The Best Investment

It's almost a week since the IPL started and it's been going on pretty well, considering all the kind of trouble the organizing went through. Probably we expected matches to have a better pace and nail biting finishes, which were not that very visble in the matches that have passed. But yesterday's game had something that caught our attention. It was a tie between Rajasthan Royals(RR) and Kolkata Knight Riders(KKR) and the super over was bashed out by the RRs. The match could have been taken off by the KKR, provided Dada had hung around for a few more balls. But what flashes across my mind is the 'Shane Warne Magic'.

The 'Shane Warne Magic' was very much visible when the RR won the IPL 2008. They started off as a very naive team without much hype and slowly and steadily traveled through the tournament and made it to the final when most of didn't expect they would. There were moments when Shane warne proved to be a great captain. The encouragement given to the team and his compassionate nature were obvious reasons for that victory.

Coming back to yesterday's game, it was noticeable that this great captain was encouraging young Kamran Khan through out the game. Especially, his idea of giving him the chance to bowl the super over was amazingly daring. This reminded me about the T20 world cup when Dhoni was forced to give the chance of bowling the last over to inexperienced Joginder Sharma who hadn't had a great day. However they won the game excitingly when Sreeshant came from no where and took the catch.

Everybody is aware of Shane Warne's capability and strength as an experienced bowler, inspite of which he gave the opportunity to a raw bowler. The possible reasons I could think off are as below.

1. Probably Shane Warne has seen some kind of potential in him.
2. It was worth taking the risk as this one over would install tremendous confidence in that young boy to go forward with his cricketing career. (Shane Warne is capable of keeping up his confidence level even if they had lost the match.)
3. May be he knew that Yousef Pathan was capable of scoring to fetch the score even if something goes wrong from the young guy's inexperience.
4. Good team leaders always help to get the team and the team members going and not the self.

Whatever be the reason, the last point mentioned above is something that all team leaders, teachers and managers have to consider in their day to day work life.

This action provoked my thoughts on a lesson that I had read in my tenth class. It was titled as 'The Best Investment I Ever Made'. It was about a doctor who claims that the best investement he ever made was helping a vexed patient who had tried to commit suicide with a meagre amount of money. The doctor meets the man after years and is delighted to know how that meagre amount was utilized in a manner that helped him lead the rest of his life.

I am a hard core supporter of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for the obvious reason that I have spent most of my life in TamilNadu. If it's not CSK, I would prefer the Royal Challengers(RCB) to take the cup home, as my favourite cricketer belongs to this team. After watching the game yesterday, I will be happy to see the RRs winning the cup again as well. After all, it is worth his captaincy.