How Dinesh Karthik and Sunil Chettri are busting ageism

When India played its debut T20 international in 2006, Dinesh Karthik was in the game and he does look ahead to the game in 2022. When Sunil Chettri kicked off an international soccer career in 2005, nobody could possibly imagine such heroic continuity till the 2023 AFC Cup.

Both are actually fine poster boys for the anti-ageism brigade, fervently proving that 'Youngness' has nothing to do with youth. Simply put, 'Youngness' is a hybrid state of body and mind, where fitness combines effortlessly with ingenuity to make the biological clock null and void. Here experience becomes an uncanny point of difference, the induction of wisdom making unique acumen a piercing missile. The tipping point surely has been the new-found ' Yo Yo' culture, with even the finest skill rendered redundant in the absence of table-stake athleticism.

But then, my observations are more to do with the world at large and not just the limited ambit of sport. In professions and vocations, across global locations, we are obsessed with thrusting the lesser in age with the largest of responsibilities. Every HR person will confess, sotto voice at least, that the CEO mandate is veering relentlessly towards the early forties, and this pattern extends organically to entire leadership suites. Most notably, such thinking is pampered by the tech geek stories, freckled dropouts in boxer shorts conjuring obscene evaluations.

Although, upon application of simple, scalable logic, this argument does seem to capsize and the icebergs are many. Just like sportspeople, even corporate players are way fitter than ever before, courtesy the evolution of wellness, a penchant for fashion, and a greater appetite for life. Indians, for instance, enjoy an average tenure expectancy close to seventy, while galloping affluence and healthcare promise to escalate this further. The fifty-plus age cohort is the newfound darling of marketers and second innings careerists now forge a burgeoning community.

Now, quickly filter the above truths with an annoying reality, the performance paranoia of the corporate sector, provoked by trigger-happy investors and itchy stock markets. Sustainability is the much-desired prognosis and there is increasing concern that the Young Turks are insufficient on this unglamorous parameter.

A supplementary demographic reality confirms the heart disease epidemic amongst super-stressed early-age superstars, not yet blessed with the maturity to balance the essentials of life. Further, and most vitally, it is rather silly to deny any universe the fullest expertise of experience, by operating on some flaky ill-gotten ideology.

Now, not for a moment am I suggesting a comeback to the age of mindless seniority, where only those in their late fifties are eligible for the ultimate positions, however shortlived. The suggestion, most succinctly, is to usher the era of 'Youngness' in every arena of productivity - whether corporate, administrative, or entrepreneurial.

A demography agnostic evaluation format which places contemporary calibre as the foremost manna, outsmarting perceived longevity or superficial street smartness. Quite naturally, like sporting disciplines, integrated fitness and ethical soundness must be foregone necessities, what matters subsequently is magical merit.

India today is lucky to possess a unique demographic cocktail, which we are currently treating as an insipid mocktail, sans the persuasive juices. For many decades we were obsessed with age as ability and now quite suddenly, there is a fluid role reversal, neither extreme being worthy of endorsement. What we need to introduce and implement is a genuine culture of merit, where the only redeemable virtue is a state of art mind in a time-defying body, the latter increasingly a routine and not an exceptional occurrence.

On Karthik and Chettri, it can well be argued that they are well ahead on the most competitive parameters, enriching their teams with a compelling psycho-demographic mix. There is an ageless lesson out there for all of us and some disruptive thinking is surely overdue, in boardrooms and every other room.