Dhoni in an interview quoted “Cricket is a great leveller”. What does he mean by that? It can take up and drop u down just like life. You need to stay grounded yet keep aiming/going higher to succeed. What is that thing which drops u down in cricket? There are many but an important one is PERFORMANCE. Everyone play to perform but only few succeed. In those few there are rare exceptional ones who succeed at better rate. We measure that rate using measurements such as runs, wickets, average, strike rate so on.  We use above measurements and call someone who succeed often “He/She is in good FORM”. We stop at surface level looking at success rate measurements and assume it’s FORM.  While Success is result of FORM not FORM itself.

What is FORM? If we google form, Oxford dictionary says ”the visible shape or configuration of something.” and “A particular way in which a thing exists or appears.” If we break it down, there are two aspects to it. Shape and Configuration. And second definition explains better.

Shape

A cricketer need to be in certain shape physically and this allows him/her to be certain position which applying their skill in real time. A ball heading at 140+ kmph needs your body to be in right position, not just to survive but tackle it to score runs.  Just like life, being in right place at right time takes you into success path, as a batter being in right position at right time and playing a certain shot which requires muscle movement in certain way with certain force increases your chances of success in dealing that particular delivery. This right position and muscle movement can happen perfectly if one is in right shape. Same goes to the bowlers. To bowl a 140+ kmph, ones body need to be well trained and maintained. Cricket has reached its next level of professionalism, With game reaching to local leagues across world, and being cricketer even at local league showcase their talent and go up the ladder quickly and represent at highest level. This demands right shape..

Configuration

There is a philosophical question ”Are you a body with mind or mind with body?”. Read it again, it’s an interesting question. Statements like “I believed in myself”, “Not giving up”, “believe in your head first, body will follow” and many more. All these statements finally lead to your belief or being in that belief mental state. This is where your mind plays a much bigger role in success than body. Off course one need to be in right shape, but not every right shape skilled cricketers are successful. While with limited skills and not much technique in their skill but strong mind cricketers are much more successful like Rahul Dravid, Steve Waugh, MS Dhoni many more. Just because they were in right mental frame of mind. They have successfully configured their brain to tackle situations with their own conviction and been successful at it. So a trained mind increases chances to success much higher.

If you work on both, then there is one in generation cricketers like Virat Kohli. Cricketer with great shape and right mental state. Now these two Shape and Configuration(right mental state) needs to be put into our routine/life style. Here is where Coaches at AXI Academy helps budding cricketers to be in right FORM. So it increases your rate of success. JOIN AXI SUMMER CAMP March-April 2023.