Imagine I get elected to the top management of a board for quite a croreful of salary. What is expected of me is consistency. I have had a glorious career with the company. My job is to get sales.
I am a bit off-color. Worse, I am so full of my past achievements, the media attention that I really am not pulling my best. Please note: offering your best does not guarantee results; but it does guarantee that you did your best to get the thing done. The probability of overall success depends on this.
I keep missing targets; lose important projects; whole series of them. Criticism mounts, mounts; people question my standing in my role in the face of many talented aspirants beneath. It mounts and mounts and one day I stand tall and give my best; and lo, it happens. The deal is through.
And then I go back to my previous relaxed state, dragging my feet along.
Would you really care to prolong my job in the next review cycle?
This is what happens in Indian cricket.
Talent has to come with application: there are times when the guy genuinely is trying but struggling and just needs some time on the beach to cool off. But worse, sometimes the guy is too big now to put in 100%.
And then one day, when he obliges with it we have the inane headlines : "Sachin silences his critics".
One knock, one match - to compensate for a few series.
People won't be rational, we all speak through our emotions; but the media has sadly also fallen for this trap.
Professionalism in sports implies applying the standards being perfected in other arenas of life - esp. business.
Because please, these guys are not making any sacrifices for the nation - they are doing their job in a very competitive market and being compensated very well for them. Try asking Sachin to relive his career without the crores and the Mercedes but only sustaining on the heart-rending pride of playing for the nation.
Bullshit.
We are doing more for the nation sitting here and working towards the eventual trickling down of economic prosperity according to the laws of capitalism; rather than playing in pajamas. :)
But do we talk about the sacrifices we've made? We don't coz we are not making any: we're in for the money, power, self actualization, whatever.
So let's understand and put the same perspective for our sportsmen.
Because, as I said, in our hearts we know: no nation is made, unmade on the back of a bunch of guys playing in pajamas: it's only entertainment. A nation is made on a collective resonance of people giving their best in whatever they do (within the constraints of law) and in turn the best the nation can do for them is to give them the best possibility of equal opportunity so that they can give that best and let the law of markets reward them accordingly.
Javier Milei at the UN
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“The welfare State is a lie and the idea that the State generates wealth is
also a lie. The State generates nothing; the State only destroys wealth and
all...
3 days ago
5 comments:
Good one ....
I am totally against dada... purely on emotional grounds ... (I have not bothered to check out any statistics) but I feel that dada scores at a very slow rate ... making it difficult for others forcing them to score at a faster rate to get a win ... he also does not instil confidence with his shots ... somehow he always misses a few outside his off stump in a very nervous fashion ... and then he usually ends up scoring big ones in matches which we do not win ... contrast this with yuvraj dhoni or even (not so successful) uthappa ... When they are at crease one always has the hope of a win.
As to the media and public ... you have said things well ... trying to add something will be a futile exercise.
I dunno if he'd do it without the Merc.
But without the Ferrari.. NEVER!
part of it is also losing the edge as you grow older. its not about being not being focused (ive always wondered what that means - does it mean staring at the ball so hard that ur eyes pop out?) or sincere or dedictated. its perhaps about changing as a person when u grow older. not as motivated perhaps, having done the same thing over and over again. or not being as aggresive or eager to "show em" (as youngsters are). or having become too analytical. or perhaps an overcorrection trying not to be dictated terms to by "them" (us the mob)
the endless debate about cricket gets pukish sometimes tho. and the exxagerated emotional reactions..like running out into the roads in the middle of the night when india wins."hum jeet gaye". "HUM jeet gaye!!"
"A nation is made on a collective resonance of people giving their best in whatever they do (within the constraints of law) and in turn the best the nation can do for them is to give them the best possibility of equal opportunity so that they can give that best and let the law of markets reward them accordingly."
that smacks of "ask not what the nation can do for u, but what u can do for the nation".
there are many things a nation is made on i guess. a healthy critique of the very fundamentals of a nation is one of them. a system which allows maximum freedom. a system which provides equality of oppurtunity all right - but in the widest sense, which includes upliftment of the downtrodden, trying to bring them to a level playing field before asking them to play well.
free operation of market forces yes, but more as a means to an end - widespeard prosperity. rather than as a cold paradigm which is merely the modern statement of "survival of the fittest".
Its just a game !
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