Sunday, September 11, 2005

Caught behind the wicket!

Looking at the Indian cricket team's performance on the field as well as the ever present cricketer on TV, It looks like there is the desperate need to have real team work and greater accountability in the way things are handled. Today's corporate environment has evolved from fixed pay to the concept of performance based incentives and commissions. Our cricket team too should have a similar approach. One idea stuck in my mind and I thought sharing it will free my mind.
The idea is as follows:
Divide the players into Two teams, India A and India B which basically stand for India "Advertising" and India B the team actually playing cricket!
Make it mandatory for team members to have time out from playing the game to focus on serious ad related and promo activities. Players who are just unable to come to form should get priority in serving time in the B team.
Ad and other promo activity payouts should be based on multiples of the team members performance statistics. I don't know much about mathematical formulae so the illustrative example I can think of is to mutliply a players strike rate at time of shifting from A to B X say 10 Lakh Rupees or some other critical data which determines the players contribution to the team as well as individual performance.
Bonus points for winning critical matches such as finals, winning against arch rivals, breaking records etc.
The better a player performs the more he earns and the other way around.
The idea behind all this kooks sounding idea is to make sure that for one a player has to perform to earn well. Secondly it gives opportunity to greater number of players (For a 1 Billion+ population the odds of getting into a 11-12 team is pretty high!). Thirdly the players get time off from playing, also can focus on the tasks at hand with greater zeal. Fourthly the companies are sure to get a better deal for their money.
Hopefully we will have more wins if this is implemented!