JWT-Sri Lanka Blog

MTI Research Forum
8^th December 2010
Taj Samudra Hotel
Address by: Thayalan Bartlett – Chief Executive Officer JWT Sri Lanka

“Intuition over Information”

My fellow presenters have been sharing different perspectives of the impact of research on their marketing strategies. My task is no different, other than for specifically addressing the assessment of the merits and demerits of research on brand communications. At the very outset I would like to establish the significance of research and the importance to understand the limits to which this information is used to influence strategy. There is a definite line between me and research once the creative development process begins.  I have been asked to address two specific objectives which I have defined as follows:

• The repression of creative standout value in an overly expressive media regime.
• The challenges faced by marketers to decide between effective reach and idea impact.

I have come across two types of marketers during the span of my career: one who is led by the most important “I” in marketing – The Intuition Led marketer. The other, is one who is led by research and makes it a bible to build his strategy.  Whilst there is nothing wrong in being either, the latter type prevails in marketing society more than the former. Whether it is the internet, TV, print or the activation space media clutter is here to stay. It’s not going to get any better and at best it will get worse. 40 years ago a scholar by the name Herb Simon said “an abundance of information creates a scarcity of attention” what will he say about our media environment today? Caused by excessive media proliferation, the marketing tragedy of today is that there is greater emphasis on the fragmentation of media by clients and agencies than to understand how to deal with the fragmentation of the consumer’s mind. Exploring the mind using the power of intuition must take precedence over the literal use of information from research. This does not mean we ignore research but use it as information to base our judgment. It is likely that competing brands hire equally competent research companies that are in all probability speaking to equally similar consumer profiles in an attempt to mine insights. This could be one of the bigger contributors of brand parity than other known factors.

To break media clutter marketers have little choice other than to engage the consumer with a proposition through a compelling idea. The problem is not breaking through media clutter but the creation of compelling ideas and I believe the former is a consequence of the deficiency of the latter. One of the fundamental reasons is that ideas are regularly audited by research that sometimes contributes to the repression of ideas. I am a confessed believer of most forms of research but I am yet not convinced if we have mastered a “sure method” of researching ideas which often restricts the spirit of the creative process. To answer the objectives set by MTI, it’s not important what I have to say as much as it can be answered through real examples. I will be sharing two examples where a client defied the results of a pretest of a campaign and went on to score heavily in the market. The first example comes from Unilever one of the world’s most disciplined marketing companies where research is a very critical process of brand communications.

Lipton Ceylonta Tea, was a brand that was hanging-around in the market at just under 4% market share in 2003. It had a comparatively small but very loyal base of consumers who were ageing with the brand. The brand was reformulated and was on course for re-launch. When the agency began sifting through the research we discovered that tea drinkers were consuming the beverage as a relaxant and as a post-activity drink. We analysed all the competitive tea commercials and discovered that the category itself was endorsing and encouraging this consumption habit. This trend was consistent with the stagnant consumption of tea. We wanted to change it and engage the consumer with a new proposition and we identified an opportunity to re-position the brand as a pre-activity drink on the platform the “day maker”.

The idea was pretested and it scored far below approval levels at Unilever to be even considered for airing. This was largely attributed to the fact that the creative campaign was forcing a behavioral change which the research could not pick-up as a potential opportunity.  We responded with a few alternative ideas based on what research had highlighted but we continued to believe in the campaign that research condemned. What was condemned is what we wanted to recommend and this is where Intuition took over. A very bold Brand Director went up to the board and re-presented her case in favor of the rejected campaign. She not only put her neck on the line but years of credibility as a marketing professional. She had two options- she could have quoted research and probably been safe even if the campaign failed. The other option was not to take refuge in research and to put belief in her intuition. She did the latter and the brand recorded phenomenal growth for three consecutive years and continues to do well today.

