Self Belief Leading To Excellence At Global Stage

Hello Friends,

What is your leadership type? I am sure some of you might get little surprised with this question. Most of the times we talk leadership as a generic topic whereas we can find various leadership styles if we observe closely. There is one category of leaders who are authoritative or believe in being on the driver's seat whereas another category believes in developing their team members & allowing them to take decisions. Today I am going to talk about a leader in the segment 'Unsung heroes of cricket' who inspired his team to win two world cup titles though there were always serious criticism about his own performance or even his place in the team. He always believed in keeping the team first.

Daren Sammy(Full name Daren Julius Garvey Sammy), the former West Indies men's cricket team captain is not one of such celebrated world cup winning captains like his counterparts. Being the first cricketer from St. Lucia to represent West Indies at the international stage, he had a big responsibility on his shoulders. He is one such leader who mostly was able to inspire his team solely by his leadership acumen rather than his individual performances with the bat & ball. A humble person, shrewd captain and a prolific man manager are some of the qualities that make him one of the best in the business. Not being a gifted player he had to toil hard initially to cement his place in the national side. He was made the national team captain at the very beginning of his career. Even though the results in the test & one day cricket were not as encouraging as he would have liked ,but his side became the team to beat in the T20 format under his leadership. One might say West Indies' dominance in the shortest format is majorly due to their players' inclination towards the format. At the same time role of an aggressive captain can't be denied too. Sammy's inspirational leadership along with his short yet timely cameos with both bat & ball makes him one of the fearsome opponents in the format. Apart from captaining two T20 world cup winning sides, he was also the part of the West Indies' Champions Trophy winning campaign in 2004 though he was part of the playing eleven only once. Hence he definitely can be marked as one who has a clue or two on how to win global titles. Ironically he was stripped off the T20 captaincy in 2016 after winning second World title for his country in the same year.

Apart from leading the national team he has been a globetrotter in T20 format being a sought after name in T20 leagues due to his leadership skills and suitable playing style. He has a Pakistan Super League(PSL) title to his name captaining the Peshawar Zalmi side. What makes the first international cricketer from St. Lucia standout as a leader? His down to earth personality is one of the major factors in building champion teams. He is not one of those flamboyant guys who would issue a warning to the opponents before the match or get involved in on field verbal spat. Instead he focuses more on his and his teams' ability to deliver results every time they take on the field. Work in silence and let the results do all the talking is the mantra probably he believes in. Despite several criticism throughout his career for his own performances he never lost focus on the work at hand. That is a golden quality of a leader. His ability to extract the best from the fellow teammates makes him earn all the respect. Even at the times of extreme hardships throughout his captaincy tenure he has always remained calm and focused on improving his skills as a player and a leader. Mindset is what differentiates great leaders from the rest. He is definitely one among the modern day captains with a winning mindset and backs that up with perseverance and hard work. Captaining franchisee based teams in T20 leagues is no easy job as a leader has to deal with players from different cultures. His simple yet effective style of leadership made him a success in those leagues too.

Recent developments see him getting into more of a mentor or coaching roles in T20 leagues due to his extraordinary skills of inspiring teams. Recently he has been appointed as the member of Cricket West Indies(CWI) board as an independent non-member director. Such responsibilities show kind of faith cricket administrators have in him as a leader to do well for the development of West Indies cricket. Due to his role in bringing back international cricket to Pakistan, he received the highest civilian medal of Pakistan "Nishan-e-Pakistan". He was also awarded honorary Pakistan citizenship by president of Pakistan. In 2016 after winning the second world title a ground near Gros Islet, St. Lucia was named to Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium. Such accolades are testament to his contribution towards the sport he is extremely passionate about. Sammy the leader and player has inspired many across the globe to dream big and follow their passion. We would hope he continues to inspire with a smile on his face in whatever role he takes up.

Image credit:

paddynapper, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons