•       I had  a great evening with Adam Gilchrist on this Saturday . Attended the event on an  invitation from the Australlian embassy.Gilchrist  came as  the brand ambassador of University of Wollongong, Australlia to promote the university in Chennai  . His brother was an alumni of the institute and Gil’s father  used to coach there.That’s how Gil got involved with the university . No prize for guessing that many of the questions they volleyed were around the recent attacks  on Indian students in Australlia. They downplayed the subject citing the stats that out of a huge Indian population in Australlia , number of such incidents are really very small and are usually blown out of proportion by media . They don’t know that my latest trick ( am sure many other Indian parents  also do the same) of keeping Aniket under check is to tell him that if you don’t make it to a good University in  US or IIMs , your next destination is going to be Australlia !

I asked him  what keeps him going ? He said , it was the desire to sacrifice for whatever you want to do. He feels , for success , there should be absolute desperation to be totally committed to whatever you are doing. He was citing the example of his missing a catch off  VVS Lakshman on one occasion ( world cup final or semi final)  just by a few inches and after a post match video analysis he saw he could have easily reached out by those  extra few inches  and taken the catch had he been totally desperate to do so . So his conclusion was that ,  to be successful , whatever you are doing , at that point of time that is the most important work for you  in the  whole world . While explaining what he did to bring a change in fortune for Deccan Charger  from IPL1 TO IPL 2 , he  gave two key reasons –(1) Leadership programme on cultural appreciation since there were seven different nationalities playing in the team including  the support staff , and (2) creating an environment where players would love to be in. To him ,  the shift from IPL 1 to IPL 2 was the biggest challenge in his cricketing career. While citing some of the difficult moments  of his wicket keeping he remembered  experience of  keeping  during VVS Lakshman’s  knock of about 290 runs at Eden and keeping against Michael Bevan , since Bevan himself  had absolutely no idea of what he was bowling !

Transformation of  Deccan Charger from IPL1 TO IPL 2 can definitely  make a good corporate lesson. I am sure  Gil  is writing on this .