Result:

• Vol growth from 2003 to 2006 was 87 %
• Growth in 2003 was 40%
• Growth in 2004 was 50%
• From a 143 million brand in 2003 to half-a-billion brand in 3 years. And much bigger today

At no point did the agency not believe in the research. It did! But the research guided us to a position and then we had to leave it to our intuition to make the right move for the brand. Where we mostly fail is we expect research to tell us how to act and think to the point it begins to control all our decision making. We are hired to make decisions and set new standards in the roles we perform and not translate research information to action. If the sentiments are to only go by research then we should hire a full service research company that provides brand management and advertising as value added services. It just doesn’t work that way and I personally feel we are unfair by our research partners as we expect them to predict the outcome of a campaign’s acceptability. What I am saying goes against the grain of most “traditional” MNCs but it is time that somebody in marketing starts breaking the rules or else we need to resign to the fact that standout-value and media clutter will coexist making no impact.

Here is an example where standout value was in conflict with media clutter for a cellular brand and the former prevailed. It’s also an example of how a client broke the rules.  It was our 23^rd presentation to launch “2 minutes in-coming-free” for Cellcard- a mobile company. Nearly exhausted by the continuous rejection of the campaign by the client and almost at the cost of losing the account we presented a campaign that would have failed any pre- test, done by any research company by miles. It depicted Death, a Funeral and a Cemetery. There is a single influence that supersedes all research, all professional experience and qualifications – “Superstition” and this script was shrouded by it from start to finish. Independent of my belief of superstition but going by past experience, connotations of death and symbols associated with it have bombed in research and have not gone beyond the boardroom. To our relief the client believed in his intuition and this idea went beyond the boardroom, it went beyond superstition and eventually went beyond market expectation.

Result: We had to stop the advertising in two weeks as we could not cater to the demand. But what was most encouraging is that it was awarded  Sri Lanka’s most loved commercial across every target classification as per AC Neilson in that year- Professionals, Housewives, Youth and Children. Would research have passed it? I am not so sure. But the client did and most importantly the consumer did. In a category that is inundated with standardised and unbelievable Telco offers, I attribute the success of this campaign to its emphasis in dealing with “mind fragmentation” over “media fragmentation” through the power of an idea which research would not have passed.

In conclusion, I would like to leave these 4 points for you to think about.

Firstly know that the repression of creative standout value is not always determined by media clutter but by its limitation of the creative expression of the idea. The overly expressive media regime for advertising is going to get worse and one of the critically defining moves you will ever make is through your brand idea.  A good advertising idea is the new currency for consumer engagement. So the point is! – be driven by Initiative using research but do not be driven by research to take initiative.

Secondly, the challenges faced by marketers on how to decide between effective reach and idea impact will no longer be a decision but a solution through the potency of your idea. To me idea impact equals effective reach and is definitely not an Either / OR situation. In the digital era you will see consumers seeking your idea out, more than you having to reach them.

Thirdly be a believer of research and use it selectively in assessing brandcom ideas in pretesting- our industry likes to believe in figures and then act. I think what we ought to do is stop believing in figures and start making figures that we can believe in.

Finally, we all need to be responsible for our decisions. Most often than not, I have seen marketers taking refuge behind research when campaigns fail because they have fulfilled their pre and post-test obligations. But what I would urge you to ponder is your role as a decision maker using the “I” in you – Intuition…..because research leads you to the edge and the decision to fly or fall is both in your hands. What choice will you make?

 

Last week , we explored what clients think of Chillies. This week , the blog features prominent advertising personalities in the country and what they think of chillies.

They were given 4 common questions where the answer should not exceed 5 lines.

Here are the questions.

Question 1

As the Chairman/CEO/ECD of a leading advertising agency, is the final outcome of the Chillies Ad awards help your agency to win new business? Yes! or No! and Why?

Question 2

Does the Chillies awards benefit the ad industry at all? If yes/no, in what way does it have a positive or negative impact?

Question 3

Has advertising in Sri Lanka seen an improvement in standards over the last 5 years? Yes/No and Why?

Question 4

 

Is the process of management, judging and implementation of the awards fair?Yes/No and Why?

 

 

 

 

 

Neela Marikkar , Grant McCann

Question 1

Does the final outcome of the Chillies Ad awards help your agency to win new business?

Not really. Over the years we have not seen dramatic shifts either way. If at all it raises the profile of the agency’s creative reputation in the short term. Its how the winning agencies manage it in the longer term that will impact on winning significant business.

Question 2

Does the Chillies awards benefit the ad industry at all?

