Every cricket lover and especially IPL lover has been going gaga over the dominance that Mumbai Indians showed in the recently concluded IPL 2020. This is not the year when you would use the word dominance unless you are talking about the corona virus. 2020 has had number of mightiest brought down to their knees. Mumbai Indians haven’t been one of them.
Success in the last decade of Mumbai Indians has made them the best franchise team in the teenage years franchise cricket. Cricket has been around for over a century but the game has been fast tracked and number of leagues have been developed and lot more professional cricketers have joined the fray. IPL has been around for 13 years and Mumbai Indians only saw their first success in 2011 and that too in Champions League. IPL pinnacle was achieved 2 years later when they finally conquered the summit in 2013 and since then, they have added 4 more trophies to their hardware cabinet.
For the purists, Mumbai has been as much a financial capital as it has been the cricket mecca in the subcontinent and they have rather enviable 41 titles in the hard fought Ranji Trophy. However, they haven’t ever won the Indian domestic T-20 and it is baffling that they play some of the same guys who played on both sides of IPL finals and why their domestic IPL trophy cabinet is bare still but that’s for a different day.
Makes you wonder then, what makes Mumbai Indians so methodical and successful? They have been one well oiled unit that is performing like a symphonic orchestra. If you look at other teams especially RCB, individually some of the names that don RCB jersey are much more successful International cricketers but some of the local uncapped Mumbai players have been performing more consistently and at a better clip. Talent is not alone for the success. The most important reason for success is how Mumbai front and back office are both working in tandem. Support staff and coaching staff and owners and management and the scouting team all have had played as much as the part as those men wearing numbered jerseys and getting on the field.
Mumbai Indians have knowingly or unknowingly adapted a model of other global sports such as Soccer, Basketball, Baseball and have developed a farm system which has resulted in identifying and discovering talent in the form of Bumrah, Pandya brothers, Ishan Kishan to name a few and these players have been those seeds who were spotted by their scouts led by former Team India and MI coach John Wright and have brought these young turks into the main fold and helped these little saplings rub shoulders with the likes of Sachin, Zaheer, Robin, Bond, Ponting, Malinga and the results have been wonders. When some of the best in the business have their watchful eyes on you, growth is fast tracked and this isn’t true just for the ones who stayed with MI. There are whole lot of players who were first spotted by the MI scouts bit for the lack of opportunities, some of these young guns decided to leave for greener pastures.
MI is cricket team which is run professionally and results have been wonderful. Yes, they have some great talent but number of these were raw talents who could have gone either way if not developed carefully. Support staff had to also develop and nurture these raw diamonds who were not just thrust in the glittering limelight of Mumbai but they were partying with the who’s who of India – Bollywood, Cricket legends, Businessmen and they had to be kept away from the prying eyes of every opportunist that could pull them into the quick sand of the glamour world and take their focus away from their core competency.
Coaches have made these guys into world beaters when they didn’t have the reputation preceding them. Everyone acknowledged their talent but the back-office team made them into the well-oiled team unit. If you look at 13 years history of IPL and you would notice there have been a solitary instance of Player of Tournament, Orange Cap, Purple Cap each. All their 5 titles have had 5 different Man of the Match awardees which goes on to prove that MI is a process and not person driven team.
This is truly a TEAM and not dependent on one or two players. Having said that, they have some brilliant individuals but they don’t necessarily thrive on their individual brilliance. They have had someone or the other put their hand up when the team needed them. Leadership and management lessons worldwide always stress about knowing and playing your role in the group and MI players have epitomized that. In a country like India, which believes in idol worships, this is rather unusual.
Compare them to RCB, that boasts of 4 international captains such as Virat, Finch, ABD and Moeen and some of the best known international cricketers who have had prolonged and glorious careers as compared to their MI counterparts but unfortunately they have been too dependent on their legends and not role players.
Mumbai Indians have been a case study for team sports and how finding and nurturing talent at the grassroots level can do wonders if combined with the process and that can even work in a country like India. Process can be tweaked, and people can be taught to believe in the process. That is why MI was able to extract the best work from someone like Trent Boult who has had great international career but his IPL credentials paled in comparison before this season.
