Usually it is the national cricketers who are held in high esteem and are the main attractions in front of cricket fans who want to be seen with them or be a part of. But last Thursday at the Sri Lanka Cricket conference room it was the national cricketers turn to play the part of a cricket fan when they were met by the country’s highest ranked military officer Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka.
The Field Marshal was invited by Sri Lanka Cricket president Thilanga Sumathipala to address and motivate the national cricket team before they left for Bangladesh and then to India to defend the two titles they won in 2014 – the Asia Cup and the World Twenty20.
Sumathipala is renowned for his far thinking approach to cricket and explaining why he thought of bringing in a person of Sarath Fonseka’s stature he said, “Purely as a soldier he has done so much for the country. We were looking at someone to motivate the players because we are having a problem in the team. We want to have a last mile push and somebody to look upto.
“I invited the Field Marshal to be part and parcel of the team building process and I informed head coach Graham Ford also. He is someone whom the players will look upto for advice.”
No doubt the powwow the Field Marshal had with the players left an indelible mark on them which everyone hopes they will be able to carry onto the cricket field and successfully defend the two trophies.
At the end of the one and a half hour session there was a call for more of the Field Marshal.
“The players wanted another session with him because most of the questions were asked by the captain Lasith Malinga. Other team members did not have time enough to ask questions so they’ve requested for another session with him,” said Sumathipala.
“The overall reaction from the players was that they wanted to hang around with him and have a chat. They even took selfies with him. Usually it is the cricketers who hog the limelight but in this instance it was the cricketers who wanted to take photos with a war hero. None of them had met the Field Marshal face to face before and it was a rare opportunity for them,” he said.
Most examples Field Marshal Fonseka drew to motivate the Lankan cricketers was from the war, his battle field experience where he outwitted one of the most deadliest terrorist organizations in the world.
One example was that he didn’t allow the opponent to dictate terms to him. He fought a guerilla war were he became the guerilla and fought from within the jungle (not from the outside) and flushed out the enemy. He put himself in their position and thought like them and made them fight a conventional war for which the terrorists were not ready for.
He told the players that they were also playing a game similar to the war. “In your war if you get out you go to the pavilion, you practice and then you come back. In my war if you get out you go to Jayaratne funeral parlour and end up in a coffin. There is no comeback in my war.”
The Field Marshal said that you don’t have time to grieve on your losses and he used that example on fielding. “If you drop a catch while fielding don’t grieve on that dropped chance but make sure you hold onto the next one that comes your way. Do not allow the dropped catch to lower your confidence but focus and do better the next time. “If I lost a top ranked soldier in the war I didn’t have to time to grieve on his death because I would have then lost more soldiers. What I did was replace him with the next best soldier and got him to take over. If I had stopped to grieve over the loss the enemy would have run over me.”
Speaking on motivating a team the Field Marshal said that the captain would have to win the confidence of his subordinates. “If they don’t believe in the leader then he will not get the support of his colleagues and will not be able to inspire them.”
“Even though I was in the army I always made sure the soldiers did their practice so that they didn’t forget their basics. Apply that to your cricket also and after a match go and practice again and get to your basics. If your basics are not right you are going to fail, don’t allow that to happen,” the Field Marshal adviced.
He further told the players not to go after the opposition’s strength but to go with their strength. “Play with your strength so that the opposition will be on the defensive”. These were some of the salient points to emerge out of the tête-à-tête the national cricketers had with the war hero. How effectively his message has been digested by our cricketers and be put to use can be seen in the next few weeks or so.
The Field Marshal has thrown out a challenge to them that he will be cheering them at both finals from his residence wearing the team’s T-shirt presented to him by captain Malinga.
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