In the Corporate corridors, few eyebrows would have been raised when Vijay Mallya sacked Charu Sharma as the CEO of the Bangalore Royal Challengers team for “non-performance” in the ongoing IPL. It is an accepted fact in the Corporate World that you either perform or perish. There are no gray areas or half-measures. However, in a sporting environment, it is debatable whether such an extreme step is justified. In a way, Mallya has sent out a strong signal that the huge salaries that IPL is offering are linked to performance. As a team owner, he has every right to hire and fire personnel, but we need to ask how much of IPL is sport and how much is business. The moneys in IPL are huge no doubt and with that come attendant obligations and responsibilities.
However, in sport, success is not guaranteed. The team owners could well pay heed to this premise and view the performances of their team in proper perspective. The sooner the team owners stop number crunching as if it were one of their business ventures, the better it is for the game.
Kallis, for instance, was bought at US$ 900,000, but his performance so far has been rather disappointing. He is clearly struggling to maintain an even keel and the same could be said of Dravid, Kumble, Sunil Joshi, Mark Boucher and Chanderpaul.
During the preliminary bidding, Mallya had every opportunity to impose his will (as he should have) regarding the choice of players, but as per his own admission, he went by the judgments of Dravid and Charu. Having done so, one expected Mallya to stick by his team especially during the bad times such as now rather than indulging in summary firing and hiring. Brijesh Patel’s appointment as replacement for Charu has not altered the course the Challengers are sailing on and one can expect the listing ship to submerge.
dressing room with every player looking
over his shoulder in fear rather than forward"
The off-shoot of Mallya’s act of sacking the CEO is that it has only demoralized a team that is on the verge of a virtual collapse. One can well visualise the mood in the Challengers dressing room with every player looking over his shoulder in fear rather than forward. It is a case of a badly planned business venture that has gone horribly wrong, something that Mallya should gracefully accept instead of pointing accusing fingers at everyone else while absolving himself.
Even a young man like Mahendra Singh Dhoni admitted the other day that a T20 game took a lot out him. “You require at least 24 hours to recover after a T20 game,” he said. The IPL, with all the constant travel and training, is perhaps the most demanding series or tournament in cricket. Is it any wonder then that the older lot are beginning to show signs of strain and stress?
Mallya and his ilk need to factor in these points before jumping to conclusions. The Royal Challengers, like Mallya’s other property, Force India Formula One team, is up against the Ferraris and McLarens of cricket. If anything, both are in for a long haul. Success cannot be bought. You have to work for it.
