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The complicated General Tendulkar vs 'Keep it simple' Cpt. Dhoni


Temujin Khaghan

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Before Sachin was handed captaincy for the first time more than a decade back, a lot was expected from the master-blaster who was hailed and heaped praises from the all-time legends of the game like Bradman, Sobers, Gavaskar and Richards. People thought he would be a revolution in leading the Indian side what after the insipid leadership of Azharuddin and the WC96 debacle. First he won a few matches at home and then the struggle started. Struggled to score runs, win matches and even maintain a basic fitness level for an international player. The BCCI soon relieved him from captaincy. But the reason why Sachin failed as a captain remained as a mystery to the aam-aadmi. He readlily shows up for last over conferences, advices in crunch situations, orders to even senior bowlers like Kumble... but when it is his turn to deliver as a leader, the man who understands the game much better than retired veterans - fails. Whats the reason Sachin fails? Does he over-complicate stuff with his incredible knowledge and bring about his downfall. A fine example would be not filling up Pollock's over quota in one of the previous matches they lost. I know that its a hell a lot easier for someone like me to find 10 minutes to go typing reasons why Sachin is failing as a captain. Maybe if some of our young IPL tyros, Dhoni and Sachin write written exam on 'Captaincy - A classical approach A101', then the results would read like this Sehwag - Fail Yuvraj - Fail Dhoni - Passed with grace marks Sachin - Gold medal But for the practical exam on Captaincy which is to be played on the field, Sehwag - Distinction Yuvraj - Outstanding Sachin - just pass Dhoni - Topper! This post hasn't been written off in a ruthless fashion after Sachin failed to win a couple of matches or anything like that. Sachin, at times over complicates things. Simply put, Sachin relies on - a huge database of knowledge accumulated over years, pitch conditions, weather reports, player's past performances, permutations and combinations, rocket science, quantun physics and a talent of decision making which is anything but highly abstruse and painfully far-fetched. Dhoni relies on - common sense, intuition, instinct. Dhoni isn't a master-tactician like Steve Waugh either, but to do the stuff he does with our team, its really great. Infact, whats so great about Ponting, even Dhoni can win every match... provided you give him Hayden and Hussey ;)

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Giving valuable advice on the field and being responsible for them are two different things. When you are responsible for the entire team, it takes a toll on you mentally. There is a huge difference between Sachin given captaincy and anyone else given captaincy...say a Dhoni or a Ganguly. In case of Dhoni, peoples reaction was not of the greatest expectations. Dhoni came in at a bad time and we were ready for a few failures from Dhoni because we accepted Dhoni is a mortal with limited expertise. Same was the case with dada. However, in case of Tendulkar, the world expected him to pull off miracles from him the moment he became captain. He was aware of these expectations and hence the burden on him was much bigger than one can even imagine. But when he realized that he was not doing justice to either roles: captain's and batsman's, he decided to quit.

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You are relying on too many assumptions in this post. All thinking cricketers are going to have similar knowledge. It's whether you can tap into that and utilize that knowledge at the right time is what captaincy is about. Also good back-room planning is a must, that's what Australians (and Cronje-led SA) excel in. They might not be innovative at the spur of the moment, but they sure come up with new plans outside of the cricket field.

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Good post TK. SRT as captain is a bowler's nightmare. He simply has to relax and let his bowlers do their thing and not clutter their minds after every single ball. As you said, he overcomplicates things whereas people like MSD keep things simple, tidy and uncluttered. SRT can write a brilliant book about captaincy but is hardly the epitome of a good captain. That and having a $hitty team around him and matchfixers didn't help his tenure either.

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Good post TK. SRT as captain is a bowler's nightmare. He simply has to relax and let his bowlers do their thing and not clutter their minds after every single ball. As you said' date=' he overcomplicates things whereas people like MSD keep things simple, tidy and uncluttered. SRT can write a brilliant book about captaincy but is hardly the epitome of a good captain. That and having a team around him and matchfixers didn't help his tenure either.[/quote']
Before Sachin was handed captaincy for the first time more than a decade back, a lot was expected from the master-blaster who was hailed and heaped praises from the all-time legends of the game like Bradman, Sobers, Gavaskar and Richards. People thought he would be a revolution in leading the Indian side what after the insipid leadership of Azharuddin and the WC96 debacle. First he won a few matches at home and then the struggle started. Sachin relies on - a huge database of knowledge accumulated over years, pitch conditions, weather reports, player's past performances, permutations and combinations, rocket science, quantun physics and a talent of decision making which is anything but highly abstruse and painfully far-fetched. Dhoni relies on - common sense, intuition, instinct.
I think these days experience and big name has nothing to do with captaincy. Anyone who give result is a hit with all his instinct and common sense irrespective of the fact that he is a consistent performer or not, also whether he can get best out of the team given to him or adjusted of him :P
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I sort of agree with you. I was reading the CI commentary yesterday,and almost every 2-3 balls, he went and spoke to the bowler. Ian Chappell a while ago had said that Sachin micromanages everything. He expects everyone to show the same sort of perfection he maintains in his practice sessions, etc. I am not so sure if that works or not. He might be a good captain but I don't think he can man manage very well, to be honest.

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