It seems dead men are rising from graves in the ongoing World Cup in India. Fakhar Zaman of Pakistan and Glen Maxwell of Australia have suddenly come in form, and are mesmerising the cricket fans with their powerful strokes. The cricket experts are saying that they have come in the right zone, both mentally and physically, which has helped them in transforming their bad form into match winning innings.

Any and everything is right and wrong in the game of cricket, and those who adore this Gentlemen’s Game thoroughly believe in the resurrection of their heroes. Terry Orlick who has worked for several decades with thousands of Olympic and professional athletes, astronauts, top classical musicians, trial lawyers, business executives and others engaged in high stress careers unveils the game of zone in his famous book “Embracing Your Potential”.

In today’s article I will briefly explain for the readers the secret of Zone described by Orlick who is considered an authority in the business of sports psychology. According to Orlick, life consists of two zones, the green zone and the gold zone. The gold zone is our life at work and in performance domains, whereas the green zone is the rest of life.

The secret to excelling in the green and gold zones of life is to free our mind, body, and spirit to enter the right zone at the right time. Gold without green doesn’t let us reach our full human potential, thus we need both.

Orlick explains that his vision of two zones surfaced during a meeting with Cynthia Johnston, a member of 1996 USA Olympic basketball team. He said that his discussion with Cynthia was mostly centered on how important it was to be mentally and physically tough to rise to the challenges of the highest level in international sports.

According to Orlick, when we are totally connected to what we are doing and are performing to our capacity in the gold zone, we enter a free flowing state and become inseparable from our performance. In the same way, when we are truly living in the green zone, we also enter a free flowing state that captures us and at the same time frees us. In the gold, we are free to excel in our performance, whereas in green, we are freed to excel at living the rest of our life.

The green zone beckons us to mellow out and unwind, to become more gentle, relaxed and playful. And this joyful time in the green zone helps us excel in the gold zone by ensuring that we are well rested, well-nourished spiritually and emotionally, and well prepared mentally and physically.

When players enter the gold zone, they must leave behind whatever concerns they may have. In the gold zone we cannot dwell on doubts or anything negative. To excel in the gold zone, we must let those doubts go and embrace our golden focus, which rivets us totally to what we are engaged in and nothing else. The key that opens the door to great performances is freeing the mind and body to enter the gold zone and stay there for the whole performance for every performing second.

By now you must have understood the undercurrents of Fakhar’s recent peak performance after a dismal start in the ongoing world cup, and why I and a few other sports analysts wanted to give him the necessary break after repeated failures. It was only this break that gave him necessary time to regroup mentally and physically to reenter the golden focus which was obligatory for Fakhar to regain his lost confidence.

Many sportsmen begin their careers believing that the harder they work, the better they will be. This holds true to some extent. But working so long and hard that you don’t have time to recover physically or emotionally can work against you. This is what was happening with Fakhar and this is what is happening to ace fast bowlers Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf.

The two fast bowlers also need a break. Bowling so long that you don’t have time to recover physically or emotionally can work against you. Over time, your performance may decline rather than improve, which makes you over think that you need to work even harder, and that’s exactly what is happening with the two quickies of Pakistan.

Remember, great performance requires quality rest. Jasprit Bumrah of India is a classic example in this regard. Though he was forced out of the team due to injury, his good rehabilitation and rest proved a blessing in disguise for him, and the same is going to be the case with Naseem Shah.

If you feel extremely fatigued in the morning before you get out of bed and continue to feel tired during the day, your body needs rest more than anything else. Pushing yourself is required at times, but ongoing fatigued conditions are not physiologically or psychologically sound and increase the risk of illness or injury, as we are observing right now, in the case of Haris Rauf.

Individualised plans to engage in high quality work and high quality rest can prevent overload, illness, and injury. Always listen to your body and feelings. Otherwise, you will pay heavily for it in your sports career.

You must have listened to many elite cricketers narrating their stories of inability to relax or sleep before a tough competition, especially against India. Rarely do sportsmen relax completely in a high pressure competition against archrivals. Sportsmen always feel a rush of adrenaline before an important event. This rush can be of value so long as it is focused in the right direction and you let it work for you. An adrenaline rush will not affect your performance negatively if you keep focusing on the step immediately in front of you. The challenge is not to get rid of the butterflies in your belly, but to get them to fly in a formation. The butterflies leave on their own as soon as you begin to use the second great quality, absorption.

Shift your focus away from worries and focus fully on your performance. When you are totally connected with an experience or completely riveted to your task, everything flies in formation and you get in the right green and gold zones.

My last words are for Babar Azam who is performing below his great potential against the spinners. Remember that any player irrespective of his level can lose his focus, but your capacity to perform well does not disappear suddenly. It remains with you. Performing well even occasionally means that you have the ability to do it again. You have already done so, and you can take your performance to another level.

A golfer once told me, “You are only as good as your worst shot”. I responded, “No, on the contrary, you are only as good as your best shot and probably a lot better”. As soon as you begin to believe that, you make a lot better shots. This perspective can put your focus, your confidence, and your performance on a more positive track.

Confidence affects your performance because it affects your focus. Confidence, composure, and consistency are all dependent upon your focus. You acquire confidence when you focus on learning and growing from each of your experiences and enjoy the little steps along the way.

My suggestion to Babar is to focus on his game and performance. He should stop competing with Virat Kohli or any other great of the game. His competition is with his own self. His confidence will grow the moment he starts drawing positive lessons from his best experiences and stop worrying about captaincy issues which is not his ball game.

Remember that excellence comes to those players who commit themselves to go after their dreams, fine tune their focus, and strengthen their mental game. Great performers embrace the power of their minds because they have discovered that doing so is the only way to get where they want to go.

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