VINCE VAN DER BIJL: Unlike Trump, great leaders talk to their people

Exceptional leadership remains globally elusive. Social media and our modern materialistic and individualistic world has resulted in Trumpian leadership. In a cricket team those types of leaders get booted quickly, as that intimate space holds few secrets. 

The best captains are able to reach into the minds and souls of each player and the collective team. They inspire confidence and are relentlessly competitive. Successful captains have integrity, character and most importantly possess the forgotten art of open conversation. The leadership narrative always comes back to having robust conversations.

Cricket captains have to engage with large egos thereby increasing the intensity of that close environment. Successful business leaders instill the same intimacy of communication through workshops and management by walking around and being present. Clear communication is key.

I was lucky to play under Mike Brearley, Ali Bacher and David Dyer who all used this approach. Graeme Smith, Temba Bavuma and Dean Elgar do as well. Each of them has that hard edge. They feel compelled to win.

Middlesex in 1980, with a formidable team, had not lost a match in the first two months of the season. Suddenly, we lost two limited over matches. Brearley brought the broader squad in for a day, asked for our individual views and then spoke to the team in the evening. He highlighted the insight of Roland Butcher, a second team player.

Butch had opined, “We have already built a mantlepiece to put all four trophies on but have forgotten our processes.”

That became our watchword — we won two trophies, reached the semifinal in the B&H competition and finished third in the John Player 40 overs tournament. Butcher’s confidence as an individual grew exponentially, and he  shot into the first team, owing to his more assured performances. He was chosen to tour the West Indies with the English team later that year. It is not surprising that Aussie fast bowler Rodney Hogg wrote: “Mike Brearley has a degree in people.”

The same can be said of Bacher. The Jewish Museum, in Cape Town, is now celebrating Ali’s life through an incredible exhibition. At a recent breakfast there, Ali spoke about helping newcomers in the Transvaal team and out of form players feel comfortable.

He said that at net practices, he would have a quiet word of encouragement or ask for advice to make those players feel integral to the team. As captain he won five Currie Cups for Transvaal and won four SA vs Australia Test matches.

Dyer was the Natal University captain. The team was picked from both the Durban and Pietermaritzburg campuses adding a further challenge to leadership. In my first intervarsity week, I was selected as cover for opening bowler Bruce McCleary, who had a dickey back. Even though I was merely there as a replacement and from another campus, he made me feel an integral part of the team. This approach assisted me considerably. I was picked for the SA varsities team at the end of that week. “Davo” later become the captain of Transvaal and started the extraordinary “mean machine” legacy driven later by Clive Rice.

Sir Frank Worrell and Sir Clive Lloyd had the unenviable task of integrating cricketers from the eight countries that make up the West Indian team. Worrell instructed players from different countries to share hotel rooms, thus encouraging unity. It was a true test of leadership, and Worrell and Lloyd led their teams to be remembered as giants of world cricket. Both captains felt the weight of their country’s history driving them on.

SA cricket, as a whole, remains divided owing to the cloud of racist allegations and legal processes swirling around us. This while our superb women and men national teams perform excellently, under the mature, all-inclusive captaincy of Dean Elgar, Temba Bavuma and Dane van Niekerk. In the artificially created Covid bubble, they and their coaching teams have developed a unity and chemistry that is remarkable, considering all the noise around them.

Judge Graeme Smith and Mark Boucher how you will, yet acknowledge their incredible and resolute strength of character and purpose. In the past eight months, despite media commentary and lack of support in the system, they have done their jobs fearlessly and with total commitment.

Robust conversations remain the balm to heal divides. We all need to learn that simple lesson by following the success of the national teams.