“Team spirit, dynamics and cohesion – Not the same!”

Aug 16, 2015 Sports

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Colin E. H. Croft

Despite contrary suggestions, team spirit and team cohesion are not the same thing. All teams have strengths and weaknesses, but misunderstanding team dynamics could and have caused potentially match or series-winning teams to lose!
Some might recall the poignant scene in that great 1959 film “Ben Hur”, when larger-than-life star Charlton Heston ‘spoke’ to his white horses while preparing them for the still unbelievably well-filmed, award-winning ‘chariot race-to-death’ scene.
One horse, ‘Aldebaran’, was so fast that the Prince of Hur had to coax the animal into waiting for the others, while another horse, ‘Antares’, was praised for steadfastness; slower, stronger, more consistent, the rock; Heston realizing that to win, all four horses had to operate as one team!
Of course, Heston’s team of whites beat the usually-victorious team of black horses anchored by his once friend, selfish Roman Tribune Messala, who was also fatally injured during that race.
But can anyone explain why, everywhere, including the Caribbean, anything that is supposedly ‘good’ is depicted in white, while ‘bad’ is always shown in black? Discussions another time!
Also, decades ago, flight-deck crews on larger passenger and military airplanes consisted of at least four people in that ‘office’; captain-pilot, co-pilot, navigator and flight engineer; all with only one objective as a team; to get their airplane safely, efficiently, to its destination.
Nowadays, due to improved technology and a relatively new phenomenon, Crew Resource Management (CRM), started only recently in 1990, just two humans ‘manage’ most flight-decks. That latter concept became reality after many airplanes had accidentally crashed due to captains and flight crews differing in thoughts and deeds, causing confusion and hundreds of deaths too.
So, supporters during West Indies cricket’s halcyon days; from beating England in England; 1976; which started WI’s run as unofficial Test World Champions, to WI losing that crown to Australia in Jamaica; 1995; 20 years of absolute, orgasmic euphoria; would have thought that those successive, successful WI teams had both team spirit and cohesion too. Maybe!
For uninformed, presently delusional and forgetful WI supporters, WI’s Test team lost only one Test series from 1976 to 1995, against only then lowly-ranked New Zealand in 1979/80.
After being demolished 5-1 by Australia 1975/6, WI’s team, under then captain Clive Lloyd, afterwards captained by (Sir) Vivian Richards, shook the cricket world to its very core, a period for WI cricket’s dominance that will never return in our life-time.
But many of those teams, including those in which I played, were never fully cohesive or connected, even if definitely mean-spirited, despite many thoughts to the contrary!
Tales permeated on my first overseas tour, to Australia 1978/79; Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket; when I was openly accused by team-mates who now hold quite high positions in WI cricket, as being gay, that suggestion erupting because I was not a whore-monger like many were!
While I have nothing against any sexual persuasions, and no, I have never been gay, my sole purpose in that series was simply to be as fit as ever, bowl as well and as fast as possible, for I was only trying to make a living, remembering that I had just, in 1977, started my international career.
But I can boast, to this day, that I was the only player on WSC-WI who never became injured at any time during that three-month tenure in Australia 1978/79 or for the full WI tour early 1979.
Less you forget, all WI players who had signed for WSC in 1977/78/79 had been officially banned from ever representing the region again by then WICB, that attitude historically, openly led by late, hopefully unlamented, hypocritical Peter Short, (Sir) Clyde Walcott and Jeffrey Stollmeyer.
Most might also remember that the singular reason that we were returned to WI’s official fold in 1979 was that WI had been defending champions from ICC Cricket World Cup 1975, since no-one had any real confidence that WI’s then 2nd team, led by Alvin Kallicharran to India in 1978/79, could have defended that first ever WI international tournament win again in 1979.
Thus, by quite noisy representation by the Caribbean’s collective population’s cricketing voice, much more than WICB’s, available and fit WSC-WI players were recalled to normal WI duty.
Several situations during my Guyana and WI tenures occasioned team-mates to be literally, physically, at each other’s throats, with me eventually not only being referee but peace-maker too.
The irony of those situations was that no spectator could have known the difference next day on the field, since the guy who nearly maimed the other also caught out some opposition’s batman, only to be warmly embraced by the potential victim-bowler from the previous night’s activity!
There have been many well-known and acknowledged thefts of jewelry and equipment from me and other players that could only have been completed by other team-mates, even if ‘court-like’ proof could not be fully ascertained, not to mention suggested run-ins with drugs-taking, not the performance-enhancing kind, by several players, at the very least bringing disrepute to our teams.
So, team spirit, dynamics and cohesion are not the same. Winning is the main catalyst! Enjoy!
E-mail address = [email protected]

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