Hello Friends,

How are you all? It's been a while since I posted an article. So here I am with yet another story from the cricketing world along with some extremely important leadership lessons out of it. It's a story of how sports could bring smile on the faces of people of a country going through a difficult phase. Let's start.

Recently concluded Asia Cup T20 cricket tournament has caught our attention not just because of the format but due to its highly competitive cricketing standards across all the teams. Earlier when the competition between the Asian giants used to be a 50 over format it would mostly end up in a three way hustle between India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. But these days T20 cricket has literally reduced that gap among all the teams resulting in a much more competitive tournament. Recently concluded edition was full of nail biting encounters with some extraordinary sportsmanship on display. The most interesting part was that the tournament was won by the Sri Lankan team who were never adjudged as a contender at the beginning of the tournament. In fact they had a torrid start to the tournament after loosing their opening game to Afghanistan. But after that it was a dream run for the islanders. They have shown the world what it takes to be a champion. They have made an attempt to bring smile on the faces of their countrymen specially when they need it the most. This victory is definitely going to boost their confidence on and off the field considering T20 World Cup is just around the corner where they again have to play the qualifiers. But how did this turnaround happen? How a team whose performance was going downwards consistently could change its fortunes suddenly? It's definitely not an overnight success. Let's have a detailed look on the factors that worked for the Dasun Shanaka led bunch.

First and foremost part of this victory belongs to their captain, coach and the entire team management who believed in a set of players and persisted with them for a longer period of time. Instead of regular changes they ensured that they keep backing the same bunch who can bring them outstanding results over a period of time. And the players didn't disappoint the team management either. Players like Hasaranga, Rajapaksa, Nissanka, Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Kusal Mendis, Maheesh Theekshana have performed at crucial stages of the tournament to bring the team the ultimate glory. They might not have any superstars in the team any more like the days when they used to have big names like Muralitharan, Jayasuriya, Jayawardene, Sangakkara, Malinga. But they are definitely working towards building a team which can produce a new superstar in every game they play. Team spirit has been extremely high and that showed in their performance too.

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