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“Champions have different mentality; they have
a stronger self-belief.”
― Sandeep Kakkar
“Don't aim to break records, aim to shatter
them.”
― Matshona Dhliwayo
Pressure of being Champion is, whenever &
wherever you play, people expect you to always win __ Me
Sandeep Kakkar is a highly successful
Motivator and a Life Architect. He has authored the world's first self-help
Novel “7 Buckets of Life”. Matshona Dhliwayo is a Canadian based
Philosopher, Entrepreneur, and author of books such as The Little Book of
Inspiration, 50-Lessons Every Wise Mother Teaches Her Son & many such. And
I am a guy who tries to learn from all such names & use their wisdom in the
best possible way I can, such as to start my sharing! Well, this is not about
tadoba, not about wildlife, not about city or real estate but about sports
& though it is about cricket yet it's more about characteristics of
champions & how it helps us in our day-to-day life! I am not motivator or
Life Guru but sports does teach us a lot, especially game like cricket where 22
players are in one game & this is era of modern days so you have to compete
with not just payers on the ground but support staff & technology they use
to stop you from performing & then there is media, fans & when you are
defending champion then there is weight of expectations on your shoulder which
is bigger than Mount Everest, & if you are part of Team India & the
tournament is in India then suddenly you are carrying more than one “Mount
Everest on your shoulders wala”, feel you get & my sharing is about how you
perform with this burden!
Actually, this sharing I wanted to write last
month only & most people have even forgot that we won T20 (plz google) ICC
World Cup & while doing that we have broken many records (and jinx) &
such in professional or say ease team India has done it that the usual thrill
of winning a world title wasn’t there & people forget success which comes
easily, though this success hasn’t come easily for sure however easy it may
look on face! Ok, by now most of you know yet I will recite some records broken
not from figures’ context but for pressure aspect about which I will elaborate
later. Team India is the first team to win back-to-back titles in the T20 ICC
world cup. Team India is the first country to win the T20 title as host. In two
back-to-back world cups of T20 team India has lost only one match out of all
the matches it has played, The final which team India won in 2026 is with the
maximum runs margin in any of the finals played till now; there are many other
firsts & records yet these few are very special & are important to
understand the mindset of a champion as well becomes the hurdle for champions
so I mentioned it specifically. Now let’s see what so special in achieving above
feats while team India won this back-to-back T20 trophy, no team from 2007 when
first T20 world cup has been played was able to retain this trophy, even most
dominant team in white ball cricket i.e. Aussies also couldn’t do it &
reason is, unpredictability of this format. The entire game gets done in mere
forty overs (plz google for rules or don’t read if you don’t know, lol) &
anything can happen during these limited time, one player, one catch, one over
can change the fate of the game such is speed & uncertainty of this format.
And uncertainty is the biggest hurdle in achieving consistency in winning as
you don’t know on a day who will be your nemesis as when you know him then you
are prepared, here it can be anybody & how you deal with an opponent player
whom you don’t know & it’s his day that day, answer is, you don’t &
usually you lose on such day! Like, in the semifinal with England, one
young Bethel, twenty two years old, has nearly snatched away the game from Team
India even they have made a biggest score to defend in any qualifier till now,
yet such was the flurry of this Bethel’s game that suddenly all the Indian
bowlers & fielders looked helpless to stop him & it took some
extraordinary effort & planning to stop Bethel which is keep him away from
strike & get other batsmen out, which India did, & that’s what
champions do, adopt to the situation! This is why winning the T20 World Cup in
succession is special as in this format of the game where any player can take
away the game from you, winning consistently needs super efforts, which team India
did!
At the same time another aspect is beating
burden of past as on the very stadium where the final is being played nearly
two years back the team has lost one day world cup final to Aussies & a
country which live on beliefs as good omens & bad omens & blind faith
(Andhshradha) this is something considered as bad open i.e. venue. And in the
background of the present political social media war this aspect was being
debated fiercely from both sides as to why the same venue has been selected
when the ground isn’t lucky for us for finals. Actually, all over the world
whatever you say is right or wrong yet even the champions have their own belief
about some omens is a fact & I am not a judge for it! But a true champion
believes only in his game, above everything as that’s what is going to make you
win the game finally & not things like from which gate you enter in the
stadium or which number’s jerky you wear or what room number has been allotted
to you & this list is endless! Yet somewhere in the back of mind because we
are humans & we have emotions, the past always keeps haunting us & the
past of team India on this venue for finals wasn’t on our side & yet our
team was able to put aside burden of the past & rewrote the history by
winning the final, this is why the win is special! And a lot to learn from this
aspect of team India for each of us, as every day is a new match & it
throws new challenges on us & unless we raise ourselves above the burden of
our past which may be of failures we won't even become champions of our life! Many of us crib for so many things as suddenly we point a finger at only
when we try to justify our failure, I should not have taken this assignment on
Tuesday as it’s not my lucky day or I should have avoided black shirt for
interview & many such which in reality, are coverup just to shield our
false ego of not accepting the fact that I failed because I didn’t perform,
that’s it!
