Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag was in London last week watching West Ham hold Manchester City to a 1-1 draw at the London Stadium. At first glance, an IPL captain attending a Premier League game seems like nothing more than a holiday. But Parag was not there just to watch football. He came there to learn.

This was perhaps an odd choice for the game. West Ham are in the midst of a relegation battle with just 29 points from 30 games, with every match now carrying the weight of the result. When City took the lead through Bernardo Silva, the 60,000 Hammers fans did not panic.

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Four minutes later, Bowen turned a corner, a moment of chaos ensued in the box and Mavropanos headed home.

West Ham secured a point against one of Europe’s finest teams by refusing to concede defeat until the final minute in a resilient defensive display. The draw not only helped them gain a point against the City team but more importantly kept them alive in the Premier League, their battle to last at least another week.

By Parag’s own account, the stadium was deafening from start to finish, with every tackle and clearance demanding effort and delivering it in equal measure. And while watching from the stand something clicked.

Pollen’s West Ham parallel

During his visit to London, the newly appointed Rajasthan Royals captain sat with West Ham skipper Jarrod Bowen. The conversation went somewhere most pre-arranged interviews don’t, moving away from rehearsed answers to something more honest, more difficult to articulate.

The Indian batsman, who is an avid fan of the Premier League, asked him the question he really came to ask: how do you keep the dressing room alive when the season is already gone? How will you care about the players when the points table has already moved up without them?

Parag knew what it felt like to see a season slip through one’s fingers. Rajasthan’s stand-in captain last season, Parag faced a tough campaign, with his team losing close games on several occasions, often finding ways to miss out at crucial moments.

And in the IPL, when you lose that many games, it’s hard to bounce back, and even harder to avoid quietly losing confidence.

“Last year we were ninth,” Parag said. “How do you motivate your players to come out and perform every time, knowing that you will not win the trophy, knowing that you will not qualify, but still go out there and put on a show for all those who have paid their hard-earned money?”

In a select media interaction organized by the English Premier League, Parag revealed that Bowen apparently had the answers.

“The way he has handled himself, the way he has given messages and motivation to his team, without being arrogant, without coming in the wrong direction, it is something that I can learn from,” Parag said. “I’m really glad I had this conversation. If we’re ever in a similar situation in the IPL, this year, next year, whenever, it’s going to be really helpful.”

It’s one thing to ask those questions in a room. Then it’s another thing to go out and see a team live out those principles in real time.

A franchise is still waiting

To understand why it resonated so deeply, you need to understand what the pollen is doing.

Rajasthan Royals won the first IPL title in 2008. The so-called misfit team led by the late great Shane Warne defeated Chennai Super Kings in what remains one of the great underdog stories in the history of the tournament. No one saw this coming. Rather this was the point.

Eighteen years later, many superstars later, they’re still chasing that feeling, still looking for a season where everything aligns the way it once did.

Over the past decade, a young Sanju Samson raised hopes for the franchise, and became the face of the club during seasons that promised a lot and delivered very little, often carrying the weight of expectations through inconsistency. But Samson has now moved on and with him a certain era has also gone.

The reins have been handed over to Parag, who has been at the club since 2019, and he has been promoted to a position where he is expected to take the franchise into a new phase, not just as a player. It is a loaded legacy.

Two clubs, one story

West Ham is a club that has an equally complex relationship with its history. A cult following, never a champion of England, and yet a consistent producer of world-class talent. Frank Lampard, Declan Rice and Michael Carrick all came through East London. The pedigree is real, but the trophy cabinet tells a different story.

This season, they find themselves languishing in the Championship, with relegation a real possibility, with every game now a lead that goes beyond points. Parag saw something of Rajasthan in all this.

“I didn’t see a single supporter who was a fan of Haaland or Doku or Foden,” he said. “Everyone wanted West Ham to win.” For a young captain who is about to lead a franchise still in search of its second title, that kind of unconditional support was something that lingers long after the final whistle.

the lesson he’s taking home

The trip to England means that, beyond Bowen, Parag also came away with two other reference points for the upcoming season, small but important pieces in shaping the kind of leader he wants to be.

Bruno Fernandes has remained steadfast at Manchester United through managerial changes and a difficult campaign, continuing to demand standards regardless of the circumstances. And Haaland, for his brutal efficiency every time he gets the chance, has the ability to reduce the chaos of the game to moments that can be decided in an instant. “Those three attributes will help me in my season this year,” Pollen said.

The broader point is simple. Parag went to London not as a tourist, but as a student of leadership, willing to keep his eyes and ears open, willing to learn what was put before him.

He saw the side threatened with relegation keep their composure against the best. He sat there as a captain holding things together, anchoring a season that could have easily gone away.

As Rajasthan’s quest for the title begins, Parag hopes that, like Bowen and West Ham, he can provide that glimmer of hope where no one expects it, and more importantly, his lessons will matter when they are tested most.

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