I am an avid fan of the sport of cricket, namely Twenty20 cricket; however, cricket is a game that many persons around the world are still not familiar with. In fact, a newcomer looking on at the game can easily mistake cricket to be a knockoff of baseball. But it’s not.
According to Wikipedia, cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field. At the center of the field is a 20-metre pitch with a wicket at each end. Each wicket comprises of two bails balanced on three stumps. While that statement adds little of value on its own, it does set the precedence for more important things to follow.
The Caribbean Premiere League
The Caribbean Premiere League is a renowned cricket tournament; six teams compete for about a month with the hope of winning a prestigious trophy as well as bragging rights. Each team is generally required to play each of the other teams. And they must do so at least twice before securing a place in the final.
During one particular tournament one team kept winning match after match and made it to the final. The team had a perfect winning streak. Every other team incurred multiple losses to the point that many questioned if some teams forgot how to win. When the tournament concluded, the team with the perfect record lost their final game. And they lost that game to one of the teams that had previously incurred several losses.
Obviously it’s not the first time in history a story like the above has happened. But it does paint a clear picture as to how things often work in real life. The team with the perfect winning record, after winning 11 out of 11 games, lost in the end. Almost everyone felt as though the team deserved to win due to their diligence and consistency. Yet, in the end it wasn’t meant to be.
Losing your way to success
Too many times people choose or prefer to only support the winners of the world. It needs no explanation. After all, who would not enjoy winning? You get to feel accomplished, like you’ve bested some sort of great challenge. And for a moment you feel like a king or queen on top of everything. There is a downside in only celebrating winning, however; you subliminally start finding yourself not respecting the efforts of those who have lost.
Of course it’s not as much fun to lose, especially when it happens so frequently that everyone just gives up on you. But sometimes it’s that desertion and feeling of hopelessness upon losing that materializes into something more; it can unsuspectingly turn into a feeling that only winners tend to be familiar with: success!
There are so many things people love to judge others by: They love to look at your past; your history, where you came from; who you associated with; how much money you made; the titles you held, and so on. But just like an investment portfolio, past performance is not always an indicator of future success. Therefore, while many were stunned when the “unbeatable team” lost their first and only cricket match when it mattered most, I was actually relieved. Not because they lost (because I also think they deserved to win). But because a once chronic loser came and surprised everyone as a dark horse to claim sweet victory.
A Dark Horse has nothing to lose
It was very unfortunate that the hardest working team had to pay the price for the underdog to succeed. But the results of the tournament was another perfect example why working hard can pale in comparison to working smart. As it’s often said, it’s not how you start but how you finish. A drug dealer can be become a president; a murderer can become a pastor; and an F student can become a CEO of the most profitable company in existence. Losers don’t necessarily have to stay losers.
More people need to start appreciating the efforts of the losers of the world; until then they would never fully grasp what it truly means to win. Because it’s easy to stay positive and happy when you’re winning all the time. But it takes something magical to be much more familiar with losing, and then suddenly rise above everyone else to emerge victorious. Both teams may have deserved to win, but the team that shocked everyone most and made them think more than they had been doing all along will be remembered as the true winner.