Yes it does as it motivates the creative people in the industry to raise the bar. Agencies should maximize the opportunity this creates. There is no doubt that winning creates an adrenaline high but also egos

Question 3

Has advertising in Sri Lanka seen an improvement in standards over the last 5 years?

The quality of ideation is improving. There is better technology available that has enhanced the creative execution.

Question 4

Does the process of management, judging and implementation of the awards are fair?

Mostly fair. Creativity is subjective and participants will always have to take that into consideration. Judges although given guidelines will be subject to their own personal likes and dislikes and that will have an influence on their final decision.

 

 

Lilamini Dias Benson , LOWE

Question 1

Does the final outcome of the Chillies Ad awards help your agency to win new business?

Winning awards does add to lustre to an Ad Agency. But a true results-oriented brand-building Agency will always be respected and will in the end be the criteria for new business. Nowadays (in crunch times) even more so than before

Question 2

Does the Chillies awards benefit the ad industry at all?

The Chillies has in past years brought out the worst in the ad industry. And we have been guilty of washing our dirty linen in public as well!! But then it has also brought out ingenuity and resourcefulness and has seen many people flexing their creative muscles very productively. Even if only in pursuance of scam. THE IMAGINATION WHEN STRETCHED TO NEW LENGTHS NEVER RETURNS TO ITS ORIGINAL DIMENSION. So its always good to stretch!

Question 3

Has advertising in Sri Lanka seen an improvement in standards over the last 5 years?

Yes. And NO NO NO. Recently we’ve all been guilty of cheap and dirty! Largely because clients DO NOT recognise that a great, memorable, relevant idea lifts his brand sky high above the reaches of other ordinary brands. And you can run it just a few times and everybody who sees will remember. It needs much less media investment. We badly need clients who recognise this. They are too few

Question 4

Does the process of management, judging and implementation of the awards are fair?

I think the judging is inevitably pretty subjective, based on personalities and personal taste and opinions. But I cannot answer this truthfully because I have never seen what items were in the running for any particular award.

 

 

Ranil De Silva , Leo Burnett

Question 1

Does the final outcome of the Chillies Ad awards help your agency to win new business?

It is not necessarily a new business winner but it does influence the decision making process. However, I might add that our success at The Chillies last year resulted in us getting 2 new clients

Question 2

Does the Chillies awards benefit the ad industry at all?

It certainly does as it helps to showcase our work and the creative standards and it helps each agency to make a statement for itself for its creative product. It also serves as an aspiration to the people in the industry to do better work and helps to uplift the standards of the industry as witnessed by The Chillies since its inception in 2006

Question 3

Has advertising in Sri Lanka seen an improvement in standards over the last 5 years?

This is quite obvious when you see the work and how it is improving year after year as well as the regional and global recognition we are gaining.

Question 4

Does the process of management, judging and implementation of the awards are fair?

It is fair as it can be and there is no fool proof method for it. However, the current system seems to be the best available solution. If more agencies and people got involved with The Chillies and genuinely contributed towards its management, it certainly will help a lot more and result in even better management and operations.

 

Dilith Jayaweera , Triad

Question 1

Does the final outcome of the Chillies Ad awards help your agency to win new business?

No, because clients are very much aware of the reality. And especially thanks to campaigns launched by loosers time to time, The Chillies has now more known to be an award show of scams than a proper award show among the marketing fraternity.

Question 2

Does the Chillies awards benefit the ad industry at all?

Yes, because it helps the industry to improve the quality of its core product “The Creative Product”.

Question 3

Has advertising in Sri Lanka seen an improvement in standards over the last 5 years?

Yes, because Sri Lanka has started producing more and more locally relevant communications campaigns, therefore , now we see something called Sri Lankan ads rather than irrelevant ”international quality ads”.

Question 4

Does the process of management, judging and implementation of the awards are fair?

No, yet it really doesn’t matter to people who believe in their work.

 

Thayalan Bartlett , JWT Colombo

Question 1

Does the final outcome of the Chillies Ad awards help your agency to win new business?

A strong win in any award show can fuel your reputation. However when it comes to the Chillies, I think we are a long way off the mark. The Chillies has a lot more to prove in terms of its credibility as it has little significance on a client’s choice of an agency . But I sincerely hope that the Chillies will enhance its reputation so that it becomes a decision making tool for clients.

