The Indian Cricket Portfolio

The 2^nd year MBA is application of knowledge gained so far and I thought it’s time to take this fact more seriously. So I decided to ‘apply’ the finance knowledge to Indian cricket team. The conclusion is that cricketers do resemble to various financial products. Here are the details of Indian Test team:

Virender Sehwag: He is our classic bull run. No one can beat him in that. No one has time to think what is happening before the index (score) doubles, triples and so on. For bowlers though, it’s a big crash!

Gautam Gambhir: He is a convertible bond of the team. We need his ‘capital’ in opening of innings. Once innings is stable, he can convert himself from steady bond into a dividend-paying stock.

Rahul Dravid: The Wall is like a protective put on Wall Street. Limits the downside risk, but also decreases the upside potential. The Wall seems to be built by quality cement – cannot be brought down by opponents; but then cannot be brought down by owners as well!

Sachin Tendulkar: The Master Blaster is a guaranteed continuous risk free arbitrage. He makes the team a market maker by setting the terms – big time opportunity for any business. Sachin is perhaps the only player who continues to create risk-free arbitrage even if the market is efficient. Who wants to lunch with Warren Buffet when Sachin is still there!

VVS Laxman: The Sultan resembles an investment in sovereign bonds – stable and almost risk free. Good to have in the portfolio.

Yuvraj Singh: He is the growth stock of team India. Full of excitement when flourishing.

MS Dhoni: The Captain Courageous is the revolving line of credit for team India. Always needed to pull the situation out of crisis. So long as he is there, the team can safely stay away from bankruptcy and even hope for a turnaround!

Harbhajan Singh: Bhajji is like an investment in gold. In India, it is a very valuable commodity; full of ‘sentiments’ and gives good returns. Even the ‘volatile’ nature is under control. But on foreign soils it’s just another commodity with average returns!

Zaheer Khan: Zaheer is a value stock. Essential to have in a portfolio with long term view.

Ishant Sharma: The pacer resembles a high-beta stock. Very volatile with both high downside risk and high upside potential. Hmm…the good thing is that beta always tends towards unity in the long run.

Ashish Nehra: The born-again bowler looks like a long in-the-money put. Limits downside and keeps upside potential unchanged. We should hope he does not become out-of-money! The premium paid will go waste.

Now the next idea is to ask Harvard Business School to make a case study out of this to act as the ‘basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation’. Isn't it high time to make sense out of HBS case studies!