Cricket – one of the world's largest religions! A few decades ago, test cricket was the norm. Then along came ODI’s followed by T20. In a synopsis, while the sport is the same with a few changes in rules, the same game evolved to a shorter, more competitive, more impactful, more intense and result oriented experience. On a global scale, professional environments have evolved exactly in the same manner. Lives were once simpler with standard 9-5’s, more rounded work-life balance, less intense and less competitive as compared to life today. Back in the day, when it came to cricket, it was not simply a competitive sport, but it was also a “gentlemanly game” where even hitting defensive shots for 3 overs was respectable as long as the wicket was held. Similarly, jobs too were more secure in that era with simpler expectations and a slower pace. Today, however, things have changed drastically. And to be honest for cricket, it’s not just the game on the field but a multitude of factors that have enhanced the sport. The same may be applied in our professional lives as well so let’s take a look shall we?

Expectations

In a test match, in 20 overs, scoring 60 runs would still be acceptable. However, in T20, teams aim to score an average of 180 runs. A 3x increase! Similarly, as technology has helped us to support and automate our tasks, the number of tasks have increased as well. Expectations of deliverables with regard to timelines too have changed over the years. Now while we can’t quantify it to 3x compared to before, it is significantly fast paced and a “more output in less time” standard we follow today. Our “normal” similar to cricket has changed.

Role Specialization & Tactical Adaptation

For cricket, a team usually had “good bowlers” and “good batsmen” back in the day. But today, there are specifics defining players in more detail, and impacting how and when they’re used, such as - death-over bowlers, powerplay openers, pinch hitters and even impact substitutes. Similarly, in our workplaces, HR is not just HR anymore – we have Talent Acquisition, Payroll Specialist, HR Compliance Manager, L&D Manager, People Experience Manager and many more specialized roles. The same applies to ALL departments across industries if we compare 2025 to 1980 (for example).
There has been and will continue to be an evolution in roles. It is exceptionally important for us to understand the specific nature of evolving roles so that our organizations can yield finer results through this process. Exactly as T20 gets us quicker and higher results through role specialization and tactical adaptation, our companies can benefit from the exact same methods.

Analysis to Enhance

Metrics have always been important to both cricket and companies. For companies, traditionally, budget achievement, deal closure, and profit % were key metrics before. However, now, ranging from the traditional budget achievement, deal closure and profit %, other metrics like cost of customer acquisition, customer lifetime value, company valuation, time to hire, attrition rate, retention rate, target achievements, training hours completed and many many more have become important. Cricket too follows the same rules. Once restricted to strike rate, wickets, runs/over, no of catches, no of wickets, now it has expanded to include metrics such as Powerplay vs death over strike rate, dot ball %, match impact index, wickets per phase, fielding efficiency rating and a few more. This showcases, tracking and analyzing such data genuinely enhances performances, permits growth and efficiency. If used correctly, it helps create a seamless system benefitting organizations significantly.

Selection & Strategy

Cricketers were selected and strategized based on experience, gut feel and a player’s reputation. The same applied for companies hiring too – through CV’s, references and a simple interview. The world has changed, and this unfortunately doesn’t match up with all the evolving criteria above be it expectations, role specialization, tactical adaptation and an analysis to enhance. Today CV’s look and sound amazing but do candidates always match up to that? Organization’s require specific traits, skills and abilities in candidates but do they include that in their selection process? Do organizations always include metrics when promoting people who can help enhance, evolve and make the organization more efficient?
Unfortunately, most do not. While cricket uses key metrics to include players in a team, promote players to captain, change the position of players to bat or bowl within the lineup and match up ideal players for the ideal team, organizations in a larger sense have left this key component out. Now yes, many organizations use psychometric tests as part of their method to find appropriate candidates however, knowing a person and how they behave doesn’t change whether they can get the job done or not – does it? The key metrics here are to assess candidates with respect to the job role specifications – be it for hiring, promotions or even department transfers. It makes it so much simpler to know if they can get the job done and if they’re the right fit.

Practic-Alt’s Experience

We have worked with organizations across industries over a multitude of roles to help organizations hire the right fit and here are a few observations for your reference:

1. Needle in a Haystack: Many a time, candidates who would never be considered due to their CV / past experience do showcase absolute ability to get the job done. These candidates, once hired, have changed the perspective of the organization of the nature of candidates they may now accept.
2. Years of Experience prioritization: A lot of applicants who may have been part of an industry or role with many many years of experience (in some cases 25+ years) have exceptional CV’s and past experience. However, when it comes to application of their skills and experience across situations they don’t always fit the exact bill of what the organization wanted. In many situations, younger candidates have outdone themselves by proving their ability and outshining more experienced candidates as well.
3. The Value of Degrees: With a significantly wider access to education, many people have great degrees and certification. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always add up to their abilities on ground. Now the intent here is not to say that college degrees hold no value. But colleges cannot guarantee that every candidate they offer is exceptional. Ultimately, it comes down to the willingness, adaptability and ability of the individual. So prioritizing a degree does not offer the weightage of value it once did. In our experience, we have seen candidates from small colleges many have never heard of showcase absolute brilliance and fit roles beautifully. Again, organizations too have been surprised by this.
4. A moment of silence for the CV: In an era with AI assisting many, ATS systems looking for keywords in a CV and everyone promoting their personal brand, CV’s no longer offer the same value they did a few decades ago. Many of them look great, but at the end of the day are they credible enough to support one’s true abilities for the role they applied for or even the roles they’ve worked at previously. In our experience, sometimes CV’s that don’t look or sound great have also showcased exceptional candidates. Many a time, CV reviews too take up most of the time for HR / Talent Acquisition teams however, if they aren’t yielding the right results, why are we sticking to that traditional method?

Conclusion

In today’s fast paced world we look at T20 for a quicker, more intense, more result oriented experience. Companies are on the same bandwagon when it comes to how they’d like to operate. So if cricket has evolved for better results through T20, why are companies still playing a test match?