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Enjoy playing the game

Cognizant has always had a very good football team but over the past couple of years we have had mixed results. Last year in particular was a disaster, in spite of fielding a good team we had to bow out of the Corporate Olympiad in the 2nd round. Apart from that, silverware seemed to have dried out…last year.


This time around we were determined to win corporate tournaments. Thanks to Manish (Captain) for the patience he had shown in bringing up this cohesive unit. Every week end practice and open tournaments helped our team a long way and Manish was instrumental in bringing this change.
The team was no longer a gathering of individuals on the D-day, instead a squad that stood for each other on and off the field. In spite of the hectic office schedule, the team made it a point to play together on weekends and team discussions/feedbacks happened over emails during the week days.

The preparation for the Corporate Olympiad started well in advance. We had practice matches with Anna university football team and Loyola Football team before the Corporate Olympiad.
The Anna university match was hard fought match with some of our key players missing out on injury and project deliverables. It was a great opportunity for us to test our bench strength. We fared well but some of the mistakes towards the end of the game cost us dear with a 2-1 score line in spite of having an upper hand for major part of the game.

Learning’s of the game followed, various points on the strategy, improving fitness and regular attendance for practice were discussed. Sudhir Rao a veteran of Cognizant football team and inspiration to many, had his valuable points as well. Obviously he has given a lot of thought on the team and its erratic performance.
He summed up his feedback on the game we played…

“Guys…you have to enjoy playing the game than anything else”
…it actually rang a bell. We were focusing so much on winning that we seem to get bogged down by our own small mistakes, Sudhir seem to have understood that each of us are thrusting unwanted pressure and “enjoy playing the game” made sense to all of us.

The feedback paid rich dividends…the second practice match was with Loyola football team. For people who are not aware of Loyola football team, they are one among the best in college football across the state. Guess what, it was a tiring match but our team ended up beating Loyola football team.

The new found confidence was all that we want for the Corporate Olympiad. On the way to the finals we beat CSC, Lanson Toyota, L&T, Foxconn and Finals against archrivals TCS.


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