I have noted that there is a general tendency in India & Pakistan(More so in India) to appoint the best player in the team as the captain. It is only after he fails that the 2nd best guy is chosen..and if he fails too…the 3rd best..so on and so forth.
I feel that having great ability as a bowler/batsman does not necessarily mean that a player is captaincy material.
In Australia/England/South Africa, you have players like Mark Taylor/Artherton/Hansie Cronje who were chosen captains even though they were not among the top 3-4 performers in the side.Yet the teams performed admirably under their captaincy. The selectors in these countries seem to also take factors into account like temperament,leadership qualities, mental toughness, ability to analyse,plan and communicate and to keep the team together under all circumstances. I specifically remember the case of Hansie Cronje. Even when he had just burst into the International scene, South African media was already gung-ho about he being “captaincy material”. There was something about the man !! Steve Waugh also seems to have all the right abilities for a captain while West Indian Brian Lara never had the temperament to be a great captain though he may be a great batsman .
In India, there have been captains like Kapil Dev, Dilip Vengsarkar, Azharuddin and Tendulkar solely because they were the best “untried” player in the team at the time of their appointment.
Only when these guys failed was the next best player considered.One reason why Ganguly is the captain today and Dravid will possibly be the captain tomorrow.(P.S: I attribute India’s successes at home under Azharuddin to non-captaincy related factors). Kapil Dev, as far as I am considered never had a sharp mind to plan,analyse or anticipate or a great talent in communication even though India won a world cup under him.
Sunil Gavaskar was a rarity in that he was not just the best player in the team in his prime but also a very astute captain. Ravi Shastri would have made a great captain but never got a extended chance because he wasn’t exactly a top performer in the side.
Now coming to Pakistan… let us see .. Akram’s inability to keep the team together is almost “legendary” but he still kept the job for a long time because he was (and probably is) Pakistan’s best man.Waqar who initially got the job because he was 2nd most potent player in Pakistan’s armoury proves to be no great captain either. Today barring possibly Moin(who hasn’t been tested long enough), there is hardly anyone in the Pakistan team who can be said to have captaincy traits including Saeed Anwar and silent performers like Youhana.
(I am not taking into account offbeat or “political” appointments like Rashid Latif).
Let me see what you think…
[This message has been edited by chilli (edited May 24, 2001).]
maybe because captain should lead by example. steve waugh does.
there are captains who were taken solely for captaincy skill (brearly comes to mind)
take example of SRT. his cricketing intelligence is undoubted. despite having no natural skills for bowling, he has taken 98 ODI wickets. But he failed miserably as captain.
i think azhar was a good captain. people thought he was dumb because of way he talked. if team loses he will say that it is because others played positive cricket and if india wins it would be because india played positive cricket. later he became corrupt but that is another matter.
In my opinion, Kardar was the best Pakistani captain that we've ever had. Though different from Imran in many ways, he was of a cool temperament who commanded the utmost respect from his players.
Under him, such greats as Hanif Mohammed and Fazal Mahmood played with a "fight till the end" attitude.
Pakistan sure needs such individuals again if we ever hope to climb back out of the pit that we are in.
**
The best in the bunch is supposed to be the leader. That's a rule of thumb in every walk of life. But the authenticity of this rule is debateable. I'm of the view that this can not be made a law that always the best one should lead the team. It varies situation to situation and person to person. Take Tendular as example, despite being a great player, he not only contributed to his own undoing, he also let the team down. Being best player is one thing and best leader is another. We can see examples where these two qualities meet, but it is not necessary. As far as Paksitan is concerned, I don't think that Waqar is the best player in the team, or the best leader - for that matter!
**
[This message has been edited by Amal (edited May 25, 2001).]
Well captaincy is more about politics than about the ability to lead (except for Aus., SA, Eng, NZ)
.. I was surprised that Tandu failed he has a great cricketing brain much better than ganugly.. too much pressure perhaps … I don’t find anything wrong with Kapil’s captaincy .. he was an aggressive player with a good insight and knowledge of the game…Waqar is captain out of necessity… Akram was great captain too had he not fixed and rigged matches he would have been one of the best … it’s a combination of things that come into play .. Miandad was probably the best cricketing brain in Pakistan but he was effective at all… politics, respect, ego, nepotism, english-speaking ability, media personality things like that count more than the skill itself.. prime example being Naser Hussian .. a mediocre player with a right background and personality… in current circuit of players Lara was the worst … he wanted the captaincy purely out of greed and ego… and Pollock is probably the best skipper around a great consistent crickter who knows how to utilize his players
Hey one more thing
These things are hard to explain
For some it seems strange... to swallow
The frontier of our minds
Is the last place we find
But maybe the first place we should go
In my opinion it is due to the psyche of our nations ( both India n Pak).
Hum loog shakhsiat parast hain. We make people as gods.
If u make some ordinary player who himself is not a top performer then the top batsman or bowler feels himself superior to the captain n does not follow his decisions.
So the captain is not at ease when he is not performing well.
On the other hand if the captain is a good player but not have enough power then he does not gain respect from teammates.
We r a danda ruled nation in general n this follows in cricket too.
There has been a tendency to that but i don't neccasirily agree with u on all points.
Pakistan has had captains that were not the best players examples are Rashid Latif, Aamir Sohail, Saeed Anwar, Moin Khan and now when Waqar is captain to be honest he is not the best man in the team.
Wasim has been the only captain of Pakistan after Imran Khan who produced good results. Had team politics and other things stayed away and he had been captain regularly i have no doubt our's would have been a side to beat at present but als he is a wasted captain.