Indian players perform ‘Drum Circle’ to focus on team bonding
Indian players perform ‘Drum Circle’ to focus on team bonding

It’s certainly a refreshing change. New coach Anil Kumble has brought some unique methods in preparations of the Indian team as everybody present in the Bangalore conditioning camp had a unique team bonding session with famous actor-musician Vasundhara Das’ group ‘Drumjam’.

It happens to be the first time the Indian cricketers’ are going through this amazing team bonding exercise. The senior players along with Virat Kohli, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and the ‘A’ team players like Varun Aaron enjoyed a jam session, where they were all photographed playing drums with Vasundhara and her musical group.

BCCI also released a picture of the Indian team members in the middle of a musical session with Vasundhara, who has also acted in critically acclaimed films like Hey Ram (with Kamal Hassan) and Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding.

What the Indian team did is generally termed as ‘Drum Circle’. It’s an activity where “a group of people seated in a circle, plays drums together”.

‘Drum Circle’ is considered to be a rhythm based activity, which is a “great way to communicate, team building, transcending barriers, improves group communication and harmony, a sense of belonging, stress-relief, discovering creativity, energising participants, improving focus”.

The initiative seemed to be an extension of the various team building activities which Kumble has introduced, including the interesting ‘Buddy Project’, where players are split into groups of two with a senior player explaining his experiences in the challenging world of international cricket to a junior player.

It was the 2001 series against Australia, when then Indian coach John Wright decided to assign a partner to each and every member of the squad, pairing a batsman with a bowler. One such unique relationship was VVS Laxman becoming Zaheer Khan’s unofficial batting coach. The system even carried on well beyond Wright’s departure. It now looks Kumble has incorporated something similar, usually pairing a batsman with a bowler or an allrounder: like Shikhar Dhawan with Mohammed Shami, or Virat Kohli with Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

The primary object for this buddy system is to help the players communicate better with teammates, and share their thoughts without any hesitation.

In the coming days when the Test squad will feature some uncertain inexperienced youngsters and an over the top skipper like Virat Kohli, Anil Kumble looks to be the balm which will soothe the nerves as he from the very first day is trying to focus on the bonding between the team members.