Blending science and rituals in Indian cricket

By John Cheeran
The last time Indian cricket team experimented with management innovations, the results were nothing short of a disaster.
In 2005, before going to Sri Lanka, the new coach Greg Chappell had got his boys to play with Edward De Bono's Six Thinking Hats. Sourav Ganguly was India's captain then.
The thinking hats did not come to India's help in that one-day series. May be Indian players thought in six different ways during the game and it showed in the results.
Indians are due to visit Colombo next month again for a tri-nation series. The Indian team members are being subjected to another management fad in Bangalore now.
The 15-member Indian team are having a three-day initial conditioning camp at Pegasus Centre for Excellence, 56 km north of Bangalore.
Reports from Bangalore inform that the Indian players, under the watchful eyes of a Pegasus team which includes former Indian Army and Air Force officers, will undergo innovative exercises aimed at team-building.
Let me quote from the Indian Express. "It is a place used by corporates and provides intensive but fun-filled training and army training techniques. The team management wanted to do something different. More than physical strength it is to build mental strength and the'We' factor," a cricket official said. "The idea is to get the players to build mental strength to play for each other even in the face of extreme physical adversity," the official said.
"Called the Outward Bound Learning method, the training session is expected to put the players through special obstacle courses, water-based activities and rock climbing.
Team India's physical trainer Gregory King said: "In the past too, we tried out a few new things which produced positive results."
King, apparently, has a short memory.
He doesn't remember the horrors of the last adventure into the Sri Lankan territory.
In the final of that Indian Oil Cup, Sri Lanka beat India by 18 runs. In fact throughout the tournament India could not beat Sri Lanka. In the first of the group matches, Sri Lanka beat India by three wickets. In the second match, Sri Lanka again defeated India by four wickets.
I do not know by what yardstick King classifies three successive defeats to Sri Lanka as positive results.
In the forthcoming series, however, there are three differences.
One, instead of the West Indies, the third team will be South Africa. Two, Sourav Ganguly will not be there. Third and the most important, Rahul Dravid will lead the side in his no-nonsense way.
But I wonder how much will stints like the one at Pegasus will contribute towards team's victories. Adopting a scientific approach towards the most basic problem in sport, that is winning, is fine. Embracing technology to analyse your game is good indeed. Looking after the mental aspects of the combatants too is a step in the right direction.
I'm all for rationalization of the game. But how would you blend the scientific approach with rituals and poojas?
India's most successful cricketer thinks that his injuries and lack of form are more a result of the alignment of planets than anything got to do with bat and ball. I believe, a man should be free to select his refuge. So I have no quarrels there.
And you know what amazes me the most?
When India won the World Cup in 1983 in England, the only time when India did it, there were no prayer offerings, no poojas, no thinking hats, no Outward Bound Learning Methods.
Not even a professional coach. India had only an XI.
Think about it.