The team names were swanky and had their own punch lines and colourful logos. It included BSK - Brigade Super Kings who vowed, “Never retreat, Never surrender”.
Meanwhile Cruel Tigers declared themselves as “Courteous at work, cruel on ground”; Doxtra were “The destroyers”; Flintstones with “Funny name, Serious game”; Golden Eagles said “Where eagles dare”, Legends were “Born to win”; Infernos warned “Haath lagaoge tho jal jaoge” and the Weekend Warriors announced “Prepare for glory”.
Bubbling with enthusiasm and irrespective of the hierarchies, everyone was involved in one way or the other.
This league has helped 3i Infotech to tap and identify potential leaders and team players. Promotion of teams - their team members, logos, punch lines, cricket strategies were very creative.
Banners, flags, T-shirts, mouse pads, broadcast mails, etc have been colourful, right across. The company was able to break the ice between employees coming from different cultural backgrounds and places.
Teamwork at its peak
“Teamwork was at its peak - be it at cricket sessions, or while promoting support for their team. Integrating 600+ employees, spread across 5 offices and belonging to 15 to 20 different departments and groups in Bangalore has been a challenge,” says Santosh Bangalore HR Head.
“End of the day, we aimed to have fun. ‘Refresh - Rejoice - Rejuvenate’ was the mantra,” he added.
Based on their cricketing skills, players were categorised into Platinum, Gold and Silver players.
Girls were christened as Diamond players. Eight teams were put up for auction before 19 bidders. The successful bidders of the team then bid for the players and created their teams. The team owners came up with classy names, punch lines, colourful logos and, of course, cricket strategies.
“I knew only 10 per cent of my colleagues till four weeks ago. Now I know 300,” says Chandrashekar MS, Executive Vice President, and league sponsor, based in Bangalore. “It all started with about 200 employees initially registering themselves to play,” he added. The tournament was spread over two months and the finals were played on the 13th of July. Doxtra - the Destroyers won the Tenacity 2008 cup by beating the Legends.
After deducting the prize money and other expenses from the proceeds of the auctions, the balance amount was handed over to the Society for Neglected Children (an organisation that caters to educating under-privileged children), towards sponsoring 10 children for their education, school uniforms and primary healthcare. This year more than 300 kids have been sponsored by the employees so far. For the players, it was a thrilling experience. Ramya, a developer and one of the Diamond members of the Infernos team, though she did not get a chance to bat, got to know many of her colleagues.
Kishoreraj, a software developer working with 3i Infotech for the past four years, and the owner and captain of the Brigade Super Kings, remarked, “To begin with, I did not know most of the other players. Now I know even the recent recruits.”
Better interaction
The Company’s HR division believes that the mood will continue to spill over at work. Employees will be able to interact in a better way across different technologies, products & services, and business domains. Fellow employees in the company feel confident they will be able to carry on such relationship building, going forward.
Building experience
Santosh, Bangalore HR at 3i Infotech, and one of the organisers, adds: “After all, in our industry, when you start a project, the manager will probably get a team that he or she has never worked with before.
The challenge is to work with this team and meet client expectations and win; very similar to the model we adopted in our cricket team building experience.”
The writer is the Senior General Manager, TSG Group
