Introduction

I am not an ardent sports fan or my husband (though he was a district level cricket player till his high school😊) who follows all the sport matches including the most worshipped sport “cricket”. 

The hype around the movie “83” for the last 2 years was so much that there were suddenly more interviews of the 83 team squad along with the actors who are going to represent them on screen.

I happened to watch one of the interviews which impressed me so much that I ended up watching all the interviews given by the 83 squad. 

This blog is about my takeaway from them as a management student about how the concept of teamwork can help in achieving success.

83 World cup

• The 1983 Cricket World Cup (officially the Prudential Cup ’83) was the 3rd edition of the Cricket World Cup tournament.
• It was held from 9 to 25 June 1983 in England and Wales and was won by India. 
• Eight countries participated in the event. England, India, Pakistan and West Indies qualified for the semi-finals. 
• The preliminary matches were played in two groups of four teams each, and each country played the others in its group twice.
• The top two teams in each group qualified for the semi-finals.
• The matches consisted of 60 overs per innings and were played in traditional white clothing and with red balls. 
• They all played during the day.

83 team squad

The Indian team which won the 1983 Cricket World Cup. (Sitting – From Left) Dilip Vengsarkar, Syed Kirmani, Kapil Dev (captain), Mohinder Amarnath (vice-captain), Sunil Gavaskar and Madal Lal; (Standing – From Left) PR Man Singh (Manager), Yashpal Sharma, Krishnamachari Srikkanth, Balwinder Sandhu, Ravi Shastri, Sandeep Patil, Roger Binny, Kirti Azad and Sunil Valson.

Source: www.theweek.in

Takeaways from the team

Work towards vision and own responsibility

A project/company must always make their team work towards the vision by taking it into account their objectives, moral ethical practices and mission. Each and every individual must own responsibility for their actions and must try to rectify it rather than putting blame on the others.

A vision seen by an individual named Kapil Dev helped to achieve it by bringing all players together by taking into account their individual uniqueness along with the welfare of the team.

He took the responsibility by taking into his hands the pressure of winning the cup and at the same time not dwelling on the mistakes of others rather encouraging them to play better.

Instilling Self-confidence

The main important quality of the team work is the instilling of self-confidence in each and every participant in it. 

As we know we were underdogs who never had hopes about even reaching the next level forget about winning the cup. They attended the world cup tournament as a vacation.

The other teams also took it as lightly as we never crossed above group stages in the previous world cups.

But the self confidence of the captain that we as a team can definitely do wonders really worked among the players which helped them as a whole to achieve the goal.

Work as a team

This is again an important factor, when I say work as a team, I mean coordination of different sets of individual skills working together for the growth of the company along with their individual growth.

If there was no coordination among the players and had they been working only on their individual growth to show to the world it would not be possible for them to win the cup.

A player named Sunil Valson never got even one opportunity to play for the team in the whole tournament but still he had no complaints as he was happy that India as team won the cup.

Decision Making skills

Making wise decisions at the right time plays a vital part in the success of the company/project. It has to be made with the inputs from all the team members and then as a team to take a proper decision by doing a SWOT analysis. 

There were seven senior players in the team than the captain. He insisted that his seniors give inputs on how to play, who to bowl or bat, the order of the team while playing as these will help for making better decisions as they had more experience than him. 

Making Professional and Personal life apart

Always know to separate your personal and professional life apart. You might have disagreements in discussions but that must not be a reason to hold personal grudges towards each other. 

What I admired most in the interview was though they are their respective state team selectors and might have differences in selecting the specific players to the team, and also cultural differences, still the respect and mutual admiration they had for each other over the years was a treat to watch as it looked to me more like a college student pulling each other’s legs.

Conclusion

The seed they sown by winning the world cup in 1983 gave confidence to us that we are good at that sport and later we got many legendary players like Sachin, Dravid, Ganguly, Dhoni and now Kohli who were inspired and  able to follow their passion for the sport with the support of the family only because of the historic team win. 

Not always the project/company’s motive must be materialistic but must also be moralistic by inspiring many young generations to learn the art of working in a team and at the same time individually developing them for their personal betterment and growth of the company.

Interesting Fact:

If it reminds you any familiarity with prisoner’s dilemma/game theory: indeed you are right. This became a classic example that obey Nash Equilibrium where everyone played their best and earned the cup to the team. To know more about him and the theory please visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_equilibrium or watch “A Beautiful Mind” movie.

Disclaimer: This is my perception of how a team must be by looking at the 83 squad team interview and you are free to choose your own heroes in life and follow their footsteps.

Thank you for your love and support!!!