Setting ground rules, and why South Africa needed to hit 22 runs off 1 delivery
1992. South Africa were playing their first ever World cup after years of being in the wilderness due to the apartheid system that was followed there.
For a country playing its first ever major tournament, they did exceedingly well. In the semi-finals, they faced off with England, the eventual runners -up.
England set a target of 252 (a sizable total before the T20 era). Towards the end, South Africa required 22 runs off 13 balls. Gettable but still a challenge. Rain intervened and the score was revised.
Whenever rain affects a match, the Duckworth Lewis method is employed to set a revised targets. The method isn’t without its flaws and numerous changes have been made to the rule over the years.
Yet, on this fateful day, the rule looked like it was misinterpreted by someone.
South Africa, who needed 22 runs of 13 deliveries, were told that they would require to score the same number of runs — in one delivery!
Everyone was shocked at the turn of events.
The logic for the revised score was this — South Africa didn’t bowl their overs in time and the people revising the score took this into account, resulting in their batting time being reduced.
By any stretch of imagination, it was a ludicrous calculation and it effectively ended South Africa’s inspiring campaign.
It was as if the ground rules were changed half way through a game and suddenly, only one side could win.
We find this ludicrous in a game, unfair even. But it underlines a very important point about setting the rules in the beginning.
Jason Fried, co-founder at Basecamp, says that the when you start a company, that’s the best time to set some basic ground rules. If you don’t set them at the start, it’s tough to suddenly change them at a later date. This doesn’t just hold good for starting a company. Changing a bad habit is infinitely harder than not starting a bad habit in the first place. The same holds for organisations trying to change sub-optimal cultures and people trying to eat healthier.
The term ‘Ground Rules’ has some weight to it. Terrible cultures, integrity and moral lapses have something to do with ground rules not being set in the beginning itself. This shouldn’t be confused with never iterating and improvising. If the basics are in place, improvising becomes easier.
The next time you start a new project, or are thinking of starting a company or are setting guard rails as a leader, set some ground rules in the beginning instead of leaving it for a later date.
