Loud Thinking

Pakistan cricket team always had the potential and talent to win, any and all of the past cricket ODI world cup tournaments. As such, there should be no doubt, about its chances of winning the next cricket ODI World Cup scheduled to commence from February 2015, to be played in Australia and New Zealand.

In this regard, PCB must prepare a plan named ”Vision 2015″. This plan should be a fool proof strategy with specific focus on winning the 2015 ODI World Cup tournament, considering all risk factors, like sudden unavailability of any player due to various reasons, at least five umpiring decisions going against us (two in batting & three in bowling innings), dropped catches/missed run outs and failure of main bowlers and batsmen etc.

We should remember that plans never fail, we fail to plan. Moreover, the PCB “Vision 2015” must state that “You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.”

The broad outlines of the “Vision 2015″ are defined as below.

1. A pool of 50 talented, but mostly youthful players, having world class potential (like Sami Aslam, Awais Zia, Anwer Ali and Usman Shinwari {who has already attained 150 KMPH bowling speed} should be immediately called at the NCA, to be throughly trained in all the aspects of the game, for later stage short listing of 30 and final selection of 15 players, to represent Pakistan in the World Cup 2015.

2. 4-5 youngsters from the pool of 50 players should be selected for the future 7-10 years captain’s role. This set of future probable captains should be throughly trained and groomed for leadership role by the professional leadership trainers, from the civil and military field.

3. Before deciding the future captain and vice captain of the national teams, these short listed players should be assessed by a board of civil and military psychologists, for providing their opinion about the potential leadership abilities of these players. This will help the PCB, in easily deciding to hand over the reins of the team to a player, as a future captain and vice captain, for a longer period.

4. As is practised in football and few other games, PCB should revolutionise the role of the head coach or cricket manager, by shifting to him almost all the responsibilities of the captain including even the selection of the playing eleven and decision of the batting order etc. Captains role should be just limited to leading the players during the fielding, that too under active supervision of the head coach or the cricket manager. This change will also eliminate the rampant politics and blackmailing of player power, which is highly visible in our cricket team players. Plus it will also minimise the chances of spot or match fixing from our team.

5. A visionary cricketer (who must have the reputation of an unsaleable commodity) of an ultra high calibre, should be appointed the coach or cricket manager of the Pakistan cricket team. This time the head coach or the other support staff must NOT be selected on the likes and dislikes of the coaching staff selection committee members, as was done in February 2014, when almost 100% recommendations of the committee proved wrong and Zaheer Abbas, Moin Khan and Shoaib Muhammad were recently sacked ignominiously by the PCB. Here, the argument of the committee members that these coaches could not perform in a short period of two months, does not hold water, because what happened with the wrong selection on likes and favouritism was, that, for the first time in the history of the T20 World Cup, our team failed to reach the semi finals stage. If these coaches were handicapped by the short time, at least our teams performance must NOT have gone down. There is no justification for the surrender, to the extent that our team created a shameful world record of scoring 13 runs for 4 wickets, in 6 power play overs when ONLY 2 fielders are allowed outside the circle.

6. We should also set a new trend and hire a full or part time world class mentor, for which I recommend Sir Alexander Chapman “Alex” Ferguson, CBE, who is a former Scottish football manager and player who managed Manchester United from 1986 to 2013. His time at the club has led to Ferguson being regarded as one of the most successful, admired and respected managers in the history of the game. PCB must ensure that in the hiring of Sir Alex Ferguson, money should not be a barrier, notwithstanding any amount demanded by him. PCB should consider this expense as an investment in 24K gold. The mentor should be specifically responsible for making our players mentally the strongest in the world, along with his other defined duties.

7. All cricket playing centers of PCB in Pakistan, should remodel the boundary distances to 90 meters (matching the size of huge Australian grounds to used for the World Cup 2015) and batsmen should practise taking 5 runs, in case, ball is fielded before it reaches the rope.

8. Any player who is not of age and fitness to serve the country for next 5 years, should be discarded now, for ODI and T20 games.

9. A world class fielding coach of the calibre of Jonty Rhodes, should be appointed for the team. If we have to be world champions there should be no compromise on the quality of the coaches due to any monetary constraints. Remember, quality never comes cheap and second or third class coaches can never produce world beaters.

