Mahela Jayawardene reveals why Mumbai Indians have a high success rate in the IPL

Mahela Jayawardene was one of the pillars of Sri Lankan cricket over the 2000s until his retirement in 2015. There is no doubt that he always had natural instincts of being a leader. He led Sri Lankan during a tough phase. Under his leadership, the team thrived and had a great success rate.

His transition from being a player to coach has been also very smooth. Ahead of the 2017 IPL season, Jayawardene was appointed as the head coach of Mumbai Indians. Since his arrival, the Rohit Sharma-led franchise has won two IPL trophies, in 2017 and 2019.

In three years, Mumbai has been a strong side and have been on top of their game. In a recent interview, the former Sri Lankan batsman revealed the secret of the success of the franchise.

Mahela Jayawardene points out an advantage that Mumbai Indians has

Jayawardene said that Mumbai Indians’ tries their best to involved every player in the processes. He pointed out that the franchise has a lot of players who are experienced. The 42-year-old said that it is always good for the captain to get more ideas from the team. This is exactly what the franchise encourages its players to do, but the captain is the one who takes the final call.

“We try to make everybody involved in the processes. The thing with Mumbai is that a lot of guys have a lot of experience. There are very few young guys – about three or four – but those guys also have played a lot of first-class cricket and are mature players.”

“So you try and encourage everyone to contribute. It’s always good for the captain to get ideas, and at the end of the day it’s he who has to make the call, but the more ideas he gets (from others), it influences his thought process,” Jayawardene said during an interview with ESPNCricinfo.

Talking about having big ego players in the side, Mahela said that it is important to treat everyone with respect. He said it is important to build a good team culture in order to succeed.

“It’s about treating everyone professionally, and about treating everyone with respect. It is a team culture that you create. Once you create that culture, it’s hard for an individual to go beyond that”, Jayawardene added.