World Cup Time Again

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clubs, cohesive, corporate setups, discipline, equity, goals, HR, July 13, June 12, leadership literature, league championships, leagues, Leon Menezes, pay packages, professional footballers, rivalries, salaries, sporting world, superstars, team ethos, teams, TV, work ethic, World Cup

That’s right. From June 12 to July 13, the ‘beautiful game’ will light up TV screens and consume miles of newspaper column space. Bets will be placed, national honour will be at stake and, unfortunately, hearts will be broken. From an HR perspective, two things stick out glaringly and are food for thought.

The first is the makeup of the national teams. These consist of professional footballers who play in clubs and leagues around the world. Most often, they play against each other, especially the teams at the top. So how do they now put aside their professional rivalries and come together as a cohesive unit?

This is where the stuff we read about in HR and leadership literature comes into play: it is all about building the team through shared goals (no pun intended) and values. Since this is a national team now, the spirit is easily lit in the search for glory and immortality.

Last But Not the Least

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2002 Champions Trophy final, 2009 edition, 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, anti climatic, brittle with bat, Champions Trophy, colourful past, cricket’s unpredictability, dark horse, disappointing history, dismal batting performance, doping charges, dropped key players, fateful encounter, first last major tournament, first stage, historic, ICC Test Championship, India, Indian fans, last edition, limited overs cricket, memorable embarrassing moments, mini World Cup, New Zealand, one of the best young bowling attacks in the world, Pakistan, Pakistan India June 15, penultimate stage, relinquish host spot, rematch, security situation, semi-finals World Cup 1999, setting stands on fire, Shayan Shakeel, South Africa, Sri Lanka and India, stability, switched captains thrice, washed out, World Cup

The 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, scheduled to begin on June 6, will officially be the last edition of the Tournament in limited overs cricket, giving way to the first ICC Test Championship to be held in 2017. However, the Tournament will not be parting without its fair share of memorable and embarrassing moments.

Popularly known as ‘the mini World Cup’, the first edition of the Tournament in 1998 saw South Africa win their first (and last) major tournament, a feat repeated by New Zealand in 2000.

If that was historic, the final of the next edition of the Tournament between Sri Lanka and India was supposed to be a rematch of their fateful encounter in the semi-finals of the World Cup in 1999.

However, whereas that match was called off due to Indian fans setting the stands on fire after a dismal batting performance by their team, the 2002 Champions Trophy final was washed out by rain – and the Trophy was awarded to both teams. Anti climatic to say the least.

Pakistan too has had a colourful past in the Tournament. In 2006, it switched captains thrice and dropped key players due to doping charges before finally succumbing to South Africa at the first stage, after only scoring 89 runs.

However, in the 2009 edition, when the security situation forced Pakistan to relinquish its spot as hosts, the team fought valiantly to reach the semi finals before losing to New Zealand in the penultimate stage.