They may hardly be undergraduates, leave alone being graduates, they could well provide today's managers a lesson or two in management, said Ahmedabad-based management guru Shailesh Thaker in his latest case study.  

Thaker has drawn about 20-odd parallels between cricket and management where he points out that though most cricketers have any formal training in management they apply all the rules of management to the game.

"Most sportsmen have not undergone any management training or been a member of any top-level management associations. Most of them are under-graduates, who have never been part of universities. More surprisingly, they have never undergone any Intelligence Quotient test. Yet they demonstrate a high level of refined intelligence and knowledge. If we try to understand these things intensively, we will find that they demonstrate the lessons of management and manifest every aspect of management principles," said Thaker in his study, excerpts of which have been posted on his personal blog.

Thaker has listed out certain management skills that these cricketers exhibit efficiently. "Some of the vital principals on which we find cricketers exhibiting their management skills efficiently could be planning and strategy meetings, skill-sharpening activities, placing the right man for the right job, appreciation and motivation, time management and decision making," he added.

Talking about each of these points, Thaker added that cricketers are wise enough to incorporate management principals without formal training. 

"For instance, a player's strengths and weaknesses are identified and dealt with accordingly.  There will be different kinds of treatment for different people. This is something that is sometimes absent even in company boardrooms," he said.