Work through the prism of cricket

Harimohan Paruvu.

For many Indian cricket fans, the memory of the very last ball bowled in the 1986 Australasia Cup at Sharjah brings an unconscious sigh. In the days and months immediately following the mighty heave by Javed Miandad that sent a Chetan Sharma full toss over the ropes and India to a heart-stopping defeat, reactions were incalculably more intense than a sigh. Events and decisions that led to the loss were dissected and second-guessed, leading to a mountain-heap of opinions.

There are other matches connected with Indian cricket, some happy and others sad, that have also received extended coverage, being continually replayed in people’s minds. From the testimony of Indian corporate coaches and leaders, the details of these matches, etched in the collective memory, serve as material to base their lessons on. Some of them have passed into the hall of timeless sports metaphors.

By the strictest sense of the term, a metaphor is employed to explain the abstruse. When something is too complex to wrap one’s head around, it is expressed in simple terms by comparing it to something familiar. Sports metaphors employed in corporate training lie outside this logic. Principles at work in the workplace are not complex and need not be simplified, but they need to be powerfully communicated. Sports metaphors are employed to meet this need. In India, it’s largely cricket metaphors. Fresh evidence is the recently released

50 Not Out! , a book that views work and life through the prism of cricket.

Harimohan Paruvu, former Ranji-level cricketer from Hyderabad and corporate coach, has authored the book. He believes cricket moves Indians and motivation is all about moving people to positive action. Harimohan says cricket has produced numerous images that help us navigate through our workaday lives and can be transported easily into the corporate training room. One of them is ‘playing with the straight bat’, which is cricket’s gift to the English language. Honesty and integrity are principles that are as essential in the workplace as in every other sphere of life. Harimohan says this idiom helps emphasise this fact before a corporate audience that follows cricket.  In his book, Harimohan compares straight bats with cross bats and how the former are in for a longer innings.

“For any cricket-watching group, the phrase ‘catches win matches’ communicates the idea of seizing an opportunity. Through specific examples, the metaphor can be extended to show them that opportunities are not just seized but also created,” says Harimohan.

“If you gave them the example of a Kapil Dev covering considerable ground to turn a half-chance into a catch to dismiss Vivian Richards, or of an airborne Jonty Rhodes taking an impossible catch to send Sachin Tendulkar back to the pavilion, you would have communicated an image of ‘created opportunities’ they would never forget.”