Third & most difficult aspect of this T20
championship was no team has won it as a host i.e. on home ground & that’s
interesting as in many other tournaments the home team does get leverage of
playing in front of home-crowd as well you have upper edge of knowing the
ground conditions better than any other team, whichever the sport may be! But,
but not in India as there are few differentiations here, first, India is a big
country by size also & with big diversity on geographic conditions too! For
e.g. look at the three venues where last three matches have been played by team
India, decider with W Indies was in Kolkata in W Bengal, semifinal was in
Mumbai in Maharashtra & final was in Ahmedabad in Gujarat. All these
locations are totally different on weather as well ground conditions from each
other like playing in some different countries & that’s not the case in
most other countries where playing conditions are nearly similar all over. As
well players from team India also come from different parts of the country for
most of them any ground barring the two or three local players the venue is
totally unknown just like foreign players! So, practically there is no such
advantage of knowing ground or weather conditions & yet team India won the
trophy is special. At the same time the cheering from the home crowd, if it is
a boon then the same home crowd can boo you & who better than team India
knows it (plz recall memory of loss from Sri Lanka in Kolkata in world cup)!
And then when you play a final in a country like India you are carrying the
expectation of a must win feel from one fifty plus crores of Indians &
trust me, that pressure most of us even can’t imagine, leave apart carrying
& that’s why winning the T20 world cup as host team is special for team
India!
Last but most important the way team India
played in entire tournament, super professionally as there was a major setback,
in the form of big defeat from S Africa in super eight stage which nearly
blocked our entry to semis’, but champions don’t get defeated by one loss, is
something this team India has learned & proved it that they have learned
the lesson well! They took this defeat as eye opener & then the next three
matches they played with the intent to show other teams that they have learned
& not lost from a big defeat, that is something to be learned from this
team India. As in our life also when we are doing fairly well there comes a
day, a job, a deal which hits us badly & how we digest that blow only
defines what we are & team India showed that they are champion stuff! And
then the most important lesson I learned for this tournament win of team India
is, the team wasn’t depending on one person yet every time some one person came
forward & did the job. May it be Sanju Samson, Ishant Ksihen, Bumrah or
Axar Patel or Dubey (plz google), we have a new hero in every match that’s what
makes you a champion team as this team is not depending (read as mentally) on
one or two names but every player believes that he can change the game for the
team & that’s how we must look at our respective team even at our
work! Such was the perfectness of team India (with due respect, barring some
real poor catching) winning this T20 world cup that we just didn’t feel the
thrill of winning it, i.e. no adrenaline rush, no till last ball nail-biting,
no prayers, nothing, but a cold-blooded murder of opponent team (sorry but
that’s only phrase came to my mind) by performance & dominance! This T20 team is the new team India, she is brutal & confident &
ruthless when it comes to winning, this is the team which plays only for
winning & has the attitude of a champion! A champion team is the one where every team member thinks & acts
like a champion & take lead when times comes, thanks a lot team India not
for just winning T20 world cup but teaching me so many lessons in the process
& expecting many such ahead is all I can say, adios with this thankyou
note!
*The final of the T20 World Cup 2026 reminded
me of a scene in Amitabh Bachhan’s movie Deewar. When Bachhan retrieves a
looted cargo of his gang from the rival gang & gets reward from his boss
for the job & was shown relaxing in his cabin, his boss tells to his
deputy, “iss ladke ko dekh rahe ho, muze iss baat ka achraj nahi hai isne akele
ye kaam kar dikhaya, muze iss baat ka achraj hai ki isse ye malum thaa ki ye wo
kaam pura karega, akele!” Plz google for the English translation as I may translate
the words but I won't be able to convey the feelings for those words, &
this T20 team India fits in to Bahcchan’s role, is all I can say!
-
Sanjay Deshpande
Sanjeevani Dev.
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