Date:31/12/2009

URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/12/31/stories/2009123154771800.htm

India’s rise began on a magical day at Eden Gardens
S. Dinakar

A timeless edifice: V.V.S. Laxman’s 281 at the Eden Gardens in 2001 was an innings where focus blended with glorious wristwork, timing and placement.

Chennai: India was down for the count at the Eden Gardens. Steve Waugh’s rampaging Australians were poised for another sweeping victory in a wave of triumphs. Then came the astonishing turnaround.

Rahul Dravid joined V.V.S. Laxman — there was a crucial switch in the batting order — at 232 for four on day three after India followed on, 274 adrift. When the pair was separated on the final day, the host had surged to 608.

Laxman’s 281 was a timeless edifice where focus blended with glorious wristwork, timing and placement.

And Dravid oozed commitment and concentration during his epic 180. The incisive Glenn McGrath probed in the corridor but Dravid was resilient.

Pounded mentally by the partnership, the formidable Aussies wilted on the final day. The hunter had become the hunted.

Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, getting the ball to grip, spin and bounce from an ideal off-stump line, scalped six on a dramatic final day. India romped home by 171 runs in a tension-filled final session. The year was 2001.

Marking a turnaround

The Miracle at Eden Gardens provided Indian cricket a vital attribute — Belief. In India’s steady rise to the No. 1 spot in the ICC Test ranking towards the end of the decade, the believe-it-or-not Test win in Kolkata played a huge role.

Skipper Sourav Ganguly, aggressive and undaunted by reputations, instilled confidence in his men. He teamed up admirably with India’s first foreign coach John Wright.

As the decade progressed, India became a strong side with depth and options. The feisty Ganguly had an eye for ability and backed the right men.

The decision to send Virender Sehwag at the top of the order was a significant move. It changed the profile of the Indian batting line-up. Sehwag, with his marauding ways, not just dented a bowler’s figures but left psychological scars on the opposition. He raised the bar for attacking batsmanship against the new ball, altered the dynamics of a contest.

Dravid, maestro Sachin Tendulkar, Laxman and the left-handed Ganguly, formed a high-quality line-up. India could put runs on the board in most conditions.

Leg-spinning giant Anil Kumble and Harbhajan paired up as a spin combination that could run through sides at home and don a crucial role on foreign soil. There was pressure on the batsmen from both the ends as the two bowled in tandem.

Rightly, Ganguly and Wright realised the value of a potent pace attack. Gradually, India developed a pace force of greater thrust.

In a huge series, India drew 1-1 against Australia in Australia in 2003-04. While Sehwag, Dravid, Laxman, Tendulkar and Ganguly pulled their weight, the impressive Kumble harried the Aussies with his control and subtle variations. Crucially, the Indian pace attack also stung.

In a historic series, India defeated Pakistan 2-1 in Pakistan. With his remarkable hand-eye coordination and the ability to play besides the line of the ball, the intrepid Sehwag set the tone for the triumph, conjuring a triple hundred in the first Test at Multan.

And Dravid’s series-clinching double century in the third Test at Rawalpindi highlighted his value to the side. The technically pure Dravid was a batsman for all conditions. His match-winning efforts at Headingley, Adelaide, Rawalpindi, and Kingston, later in the decade, showcased Dravid’s ability to soak up pressure and construct monuments.

The Chappell era

Wright left the scene for Aussie legend Greg Chappell to step in. Chappell’s contribution to the side vis a vis grooming youngsters was immense but he remained a largely misunderstood man.

Dravid was at the helm by now and India notched up series victories in the West Indies (2006) and England (2007). During this period, India also won its first Test on South African soil. S. Sreesanth’s compelling out-swing bowling set up the win for India at the Wanderers in 2006.

India’s pace attack was humming by now. Sreesanth complemented crafty left-armer Zaheer Khan.
During the rather acrimonious tour of Australia in 2007-08, the lanky Ishant Sharma added value to the pace pack with his off-stump line, bounce and sharp off-cutters. India’s victory over Australia on a lively Perth track told two things — its batsmen handled differing conditions better while its pacemen could could consume and strike.

Now, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, an emerging leader of men, and coach Gary Kirtsen appear to have the right chemistry.

Crucially, left-handed opener, Gautam Gambhir, has tightened up his game without losing flair to make big runs when it matters.

Tendulkar continues to dazzle. The maestro’s match-winning second innings century on a difficult fifth -day wicket against England at Chepauk last year dripped with character.

All said, India’s rise to the top actually started on a magical day at the Eden Gardens.

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Listening to Mr Arun Nanda of Club Mahindra Resorts ------------ An Employee, A Professional and A Customer

Mr Arun Nanda (Executive Director and President, Infrastructure Development Sector, Mahindra & Mahindra) spoke recently at Mahindra Satyam School of Leadership on “Building Businesses and Extending one’s limits”. The talk left me with some strong feelings and questions. To start with let me share the positive feelings:

• Wit and Simplicity of such an accomplished leader who won quite a few laurels and has quite a few awards to his credit including a knighthood
• Wonderful Examples he shared on Respect for People as demonstrated repeatedly by Anand Mahindra.
• Opportunities and Encouragement provided to employees of Mahindra Group to display their talent and Recognizing them for their achievements
• The four principles for success – Work Hard , Live, Learn and Play
• Importance of having a Clean and Clear Conscience
• Financial acumen and astuteness by which a 18 Crore initial investment grew to a 4000 Crore market cap
• The happiness and self satisfaction he openly exhibited while demonstrating the Mahindra World City – Chennai (particularly the railway station)
• Credit given to his mentors and to the prayers of his parents for his success

As he was speaking, what crossed my mind was a question - Why there is no cultural integration in this group? Of course while it was also mentioned that full freedom is given to Leaders (as Mr Nanda put it even Sons in Family run Organizations do not get the kind of freedom enjoyed by CEO’s in Mahindra Group), the thought that was repeatedly bothering me was - Should there not be some semblance of cultural integration across all group companies.

