Cricket Legend Sunil Gavaskar: ‘The Biggest Challenge Is to Get the Team to Believe in Itself’
Source | knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu
According to Sunil Gavaskar, former cricket captain for Team India, success in any vocation requires Three Ds: discipline, which is more mental than physical; dedication to hours of practice; and determination — because, as Gavaskar says, during the time when he was playing the game, “cricket wasn’t a career option.” Today, of course, that last part has changed, with top players earning millions of dollars and corporate sponsors lining up to pay them. At the recent Wharton India Economic Forum in Philadelphia, Gavaskar spoke with India Knowledge at Wharton about his career, how the business side of cricket has changed, and what he has learned about teamwork and leadership along the way.
India Knowledge at Wharton: Well, let us start with a very basic question. How did you get interested in cricket? Was it because of your uncle, Madhav Mantri?
Sunil Gavaskar: Yes, that was a factor, all right. Obviously, when you have somebody in your family playing cricket at the highest level, then automatically you do get interested, but I would imagine that a lot of boys in Mumbai would take to cricket simply because cricket is the sport in Mumbai — like hockey in Punjab and maybe football, or soccer, in Kolkata, Goa and Kerala. Cricket was the main game in Mumbai, so it was easy to take to that, but of course having an uncle who was an India player was a big factor.