Captaincy: Boon or Bane?

[Ram]

In the last 24 hours, we have seen TWO international captains step down from their positions. Generally, when captains resign, it is mostly because of prolonged poor performance by the team, the consequent criticism and mounting scrutiny and the usual media glare that follows it. But, last three instances of captains stepping down ( If you include Rahul Dravid) had a different yet common thread running between them. All of them openly admitted to their personal performances being negatively affected by the trials and tribulations that come along with the job. These are excerpts from Collingwood's press statement; "I've found the extra workload to be very difficult," said Collingwood. "I feel the captaincy diminished my ability to perform for England across all forms of the game." "I've made the decision to step down as England's one-day captain as I want to give myself the best chance to perform for England and enjoy my cricket," said Collingwood, who returned to the Test side with a fine century in the defeat at Edgbaston. "Whilst I am humbled to have been given the opportunity to captain England's one-day side, I feel the England captaincy impacted on my ability to enjoy my cricket and contribute to the team. "The last thing I want is for the captaincy to impact my performance and that of the teams which is why I've arrived at this decision after a huge amount of consideration" As far as Vaughan was concerned, he looked a totally defeated and deflated man. His voice was characterized by such a lack of strength, that you feared he may totally collapse, or break down, or do both, at any moment. But, he kept repeating, atleast a dozen times during his press conference that he is hoping that he can now start contributing more to the team, now that the responsibility is no longer there. Cricket is probably one of the toughest sports to be a captain because, unlike other sports like Football, a cricket captain is so much in control, there is so much for him to do. Which brings us to the obvious question; Is captaining your cricket team really an honor that shouldnt be allowed to pass by, or is it a mentally stressful exercise that isnt worth plunging into?

[fineleg]

Which brings us to the obvious question; Is captaining your cricket team really an honor that shouldnt be allowed to pass by, or is it a mentally stressful exercise that isnt worth plunging into?

It is an honor. It is stressful also, so not everyone probably can handle it adroitly. Hence the search in many teams for the captaincy material.

[punjabi_khota]

Why have we seen such a long stream of successful Australian captains ? Is it just because they have such talent and it makes captaining easier ? Or is it because they have a policy of choosing the best player as the captain, always (barring Warne). ? Border/Taylor/Waugh/Ponting, each have had long and satisfying tenures, with probably Clarke being next in line. We haven't gone anywhere with that policy in recent times, since the best captain we had in recent times was Ganguly, and he was never the best player in the team(atleast test matches, though it probably helped that Dravid wasn't a surety in ODIs for sometime). Sachin and Dravid though, who could claim to be best players at different times, were more or less mediocre, to put it mildly. Maybe it tells us Dhoni should be next, and not Sehwag ?

[Predator_05]

Aussies have such a good team that it doesn't really make much of a differnece. It's just a meaningless tag. Like Geoffrey Boycott said recently, even his mum could captain Australia. Honestly, you don't even have to manage players like Warne and McGrath, or batsmen like Hayden and Gilchrist. Just give them the ball or the bat and they will do their thing.

[Ram]

Aussies have such a good team that it doesn't really make much of a differnece. It's just a meaningless tag. Like Geoffrey Boycott said recently' date=' even his mum could captain Australia. Honestly, you don't even have to manage players like Warne and McGrath, or batsmen like Hayden and Gilchrist. Just give them the ball or the bat and they will do their thing.[/quote'] Mark Taylor? He once went 24 test innings without a test 50. Sure, he didnt have Gilchrist or Hayden, but his team was still quite successful.

[Dravid]

same had happened to sachin... these poms making KP their captain now...they will ruin their 1 good player,lol

[Ram]

Graeme Smith averages 55 as non-captain and 48 as captain.

[SachDan]

Predator makes a valid point about the Australian captains who don't have to think much about their team members as most of them can be trusted to deliver the goods more often than not.Thats not the case with any other team playing test cricket.Making their best player as the captain always backfired.Be it Viv,Sach or Lara.None of them had a successful stint just coz of the team they had on their hand.To be precise their team members were not of the quality they desired them to be.