The essence of the Chillies must be to identify those Ideas that have the ability: To sell more product in more places to more people on more occasions ie: Creativity = Effectiveness = Client respect = New business. That is all that matters.

Question 2

Does the Chillies awards benefit the ad industry at all?

It certainly does in terms of motivating agency staff. Whilst there are a few pieces of good work which is gaining us recognition locally and internationally they are largely being delivered on insignificant brands which sometimes begs the question of its authenticity and credibility. The Chillies will come of age when we start delivering big awards on real brands.

Question 3

Has advertising in Sri Lanka seen an improvement in standards over the last 5 years?

There is far too much of bad advertising that shrouds the few pieces of good work that make it. Overall I say No! …… because there is too much client influencing that prevails than creative freedom. Its important that client’s expose themselves to international work as much as the agencies do. Sadly very few clients are tuned into global trends in advertising. The few clients who know this are pushing their agencies to deliver. The way to go!

Question 4

Does the process of management, judging and implementation of the awards fair?

The process and management outlined in the blue print is pretty robust. Beyond this it is our actions and conscience to ensure its fairness. Most often I see actions and conscience not in sync with the blue print. We must work to an “industry agenda” that will benefit all and not a “personal agenda” that benefit a few.

 

 

 

Chandini Rajaratnam , ECD – JWT , Colombo

Question 1

Does the final outcome of the Chillies Ad awards help your agency to win new business?

No, I cannot remember Chillies or SLIM or any award bringing new bis in. Unfortunately clients take a dim view of awards because they consider it and creativity, ad agency ego massage. I believe strongly that creativity enhances effectivity and especially in tight economic situations it helps brands in many ways. Clients differ in their opinion of this. Added to this, most clients think the Chillies are a bit of a circus.Having said this, I would love to see the day when a Chilly win means more bis.

Question 2

Does the Chillies awards benefit the ad industry at all?

It has had a terribly negative impact on the industry because of the scam issue. Clients and people in general think we have hit a new low and they cannot comprehend the extent to which some agencies have gone just to win an award. Now when we take an ad to a client on a genuine innitiative they tend to view it suspiciously. Sadly, it has erroded the respect won by professionalism. The Chillies could benefit the industry when it showcases kick ass work on tough, real brands with sharp clients. Then the overall standard of the industry will go up.

Question 3

Has advertising in Sri Lanka seen an improvement in standards over the last 5 years?

When scam wins, it cannot improve standards. This is because the ‘template’ set by scam ads don’t do anything to improve creative thinking or hone skills. It’s easy to do ads for a nonexistent client who will not question why there is no body copy or contact details or why the brand and the logo are both next to invincible or how it will bring in sales. Also the tendency to scour award books and the net and copy trends in winning work inhibits originality that could help set our own new standard.

Question 4

Does the process of management, judging and implementation of the awards fair?

Let me just say that I have stayed out of all of it.

 

 

Trevor Kennedy , ECD – LEO Burnett

Question 1

Does the final outcome of the Chillies Ad awards help your agency to win new business?

I think it does because people and brands want to be associated with success even if they don’t want creative work. They want to think the best people are working on their business even if it is just a small ad.

Question 2

Does the Chillies awards benefit the ad industry at all?

Yes it does. Because everyone wants to win it makes them more aware of what is being produced globally. This has to be good as you are also looking at different strategies.

Question 3

Has advertising in Sri Lanka seen an improvement in standards over the last 5 years?

Yes. The better work entered this year was of a higher standard and there was more of it.

Question 4

Does the process of management, judging and implementation of the awards are fair?

I think the judging was fair but I would like to see more focus on the good work we produce and less on scam and finding reasons why some work didn’t win.

 

So , we have now looked at what the clients and the agency individuals have to say. What do you think?

Is Chillies, really Hot? or Not?

 

 

On the eve of Chillies , Blog Crew decided to find out how “hot” the chillies is.

