored their workouts. Consistently Brailsford and his team sought for 1 percent improvements in every aspect, and the result they achieved was something unimaginable. Just some few years after Brits started to dominate the roads. In the Beijing Olympics, they won 60% of the gold medals available. In the London Olympics, they even set nine Olympic records and seven world records. In the same year, Bradley Wiggins became the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France.
Basically, I have written this long paragraph just to let you know how the transformation happened with the Indian Cricket Team. Without making changes in the root levels, without finding the plus one percent improvement in everything that has to be done, might be the route and ideology that the former captain Virat Kohli must have had. Of course, Indian players are and were intelligent. But, physically, they didn’t have the qualities an athlete must-have. So, when the focus shifted to the identified issue, Kohli demanded that all players improve their fitness and set an example by himself about how an International standard athlete should approach his game. So, it eventually resulted in greater goods. So, that’s all folks.
Cricket – The most unprofessional sport
You know what, once I happened to read an article about former India coach Duncan Fletcher’s speech. Once he said, “Cricket is the most unprofessional of all professional sports.” Obviously, this indicates the unhealthy habits maintained by cricketers on their diet, workout, and preparation. Even in international standards, players tend to go with luck rather than sweating out and maintaining a minimum guarantee on their performance. Now I want to tell you something. Let’s take a look at the contributions of Virat Kohli as the captain of team India. Before King Kohli’s regime, team India definitely lacked something. Yes, it is the consistency of the killer instinct.
Tough parameters
Have you ever thought why the army has a filtering process during recruiting? Why do they set an age limit and physical requirements along with educational qualifications? Because the job demands people of high abilities. He/she should be capable of doing whatever they are assigned to do in extreme conditions. A sport also tests the intelligence and physical ability of a person to the maximum in pressure scenarios. So, the athlete should be sharp in all senses.
There is no player in the current India squad with a belly that reminds us of a pregnant lady. Everyone in the squad is fit, mentally as well as physically. In the past 10 years, we could see the transformation. One Aussie legend who I don’t remember mentioned the change brought by Virat Kohli when he was the Indian captain, in an interview. He said that before Kohli’s captaincy, the Aussie team would try running a couple even if an India fielder is there inside the circle but now, the same side would think twice to run a single even if there is no one inside the circle. So what measures did Captain Kohli take? Yes; as the subheading mentions, he put some strict parameters for the players to be in the national squad. But the beauty is, he was successful in creating a healthy culture inside the dressing room. As he is a living legend and a performer like a machine, players admire him a lot and try to follow his lifestyle.
The Transformation
So, what changes did occur? Before answering that, let me give you an experience of someone who is an amateur athlete. He was very weak when he started playing cricket in a professional cricket club. Not surprisingly, he was an underperformer in both on and off the field. He lacked confidence. So eventually, some incidents persuaded him to become a stronger and better version. So soon he started taking care of his fitness and the effort paid off. In the next season, he was literally an updated version, and everyone could read out the differences. He was able to tackle pressure situations much better. So, when he improved his athleticism, it reflected on the performance. This is what happened in the Indian team as well. When fitness became a culture, every player worked on their athleticism, thus making the team a better bunch of athletes. The collective effort made the team strong enough to tackle any situation in home or away conditions. Unlike the past, they can create consecutive series win in away conditions.
Let me give you another story of Dave Brailsford. Maybe some of you may have read or heard the story as this comes in the initial chapter of Atomic Habits written by James Clear. As the book is about how tiny changes affect a cumulative effect, this inclusion of the story created a perfect starter. So the story is about the cyclists of The Great Britain. Since 1908, they had only won a single gold medal at Olympics. Also, they never made a victory in the Tour de France in 110 years until 2003. As a result, the top bike manufacturers of Europe refused to sell bikes for the Brits as they were afraid that it would hurt their sales. That’s when the organization hired Dave Brailsford as the head coach. He put the British Cycling on a new path and instigated a set of courses. His strategy was, in simple terms, to find tiny marginal gains in everything they do. He and his fellow coaches started to make some tiny changes like redesigning seats, rubbing alcohol on tires for better grip, also they demanded the riders to wear electrically heated over shorts to maintain ideal muscle temperature while riding and closely monitored their workouts. Consistently Brailsford and his team sought for 1 percent improvements in every aspect, and the result they achieved was something unimaginable. Just some few years after Brits started to dominate the roads. In the Beijing Olympics, they won 60% of the gold medals available. In the London Olympics, they even set nine Olympic records and seven world records. In the same year, Bradley Wiggins became the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France.
Basically, I have written this long paragraph just to let you know how the transformation happened with the Indian Cricket Team. Without making changes in the root levels, without finding the plus one percent improvement in everything that has to be done, might be the route and ideology that the former captain Virat Kohli must have had. Of course, Indian players are and were intelligent. But, physically, they didn’t have the qualities an athlete must-have. So, when the focus shifted to the identified issue, Kohli demanded that all players improve their fitness and set an example by himself about how an International standard athlete should approach his game. So, it eventually resulted in greater goods. So, that’s all folks.