10. We must find more than five bowlers from the tribal belt or any rugged area of the country, who should be able to bowl at 100 MPH speed. To attract the country talent of fast bowling, a handsome prize should be annouced, as an incentive for this ultra high speed bowling.

11. Cricket academy at PCB HQ Lahore, must be headed by a world renowned batsman.

12. PCB should take on the challenge of round the year cricket (in summers, games starting at 5 PM) playing arrangements of local and foreign teams in Pakistan. And in summer 2014, PCB should arrange late start ODI/T20 matches in Pakistan. Efforts should be renewed to invite teams of Afghanistan, Ireland or Netherlands for providing experience to our youngsters.

13. All PCB grounds in the country (even in smaller cities/towns), should be provided with lights for night games.

14. In order to prepare fast and bouncy tracks on all PCB grounds, suitable soil and if possible prefabricated pitches may be imported from abroad. We should try use these pre-fabricated pitches during our home series in the UAE, as well as for the proposed PSL matches in the UAE.

“Don’t let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was.”

— Richard L. Evans

“Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it.”

Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965);
British statesman, prime minister, author, Nobel Prize winner

Stop Believing that Everything Is Urgent

In an ever-accelerating business culture, where smaller teams are taking on increasing workloads, it’s impossible to get everything done as fast as we’d like. Of course, some tasks and projects require more urgency than others – but if we consider everything to be urgent, we jam up the queue and confuse trifles with true priorities. The challenge in this do-it-now culture is to tell the difference between the two. Challenge the assumption that everything needs to be done right away, and work with your team to eliminate unnecessary or low-value work. Are people tied up with repetitive activities that don’t make a difference? Could those be done less often or with less effort? Can your weekly status reports become monthly? Could a wordy memo become a short list of key points? Tweaks like these can create the bandwidth you need to tackle truly urgent projects.

Adapted by HBR from “ Two Ways to Reduce “Hurry Up and Wait” Syndrome” by Ron Ashkenas.

Confidence is full trust, reliability and assurance in yourself or others.

“Every small positive change we make in ourselves repays us in confidence in the future.”

Alice Walker (born 1944);
Author and activist

“With everything that has happened to you, you can either feel sorry for yourself or treat what has happened as a gift.

Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep you from growing. You get to choose.”

— Wayne W. Dyer

To Manage Designers, Understand Their Career Paths

Making creative expertise a lasting part of your company means more than just hiring a few designers – you have to retain, direct, and promote them. Often, there are two distinct career paths that emerge for creative professionals, each stemming from its own set of motivations, and each demanding its own approach to management. Distinguishing the two can help you lead creative teams.
Creative directors are drawn to tasks they’re not explicitly qualified for, and they can also excel at things that aren’t “creative” — coding, marketing strategy, finance, etc. Encourage this curiosity and push them to oversee multiple facets of a creative project.
Master craftsmen tend to have a narrower focus. They master the tools of their trade and perfect their products, deliberating over every detail. They need a clear way to advance without getting pushed into management. Often, this means defining a new position.

Adapted by HBR from “ Managing Designers on Two Different Tracks” by Sean Madden.

Who is Poor…!

Abdullah was a very wealthy man. One day he took his son Umar to the countryside to show him how poor people lead their lives. He wanted to show him the difference between the poor and the rich.

They lived with the poor peasants on the field for three days to know their way of living.

On their way back home into the city Abdullah asked Umar, “How did you find the countryside, Son ?” Umar replied, “It was indeed great, Dad!”

Abdullah further asked, “Did you see the way poor people live?” Umar replied, “Yes, I did!” Abdullah asked, “So tell me what lesson did the trip teach you ?”

Umar said: “There is a lot of difference in their way of living and ours”
“We have a pool and they have a river which has no end”
“We have imported lamps in our house and they have stars at night”
“We have tall grey buildings that block the sunlight and they have open fields with plenty of sunlight shining through the clouds”
“We buy our food while they grow theirs”
“The air we breathe is polluted and the air they breathe is fresh”
“We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them”

Abdullah stood there speechless. Then Umar added, “Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are !”

The father who wanted to teach his son a lesson learns a great lesson himself at the end.

Try Seeing the world through the eyes of a kid, you will love every bit of it !

Most warm congratulations to the Srilankan nation for winning not only the T20 World Cup but Asia Cup ODI tournament, as well.

Great achievement…!