From marketing heads of the largest FMCG companies to the CEOs of the leading advertising agencies, Blog Crew spoke to some of the most senior marketers and celebrated agency heads to find out how “hot” they think the chillies is…

Imal Fonseka of Hemas , Bertram Paul of Chevron , Rienzie Martinez of HSBC along with Ruchi Gunawardena of Sting Consultants gave us an insight into how hot the clients find chillies.

They were asked these three common questions where their answers should not exceed more than 5 sentences.

Question 1

Do the results of the Chillies Ad awards help you in choosing the right agency partner?

Question 2

Has the Chillies awards benefited the ad industry at all? How? (Please explain) in what way does it have a positive or negative impact?

Question 3

Has advertising in Sri Lanka seen an improvement in standards over the past 3years? ( big ideas, execution, innovation etc)

This is what these prominent individuals had to say.
Bertram Paul , Chevron

Question 1
Do the results of the Chillies Ad awards help you in choosing the right agency partner?

YES – Somewhat.

Question 2
Has the Chillies awards benefited the ad industry at all?

YES – Somewhat.

Question 3
Has advertising in Sri Lanka seen an improvement in standards over the past 3years?

Feel Chillies has led to division & ill feeling among members of the Ad industry and although some members have benefitted in terms of self promotion, image & hype – it has not favourably impacted client businesses.

 

 

Imal Fonseka , Hemas

Question 1
Do the results of the Chillies Ad awards help you in choosing the right agency partner?

We don’t select agencies based on how many awards they win. This is a myth. This misunderstand is perhaps what drives the plethora of counter- productive media releases, articles and interviews which attempt to restate various opinions. There is no such circus after the marketing awards, packaging awards or airline awards. Grow UP !.

Question 2
Has the Chillies awards benefited the ad industry at all?

We don’t reward creativity for the sake of art, we reward it because we recognize that Creativity sells. But it needs a deep understanding of the clients business and the clients customer from the agencies side combined with strong intuition and guts from the clients side to father creativity that sells. Those agencies and those clients who are enlightened enough to understand this and hence use the Chillies week to learn have truly benefited. Others have only complained and will stay complaining and boycotting.

 

 

Ruchi Goonawardena , Sting Consultants

 

Question 1

Do the results of the Chillies Ad awards help you in choosing the right agency partner?

NO.

The Choice of an Agency is very much dependent on the brand, the scope of the work and the core strengths of the Agency.

Question 2

Has the Chillies awards benefited the ad industry at all?

It has a positive impact in that it gets the industry together and provides a common forum or platform to project itself. This shows the commitment and enthusiasm within the industry. However, it has not resulted in a maturing of the industry, as there is still too much infighting and conflict, too much scam and it has not resulted in better quality advertising.

Question 3

Has advertising in Sri Lanka seen an improvement in standards over the past 3years?

NO.

The owners of agencies are still running their businesses in all but a few cases. Until this changes and CEO’s of agencies are selected purely based on their capabilities the local ad industry will not mature. Further, I believe the industry must focus on education. Until they get this right, with a properly structured curriculum we will not create the right minds to think innovatively and strategically. These are the two reasons why Indian advertising is far superior to ours.

Rienzie Martinez , HSBC

 

Question 1

Do the results of the Chillies Ad awards help you in choosing the right agency partner?

No. It has not stimulated me to choose the ad agency

 

Question 2

Has the Chillies awards benefited the ad industry at all?

From the positive side of it – I think it has as it will help the industry to revisit their Marcom work annually. From the negative side of it – when the agencies trying to cheat and win awards, it hurts the agencies that are ethical and genuine.

Question 3

Has advertising in Sri Lanka seen an improvement in standards over the past 3years?

I have not seen much improvement when compared with the others in the south East Asia.

Both client and agency need to work together. Agency should be able to take bold decisions and take steps to persuade the client to support it. The industry must move in to performance based agency remuneration system.

 

Nextweek , the blog will feature key Ad-industry leaders….stay tuned….

 

On the eve of the Chillies 2009 we are finally releasing the presentation of the “The idea Vs the Marketing Man” which was jointly presented by Thayalan Bartlett -CEO of JWT Colombo and Ms Roshani Fernando- Vice President of Quantum Strategic Services at JWT’s Knowledge Series Forum on the 5th of November at the Galle Face Hotel to a gathering of 250 marketing, advertising and media personnel. Thayalan Bartlett believes that good advertising ideas transcend cultural and geographical boundaries and attempts to assess why Sri Lankan boundaries are harder to penetrate and identifies 4 critical barriers that marketers must overcome to connect with 21st century consumers .

