“Please go to sleep.”
A concerned voice popped into my room every 2 am for one month. It was my dad. Acknowledging my father’s concern with a “hmm”, I continued to work. That night I could not sleep at all, since my opponent team was announced which happened to be last year’s winning team. With a troubled voice he said, “it is not important, please sleep”.
I am guessing what was more important at my age was to ponder upon a charming prince who would rescue me from my daily life struggles, but here I was busy plotting a strategy for the cricket tournament that was to occur within a week. Well, actions speak louder than words and so again, I responded with a “hmm.” In the last 2 months, the preparation with my team was an unexpected evolution of myself. Want to know why? Keep reading.
- Building something out of belief:
Coaches formed 2 teams; one that was meant to bring the cup home and the other that was left to play with scarce optimism. I wondered why they classified us just based on a few trial games. I believed we were a bunch of gals, none of us were professional athletes with no training in cricket. Some of us did not even hit the gym or knew the rules of the game, just entered the tournament to explore a sport while we all had the same time to prepare. Because of this attitude of mine, I was not bothered by the fact that I was a part of a team that was sent to battle on the field whose situation was worse than a twelfth man.
On the contrary, I learned 2 things about myself:
- When underestimated, I figured, there was no pressure of winning. It took one big emotional and angry speech & regular calls to my demotivated team to fill them with hope & get them up and running on the field.
- Secondly, I knew I was never ready to lose without trying, but here I discovered another side of me that was not letting anyone else from the team accept defeat without trying.
- Physical fitness:
After donning Nike shoes & track pants, it was time for the real work, meaning physical fitness. The drive to give my best was so strong that after 8 hours of treating stroke and Parkinson’s cases, I still had the physical energy to get down at 8:30 pm and practice up until midnight. Being an occupational therapist, I had sound knowledge of the musculoskeletal system, and my taping techniques were a big blessing in disguise.
From posing with the bat at the crease, running between borders for saving the life of a wicket, spinning the ball like ‘kachra’ from Lagaan, trying not to bump into one another while fielding and learning all the whacky terminologies of cricket, we strived hard to work on underlying skills like eye-hand coordination, endurance, and strength training. I guess Clinical & Cricket skills were learned well!
- Leadership skills:
I had zero experience of leadership and here I was pushed into this position, just because of my ‘don’t give up’ provoking speech. Soon, I grasped 3 things about leadership, imperative for the team to work:
OBSERVE, LISTEN & COMMUNICATE, and get the work done from and for the team.
So every night during practice, I observed every player, and those visuals danced in my head for a few hours after practice. I carefully heard all the advice from team players & spectators. On the same night, I wrote individual feedback on WhatsApp groups for each of my team players for which I am still made fun of. My feedback worked as we saw a drastic change in the team’s performance. This was the highlight of my learning experience. Just by simply creating awareness of their strengths and weaknesses, I was able to build a stronger team than expected.
- Team-work:
Running between the wickets and fielding was our biggest concern since none of us were runners. Both were highly dependent on teamwork.
Now I could have looked at the team as Together Everyone Annoys Me. But I choose to learn to correctly pair the partners while batting, placing the field while bowling, & wearing the wicket keepers hat. The rest fell in place! On a few low days, I watched Shahrukh Khan from Chak De. Soon more than SRK, I could rely on my team because their sense of awareness had increased to that level, and they started guiding me on how to tackle the opponent team. By this time, I was filled with confidence.
- Decision making:
You can plan, plot, and do as many things you like. But what happens on that day is luck, & also what you do in that situation which brings me to decision making. On the field, I had to make decisions within minutes. Some worked and some failed. I was praised for stumping a lead player on the first ball of the match and I was also criticised for assigning bowlers who could not perform well. But I was proud of the fact that I could take responsibility for those decisions. More so I knew my decisions were entertaining the audience by bringing them to the edge of their seats and pushing the match result until the last ball.
Despite all the diligent preparations, we did not win the cup. Although our performances are still remembered as one of the best fighting teams amongst 10 competing teams, we managed to hack the 4th position for ourselves.
With my blogging lens, I encourage you to look at all the things a sport did to me in just two months. Parents spend lacks of rupees on so many courses for their children to develop all these skills. But here is a simple game that pushed my boundaries in areas of self-belief, prioritising physical fitness, learning to lead, making decisions, shouldering responsibilities, and developing interpersonal skills. All this was 5 years ago, where the talk of feminism was gushing to our conscious, and here I was unknowingly building a team of strong women.
My parents were proud that their ’24-year-old joint project’ was getting thick-skinned and mature just with a few games of cricket. Towards, the end of the match, when I was walking towards my father with pride and confidence on my face, even after losing, he whispered in my ears, “Now I know why it was important.” For him, more than all the skills I was learning in the process, he was proud that I was also capable of accepting defeat graciously.
That day onwards we never addressed the sport as cricket fever, we called it cricket therapy.
-Dr. Unnati Jain