The negative feelings were those concerning Club Mahindra. As a Purple Color Time Shareholder, I wasnt too happy listening to Mr. Nanda detailing the tons of money he made for Shareholders and Promoters of Club Mahindra. He didn’t seem to be too bothered about the customers/time share holders who might be sitting in the audience. The reason for my consternation was:

• Being a member for over 11 Years, I find that the services and new locations haven’t increased even by 1/3rd. How many Munnars do we have?
• More Resorts (own) could have been opened in many more states. For instance there are none in Andhra, Orissa or Madhya Pradesh. Even in a place like ooty there is no own resort. One wonder's what happened to the beautiful "Danish Villa"?
• Most of the tie up’s aren’t that great, when compared to their own resorts
• It has become very difficult to get the bookings/reservation even though being a Purple color time share holder. One needs to book well in advance and for salaried class such advance bookings usually end up in cancellations.
• An annual maintenance service charge of over Rs 9000/- needs to be paid irrespective of utilizing the time share facility. This wasn’t the part of the contract which I entered into when I bought the time share but subsequently was thrust upon me.
• As mentioned by Mr Nanda, while Club Mahindra is minting money through over 90% capacity utilization on the unused annual credit days of the Time Share Holders, they have no concept or practice to share at least a part of the booty with the time share holder. For instance at least 25% as annual dividend on income earned from the unused time share, or at least by way of a discount on the annual maintenance charges.
• In the recent IPO, no provision was made to allot shares (at least a separate quota if not a firm allotment) to time share holders.

Ultimately I left the hall wondering and with lots of questions and mixed feelings.

Courage and HR an Experience Sharing

The “Meet the Mentor” session organized by NHRD, Hyderabad had H N Shrinivas (HNS) Sr Vice President Taj Group of Hotels talking about “Courage and HR”. The talk centering around how the Tata Group dealt with the November 26th tragedy was not only enlightening but extremely inspirational. Hosted by Mahindra Satyam, it was paradoxical that here were two companies struck by severe tragedies on November 26th 2008 and Jan 7th 2009. Both faced severe tragedies, but both were in opposite situations altogether.

The DNA of one was of a very high human value system where it was extremely important that a tragedy was addressed with the highest level of dignity, sensitivity and kindness safeguarding and retaining a century old prestige, while that of the other was one of very survival of an Organization which was fraudulently inflated to be categorized as one of the top software service providers in India, within a span of 20 years.

One was rich in Tradition, Values, Culture, Reserves and Assets. The other was struck by a Financial Fraud and was almost zero in reserves and bank balance. Strong Leadership in one was willing and was in a position not only to take care of the survivors, but also place all the unemployed in alternate avenues of employment in the group. While in the other, interim Government Leadership which was replaced by the Management team of the new buyer could only look at managing and reducing costs . It was a choice between saving an organization and returning to the real “Satyam = Truth” vs. closing the shutter and leaving the rest to a historical irreparable “Virtual Falsehood”.

Lessons learnt from both these episodes clearly go to prove that only those Organizations that are built on solid foundation, values, culture, practices, ethical code of conduct with long term strategies and perspectives can meet and survive challenging situations and trying times. A powerful statement was made by HNS – “Not a single employee left the group because of the scare and tragedy caused by the terrorist attack”. Whereas in the other organization, quite a few leaders and team members have not only left even while the ship was sinking but were seemingly encouraged to leave to make way for the new captains and crew. In one organization/industry people are valued for the services and assets they create, while in the other organization/industry people are valued for the hourly dollar they bill. In one the Chairman responds to an over ambitious compensation proposal with a response “can we do something more”. While in the other, circumstances and financial position force the management to state the opposite.

An important learning was the way Clinical psychologists and Counselors were utilized to work with the employees, relatives of the deceased employees and also with the guests in the trauma centers as they were being moved out of the Hotel. These counselors were physically present and attached to work with employees in focused and small groups. Post Jan 7th we did something similar and set up a virtual help desk and hotline where callers would be talked to and referred to internal trained coaches and external professional counselors. We also organized series of Webcasts on "Engaging Associates" through our "Planet Satyam" facility. Surprisingly there were very few takers for this service and the lesson learnt could be the inhibition for Indians to approach a counselor or a coach on their own. Maybe it would have helped if we brought the counselors and coaches into our office premises and allowed them to interact with associates in small groups.

Answering a question HNS was incisive to mention that a HR professional must be a good listener and through silence, feeling, observation and study of body language she needs to understand the people, groups and situations. Actions are more important than speech and intentions need to be demonstrated to build trust and everlasting relationships. For leaders who face and go through such tragedies and the subsequent human drama as it unfolds, a realization that strikes is one of surprise and remorse that we attach so much importance to peripheral office politics and bickering without realizing the true value of selfless dedication and contentment.