COMMENT – I am a firm believer that leadership is all about being prepared and knowing your personnel well. I also believe that no sport depends as heavily on its captain as cricket does. Soccer, basketball and hockey are all about the coach, but in cricket, the captain is the man in the hot seat.
Recently, a lot of importance has been given to the coach, but practically speaking the decisions have to be made on the field by the man who is in charge there. You can analyse long and hard, but it’s the on-spot decisions that a captain necessarily has to take that make or break a cricket match.
Therefore, a captain needs to plan, choose his team and ready himself thoroughly before a tournament. When one is prepared, all moves that work look smart and audacious and some look instinctive. But be assured, most innovations and changes are well thought out moves. Since the captain is the most crucial cog in the wheel, it’s also important for him to lead by example. When a captain is in good form, he feels good about himself and that makes him more attacking and audacious in his strategy.
The other side of the coin is that when a captain is off the boil performance-wise, he tends to be conservative and defensive in his game plan. In 1992, I was a 39-year-old part-time cricketer who was well past his prime as a bowler. However, I knew I would be captain for the World Cup and started planning a year in advance. Since the tournament was in Australia and New Zealand, I knew that I needed batsmen who could play pace and bowlers who possessed pace and movement.
In April 1991, I saw a Inzamam ul-Haq at the nets against Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, who were at their peak. He faced them with ease and it struck me that he had an incredible amount of time to play his shots. I immediately earmarked him for my World Cup squad. I also liked the look of Saeed Anwar and Aamer Sohail and felt these youngsters would give our team a good chance when we went for the tournament. Personally, I always felt better when I was in good form on the field. However, I knew I was not spring chicken at 39, so I trained like never before and was formidably fit by the time the World Cup came around.
However, you can plan and plan, but a couple of things will go bust and that’s exactly what happened. Injuries claimed our fastest bowler Waqar and our promising opener Anwar. I too sustained a shoulder injury just before the tournament, so all my training went to naught. Because I had strategised and planned, and because I knew my team so well, we managed to make the semi-finals. I could speak to them, inspire them and make them keep believing even when we were at the threshold of elimination. I was experienced and prepared for this role.
Looking across the teams, there are a quite a few captains who have led their team with conviction and success. There is Andrew Strauss who strikes me as a player’s captain. He works hard, gives his 100 per cent and has total commitment He has really helped English cricket take mammoth strides, and the team looks self-assured and brimming with confidence. A strong England team is good for cricket because most teams consider them the arch-rival. Strauss has helped transform England into a mighty arch rival!
Defending captain Ricky Ponting is experienced, and you must write off an experienced captain at your own peril. He has won everything, including the World Cup which he has won thrice (twice as captain). The only major problem is has been battling poor form for more than a year.
Like I said earlier, poor form makes it hard for a captain to demand performances from his team, he gets defensive and goes into a shell. The bowling that Australia have at their disposal is also not of the calibre they had in the last three World Cups.
Shahid Afridi is a flamboyant leader, energetic on the field and a gifted bowler. We will never know why Afridi was not named captain earlier, but that inexplicable delay is symptomatic of the decay and chaos in the cricket administration. Afridi would have been a more assured captain if he were more consistent with the bat. As things are, he has the ability to lead the side, but since he does not have the Test captaincy, his ability to handle pressure and establish will be somewhat compromised.
I believe it’s necessary to captain in Tests to be able to absorb pressure and lead well in other forms of the game. It’s the Test match with its intense pressure that really challenges a captain’s mental strength and ability to stay calm. This is why I put MS Dhoni ahead of the rest. He has courage and that courage has often been reflected in tight Test match situations. He was excellent in South Africa last month and he has led his team with distinction against most top Test-playing countries.
This has helped him in ODIs and T20s. Dhoni has the ability to raise his game when the team is in crisis and can also remain calm even when the pressure of a match situation plus the expectations of a billion people would have tested lesser mortals. The tournament is more even than the last few, and much of the action will be from the quarter-finals. I remember Pakistan losing a quarter-final in 1996 even though they had a top team. Upsets will happen and that’s a given when there are two knock-out stages in a tournament.
However, it would have to be said that co-hosts India and Sri Lanka start as favourites. They have been consistent recently and possess a lot of depth and experience in their sides. The only spoiler for the favourites would be the knock-out stage where one good knock or one bad day will be all that it takes for a team to be eliminated.
