This book is a breezy read with its easy prose, anecdotes, and of course cricket
trivia. Who wouldn’t like to know why Kapil & Jayasurya lingered around
even after their prime time in cricket, or for that Pakistan Batsman who played
selfishly despite the orders of its enigmatic captain Imran Khan forcing him to
storm to the field in a rage “ You will never play for Pakistan again” ?.
The winning way jumps frequently between cricket & management and attempts
to find similarities in its principles and practices like planning, team building, setting Targets,
work ethics etc. Examples abound as to how companies, like cricket teams have
fared on these counts. Harsha Bhogle & his coauthor wife Anita have painstakingly
dejargonised the content which usually tends to be when combining Management
& statistics.
Though the book heavily relies on Cricket, a fair bit of garnishing of
other sports also has been done. Particularly Hockey where the authors have
tried to explain the ills within the Indian Hockey system which has seen the
National sports slide from being world Numero-Uno's in the 1950’s to also ran’s by the
end of the millennia. So far so good.
However the Book fails to explain why a similar trend was also seen in
Indian Football . Or for that matter why
Indian Olympians (past & present) are not made to
pass through this litmus test of management principles & practices that the
book subjected cricket to? It would have
done justice to the academic and cerebral qualities of the authors if they had
addressed the core issues of Indian sports which revolves around the decline of
Hockey, Football & Olympics today with the principles of sports Management
by drawing parallels & insightful studies of other countries like China
which quickly made it up the curve in all of them . By pandering heavily on
cricket, the Bhogle’s are once again playing (commenting) to the galleries.
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