Submitted By: FA18-BBA-046

Ahmad Ali

Subject: Leadership and Ethics

Submitted To: Dr. Abdul Sattar Abbasi

Date: 07-06-22
Q. Students will have to find a profile of an unconventional leader (not Presiden Alvi,
Prime Minister NS or Imran, or Bill Gates) from a magazine, newspaper, or online source
(having characteristics of courage, integrity, stewardship, humility and care for others)
and be prepared to share in class:

· How did he or she become a leader?

· Which of the approaches students have studied so far (traits, skills, styles, situational)
best explains this leader’s influence?

· Did the student gain any new insights into leadership? Is there a takeaway lesson for the
class?

Ans. Babar Azam

Pakistan cricket has a strong history and it produced phenomenal cricketers like Imran
Khan, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Javed Miandad. All of them were leaders in
their own leagues. This legacy has moved on and on and now the holder of this legacy is
Babar Azam.
How did he become a leader?
He is currently captain of all three formats of Pakistan Cricket team and no.1 ODI
batsman. He has been a youth icon for this generation as he worked hard to achieve this
position. Babar Azam was born on 15th of October 1994. He started practicing cricket at
the age of 9. He was a ball picker in 2005 in the series of Pakistan and South Africa.
Later in 2009 he made his U-19 debut of Pakistan. In 2012 he was made captain of U-19
cricket team. His captaincy skills showed his leadership skills during that tournament. In
2015 he made his ODI debut for Pakistan against Zimbabwe and scored 50. In 2017 he
stormed up in top 10 ODI batsmen and later in 2017 he became No.1 T20 batsman and
remained till the end of 2019 and now he is current captain of Pakistan Cricket Team. In
2019, after removing Sarfaraz Ahmad from captaincy, PCB decided to hand over the
captaincy to the number one T20 batsman Babar Azam, which seemed as the best option
for leading the team. The cricketing journey of Babar Azam shows how he adopted the
ability of leadership and how he became the captain and no.1 batsman in the world from
a scratch.
Courage: Babar Azam’s aggressive mindset shows the courage he has in his heart
towards the game. Due to his courage Babar is the world’s number one batsman. The way
he and his team defeated India in WT20 for the first time shows how mentally strong he
is, that no other captain in the history of Pakistan was able to defeat India in a world cup
stage.
Stewardship: Babar knows that he has a big responsibility to look after the team. He has
granted permission to every single member of the team to play according to their own
game and the way they suit themselves fit. He provides a friendly environment to the
team.
Integrity: Babar Azam is man of principals and morals. The best display of his integrity
was when Babar stood against the spot fixing and he was reluctant to bring the players
who were involved in spot fixing in past. Although PCB enforced him to include a player
and he was oppressed to do so.
Humility: Babar is a person who is down to earth. He never considers himself to be at
the high end. Every day, he tries to be a better batsman and captain. Recently, in a match
against West Indies Babar Azam was awarded with the man of the match award for his
century but he denied to take the award and gave it to Khushdil Shah for finishing the
match.
Care for others: Secondly Babar Azam is an example of a person in team who is there to
enlighten the experience of the youngster. In recent interview of Qasim Akram who is
captain of Pakistan U-19 cricket team said that “I idolize Babar Azam as a batter. He is
an articulate batter and I want to be the next Babar Azam of this world. It was an
unforgettable experience for me to have such a great mind around in PSL LIKE him
(BABAR). I have learnt from him how to build an innings, play cover-drives and
improve pull-shots. Babar has performed wherever he has played and I regularly follow
his batting skills. So, I feel fortunate enough to share the dressing room with him. As a
world number-one batter, he has set such high standards in Pakistan cricket that I would
like to meet.” - (PCB YouTube Channel)

Note: (Captaincy is another term used for leadership in cricket)

Leadership approaches that explain the leader: The leadership personality of Babar
has been a mixture of trait theory, style approach and skills theory. Leadership
personality of Babar Azam has the partial traits of all these approaches. Let us discuss
these traits in detail. The main and common trait from the style approach that can be seen
in the leadership personality of Babar Azam is the concern for people. We can clearly see
that Babar cares and concerns for his teammates. He pays attention towards each and
every member of the team. Although sometimes he prefers favoritism which can be
considered as a negative impact. Overall, he is perfect as a leader who utilizes style
approach. When it comes to trait theory of leadership, Babar does possess the abilities
including self-confidence, determination and integrity. In the past few years, Babar has
displayed his self-confidence as a player that he can improve day by day. His
development as a batsman and a captain is a clear sign of self-confidence. Another ability
that Babar owns is the ability to stay determined towards a goal. Back in 2012 he
dreamed to be the number one batsman in the world. And now in 2022 he is the number
one batsman in T20Is and ODIs. His next target is to be number one in tests as well
which shows how determined he is towards the game. Integrity is another factor that lies
within the personality of Babar Azam. He clearly states that no one is able to achieve the
cricketing skills at their fullest until he stays honest towards his game. After trait theory
of leadership, now comes the trait of skills theory that is motivation which Babar Azam
possesses. As a captain and a leader, one must have the ability to motivate his teammates
so that the team members do perform at their full potential. The glimpse of motivating his
team was seen in Babar Azam when Australia eliminated Pakistan from the World T20
2021. The team members were broken internally due to thrashing defeat but Babar kept
his team together by motivating them. Everyone knew that Hassan Ali and Shaheen Shah
Afridi were the main culprits behind Pakistan’s loss but Babar forbade everyone to point
out the names and blame each other for the defeat. He motivated everyone to come out of
the shock and start working hard for the next world cup.
According to me these were few traits from the approaches of leadership that Babar
Azam owns.
Gaining new insights for the students: Now when it comes to gaining new insights
from this personality, then the answer is a big “Yes”, as Babar Azam is a big inspiration
for many young leaders who are ready to lead their teams in future.
References:

I want to bat like Babar Azam and prolong career like Hafeez and Shoaib : Qasim
Akram- (2022) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRIfTRq1f3k