I came across a great, interesting and enlightening article by Sir Vivian Richards (The King of Oneday Cricket' according to an impact on cricket measurement website) in 'The Week' magazine (the World Cup 2011 Indian edition where 12 previous and current experts where I caught the essence of teamwork. A game like Cricket or Football has an extra interesting item over a game like Tennis or Chess in the form of team work. I used to like this way back in childhood without having any understanding that even such a thing exists. While single player games itself involve multiple co-ordination, multi player games just take it to the heights.
Anyway, he was mentioning about his experience in the 1979 World Cup when West Indies won the tournament (As I write this, WI has just got out of this year's WC). There he was telling how he was batting with Collis King and how as he was going really well, Richards simply rotated the strike, thereby complementing him, instead of trying to outcompete him. And once Collis King got out, Richards went for his big shots and the innings ended in him hitting a last ball 6 from an impossible to play inswinging yorker.
This sort of play even became a model soon later when cricket teams used to incorporate a steady player and a striking player (like Sunil Gavaskar and Krishnamachari Shrikkanth). But soon this model deteriorated because players really didn't understand the reason behind it. They just thought that one slow paced player and one fast-paced player will be good in any situation when instead both might be playing defensive or both attacking in their respective styles.
So basically, I sort of understood that team work doesn't mean either at any time not doing anything or doing everything but instead playing a complimentary role (2 player) some time or supplementary role (multi-player) most of the time AND taking the initiative at the call of the hour. In this way, both the responsibilities and joy gets shared equally and there is resonance or flow or sync or whatever one associates team work with.
Thanks, Sir Vivian Richards.
Anyway, he was mentioning about his experience in the 1979 World Cup when West Indies won the tournament (As I write this, WI has just got out of this year's WC). There he was telling how he was batting with Collis King and how as he was going really well, Richards simply rotated the strike, thereby complementing him, instead of trying to outcompete him. And once Collis King got out, Richards went for his big shots and the innings ended in him hitting a last ball 6 from an impossible to play inswinging yorker.
This sort of play even became a model soon later when cricket teams used to incorporate a steady player and a striking player (like Sunil Gavaskar and Krishnamachari Shrikkanth). But soon this model deteriorated because players really didn't understand the reason behind it. They just thought that one slow paced player and one fast-paced player will be good in any situation when instead both might be playing defensive or both attacking in their respective styles.
So basically, I sort of understood that team work doesn't mean either at any time not doing anything or doing everything but instead playing a complimentary role (2 player) some time or supplementary role (multi-player) most of the time AND taking the initiative at the call of the hour. In this way, both the responsibilities and joy gets shared equally and there is resonance or flow or sync or whatever one associates team work with.
Thanks, Sir Vivian Richards.