1. Talking down to consumers
2. Consumer phobia
3. Category traps
4. Advertising realism.

The excercise was a bold initative never attempted before. To benefit from the entire presentation you are advised to follow the steps suggested by the blog crew.

Background: The local advertising industry has been showing little progress in recognising award winning ideas that contribute to building brands. Whilst marketers in Sri Lanka, appreciate the quality of ideas from international markets there is apprehension to implement similar ideas locally. This is largely led by the belief that Sri Lankan audiences are yet not ready or may not understand ideas that are “sophisticated”. Celebrated award winning creative ideas can really make brands prosper in markets and should not be disregarded as superfluous initiatives of award crazy agencies. To give authenticity to this belief we embarked on a project to research globally award wining ads with a cross section of consumers to find out who really was responsible in demarcating boundaries that prevent the conception of good advertising ideas – the marketer or the consumer?

The Objective: To determine the threshold of award winning international advertising ideas, its comprehension and relevance with local audiences with the hope that the findings will encourage marketers and advertising professionals to be bold in ideation.

The following adverts were incorporated into the research.

Motorola Video Messaging TVC

Yawn – It’s simple to communicate TVC

Shera Ceiling Sheet

Top Leaf

Life is shit without Music – MTV

The following are the PowerPoint slides , the transcript of the workshop and the summary of the presentation which includes the crux of this bold initiative by JWT and Quantum Strategic Services. Please download below:

Idea VS The Marketing Man Supporting Slide Presentation

Idea VS The Marketing Man Supporting Slide Presentation

Idea Vs The Marketing Man Transcript

We work closely with Mahela at JWT and we thought we should dedicate space and time to pay tribute to one of Sri Lanka’s top sporting personalities. This is perhaps one of the 1^st interviews with Mahela since he and his team underwent a traumatic experience in Pakistan this year.

 

 

1. Did you always know you wanted to be a cricketer when you grew up?

Well, my parents have some photographs of me when I was about a 1 ½ playing with a bat and a ball, so, I guess so. No seriously, I was always playing cricket even as a little kid with the neighbouring children. And then Nalanda had such excellent coaches and facilities that it really helped me focus and develop my talents. After that of course, there was no doubt, I had to play cricket!

2. If you had the choice of choosing another profession, what would that be?

I’m very fond of real estate, so I would probably have gone down that career path had it not been for the bat and ball.

3. What are your views about the current situation where people are being laid off due to the recession?

I think that should be the absolute last resort. I mean, these are the people who have done the work for you all this time, and they should be safeguarded as much as possible, instead of being laid off in bad times. Find ways to cost cut, cost manage, try and work something out so that everyone benefits and gets through it together. Sure, tough times means tough calls have to be made, but laying off people should be the very last resort.

4. You’ve had brilliant career and track record; you’ve been named Test Cricketer of the Year by the ICC in 2007 and 2008; why did you decide to take the plunge and step down

from Captaincy of the Sri Lankan National Team?

I really enjoyed leading the team, but after the 2007 World

Cup which was a really good tournament for us, I felt that I had faced my share of challenges. I also wanted to give my successor enough of time to settle in as Captain before the 2011 World Cup. There are no big tournaments around the corner; a couple of home series, the 20-20 World Cup, with the Pakistan and New Zealand team coming home for a series. And I also wanted to concentrate on my personal batting record, to enjoy the game a bit more without the pressure and responsibility of being the Captain. So all things considered, I thought this was the best time to step down.

5. Any regrets with stepping down?

Honestly, no. I personally believe that all seniors and juniors alike in the team need to be leaders themselves, and I always did my best to cultivate this attitude. So I firmly believe that the new Captain will have fresh ideas and a new perspective, but will lead the team in the same positive direction that it was headed. I will be supporting the Captain every step of the way, and I will definitely be there to coach and guide the younger guys, so, all in all, I have nothing to regret.

