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Old July 26, 2004, 06:25 PM
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BushidoTiger BushidoTiger is offline
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Join Date: May 23, 2004
Location: Los Angeles, CA
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Default Alcoholic giving lessons on virtues of sobriety

Quote:
Originally posted by Ibrahim
How can bashar motivates the whole team when he can not just motivate himself. He has been giving away his wicket without any reason in all matches in this Asia Cup.
- I guess 'lead by example' was never part of his repertoire.

How can he possibly talk about team failure etc. in straight face without ever mentioning how utterly stupid and irresponsible way he threw away his wickets?

He can't mask his immature plays that simply were unbecoming of a captain and a test player, by coating his message in the context of the team doing badly.

If he had any integrity he could've redeem himself by admitting how he had failed to lead the team. Both the captain and his second-in-command were simply awful and acted like bunch of amateurs.

Even my old Chatgaiya Inter-Para Cricket captain used to show more grit/nerve during a game.

We are not talking about some unfortunate run outs stemming from pressure situations, or getting out from unplayable deliveries or from brilliant catches...rather same old dumb, self destructing pokes.
Shifts after shifts, we see same mistakes from someone who was supposed lead rest of the boys.

Even Alok, despite going back to his old habit of fishing expedition showed more nerve in Asia cup than that of HB.

If anyone who can talk about pride, heart, leadership and instill some inspiration among the team, it will be Ash or Javed Omar. Both of these guys, I believe, decided to show up when they entered the field with a bat in hand.

If anything, those two are the ones who should be talking to the team about what inspired them and how they felt when facing the opponent.
Against the Lankans, Ash's was a display of the fighting spirit from someone who refused to give up even while looking thru the barrel.

The technique is there, talent, training is there.
What has been and is still largely missing is the spirit and heart of a fighter (here I go again.
Talk of spirit and pride is not mere lip services. No one can inspire anyone just by giving some grandiose speech.

Inspiration comes from watching pride, fighting spirit manifesting itself in terms heroic resistance in a perilous situation.
Virtues as such can not be packaged and sold as antidote to the team failure.
The players need to feel them and be moved by their sheer power and by making tangible to themselves.

For some reason, I always tend to find some real life experiences when discussing otherwise nebulous concepts of the energy, feelings etc.
As an audiophile at heart, my passion has been to always look for the elusive holy grail of high end speakers. One of my most favorite speakers that I had the good fortune to own a pair, are the B&Ws. When their flagship 'Nautilus' line came out, it carried a slogan:

"Listen, and you will See".

First time, I heard those speakers at a stereo boutique, I knew and I SAW exactly what they meant.
I was moved, stood motionless by the intoxicating effect of the music coming out those boxes.
Those who had been in my situation know what I am talking about. Thanks to the miracle of modern circuitry I was able to SEE what was coming out of those boxes.

Our guys must learn how to get to the point where they can feel the energy of a proud professional, SEE what pride is, and inhale the essence of a fighting spirit.

Yes, it can be done. It has been done by the Tigers before.

The only silver lining of the whole Asia Cup fiasco, is the display of Ash's fighting spirit, his pride in his own ability as a test player, his determination to show the cricketing world that Tigers' inclusion is not a fluke, that they belong there.

Rest of the team needs to drink in that spirit, connect with him at the same wavelength and SEE what their teammate is feeling.

Winning a match is just a by product.

[Edited on 7/28/2004 by BushidoTiger]
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