6. How did you handle the tremendous media pressure that was taking place during and before this period?

I’ve always enjoyed the media, because I welcome constructive criticism. I worked very closely and very transparently with my team, and encouraged their ideas, their suggestions, but finally, the decision was mine, and I really looked forward to the feedback as to whether it was the right decision or not.

7. Would you say you shared a close relationship with your team mates?

Definitely! I was very transparent and very involved with the guys, so they knew exactly what I was doing and what I planned to do. Everyone contributed with their own ideas and suggestions, and everyone’s voice was heard. I would gather all these thoughts, and then base my final decision on what I thought was in the best interests of everyone concerned, and the team followed it.

8. What would you consider to be a few key vital leadership characteristics?

I would say that communication is key. I communicated directly with every member of the team, and encouraged them to speak out. Secondly, I would say that rules, on equal grounds, are also very important. I mean, it doesn’t matter if he’s a senior player who’s got 15 years of international cricket under his belt, or if he’s a on his first day of training, a rule applied must be a rule obeyed. Of course, there come a time when you need to know to handle each individual player differently in certain situations, depending on his capacity and how they go about things… And thirdly, I would say that transparency is very important.

9. When the tough times get going, how do you keep yourself motivated, and in turn, how do you keep the morale of the team flying high?

Especially in the tough times, it’s very important that you focus and understand the situation you are in. And then, I would say, the secret to being on top of any tough situation, is to go back to the basics. Little things to energise, to revitalise, to help each other out add up to really big successes at the end of the day. It helps to tackle one thing at a time, to go through each process one step at a time, instead of focusing directly on the end result, which is, of course, to win.

10. With the knowledge that the Pakistan Tour would be your last as Captain, did you have any particular expectations?

I would say that the Pakistan Tour was important to the whole team! We had been very consistent in our performance on home ground, but had unfortunately not matched this performance away from home. We had had recent wins in New Zealand, England and for the 1^st time in history, we won a test match series in the West Indies, but we still that we could up our performance when it came to offshore matches. Unfortunately, we could not complete the 2^nd test match against Pakistan, but I have no regrets, as we all made it through with no severe damage or loss.

11. How are the boys after this ‘incident’?

The boys are good, they’re ok. Thilan left hospital two days ago; it will take a couple of months before he starts playing again, and the guy who got shot in the chest has started rehab and fitness training. Other than that, everyone else is gradually getting back on track; we haven’t forced anyone to train or to play, we’ve told them to come in when they’re comfortable and encouraged them to start training again at their own pace, next week’s 20-20 World Cup being the focus to take their mind off it.

12. That was definitely a traumatic experience for you and the team…

It’s certainly something I wouldn’t want anyone to go through, and it really puts a different spin on everything. Not just the tour, but your life and your loved ones’ lives… You look at the bigger picture and wonder, ‘Have I taken care of my family?’, ‘Have I secured their future?’ and it just changes your perspective on everything because it can happen to anyone at any time without any warning.

13. Would you and your team go back to Pakistan in the near future?

I guess when everything dies down, but no, not immediately.

14. What do you think of Sanga as the new Captain?

He most certainly was a brilliant deputy to me J and I know he’ll be a very good leader. He’s a great thinker of the game. Even as the Vice Captain, he was someone who didn’t agree with me for the sake of agreeing; he asked questions, questioned my decisions, put forward his thoughts and ideas, and then supported me 100%. So all in all, I think he has the qualities needed to be a really good leader. My role would be to give him the coaching and confidence he needs as a Captain.

15. What do you think are Sanga’s strong points?

He’s a very confident player as a batsman, and he’s a very hardworking player.

16. What would you say is the biggest challenge for Sanga as the Captain?

Well, as Captain of the National Team, you are bound to have to face a lot of pressure behind the scenes. Unfortunately (or fortunately), every leader has to go through this. I think that staying focused through all of it would be his biggest challenge.

17. If you were asked to name one promising, upcoming batsman to the team, who would that be?

Angelo Matthews. He’s got loads of talent for a youngster and a very good sense of work ethics, which is rare in today’s generation.

18. A bowler?

Suranga Lakmal from down south has very good prospects for the future. He’s got loads of talent as a fast bowler; it’s just that he needs to build himself up physically and stay fit.

 

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