On captaincy and it's effects

[The Outsider]

Coming from a test cricket lover this might and will sound hypocritical but a T20 match offers the best battles of captains available in modern cricket. To declare at 450 or 500 is the dilemma the modern test captain comes across at which point he resigns himself to the performance of his bowlers - the occasional filed tweak is still required of the skip. To charge on at 250-6 off 40 overs is the dilemma an ODI captain comes along - to push for 320 or settle for 300. But T20 is a format where the captain is still only contributing the 5% that Chappell asserts and I agree with - but the vital, crucial, match deciding 5%. Batsmen, bowlers, fielders do the job more often than not over the brief period. The question comes down to whether they did good enough or not? Chasing 200 off 20 overs there is no chance in hell on these wickets but a good captain will make a fist out of 150! The fact that RR have yet to lose a close match in their history demonstrates the importance of a captain - a bloke who can throw up the ball to one of the greatest ODI players in history and challenge him to score 7 off 6. A bloke out of the slumdogs of UP dismisses India's most successful captain with 2 off 2. Warne does not even ponder that it was a fluke and hands him the ball with one of the flakiest field settings seen in a last over - the guy got hammeremd for 3 Fours but the match was still open and won yet again by the Rajasthan Royals. The spirit in this side is never going to die- the captaincy of Warne has pulled them through those crucial moments time and again. Warne is the Godfather of the RRs!! Lose or win, no one can match the out of the box thinking, innovativeness, and design of this team. Good Luck!

[King]

More than anything Warne trusts his instinct and picks the local cricketers that show promise to do the job for him. Warne choose Kamran Khan to bowl in the super overs rather than bowl himself. He also choose Yousuf and Ravindra Jadeja to bat rather than pull out some reputed international players in the ranks. The amount of faith he has on these youngsters does spur the mortals to live up to expectations and raise their game. Contrast that with KKR, it was Gayle and McCullum that opened the batting and Mendis that bowled. Looking back it's possible someone like Ishant could have been used but again there is more trust in the overseas players than the locals. I think the choice was just right but Warne's choice was even better. Warne trusts his players and that is key.

[flamy]

I was gonna start the same topic but got distracted by my schoolwork :D Seriously, ever since the T20 WC, I'm suddenly seeing captaincy in a whole new light! First Dhoni and now Warne.

[sandeep]

Warne had Yusuf bowl the 1st and 3rd overs today - knowing that KKR wont want to take too many risks chasing a smallish total, he used up 2 of his part-timer overs and in field-restrictions! You gotta give the man credit, he is a really good on-field captain.

[flamy]

Warne had Yusuf bowl the 1st and 3rd overs today - knowing that KKR wont want to take too many risks chasing a smallish total' date='[b'] he used up 2 of his part-timer overs and in field-restrictions! You gotta give the man credit, he is a really good on-field captain.

:hatsoff:

[f.b.m]

Excellent post. Captaincy and most importantly leadership (which isnt the same thing) play a massive role in 20/20. To defent 150 using a wide array of unorthodox tactics was just stunning and that was one of the few 20/20's that I geniunely enjoyed watching. That being said though, it took a very, very special captain for that sort of enjoyment. A Ricky Ponting or Mahela Jayawardane could have hardly pulled that off. And I disagree about the 2020 offering the best contests between captains. In other formats of the game, we dont really have such great captains. All the test captains these days are the same-samey kind. Dhoni gave the initial impression that he was something different but after watching the 3rd test against NZ, I'm somewhat skeptical. Test matches and ODIs could have been so much more exciting if we had great captains like Warne. There was something amazing about seeing New Zealand play test matches under Fleming (who was tactically, the best captain of the decade) when he'd pull out tricks like these.

[bunny]

Warne made some crucial mistakes in the Super over...He is no god of captaincy but he surely might have god's blessings with him. That said, he is still better than KP, Mccullum, Sehwag and the likes.

[bharat297]

The key to captaincy is trust in your players and more importantly for those players to feel as if their captain trusts them. Look at Dhoni during the T20 world cup. He had a group of youngsters under him, and a few somewhat experienced players. Yet even in tight situations, he trusted his players to do the job. Look at Warne is doing the same with the Royals.

[Cricketics]

This format has taken the captaincy role to a totally different level. Martin Crowe's max cricket excogitation broken down into 20 over per side game, where the leader would be tested right awa, is seriously a drama at its best. and btw someone mentioned about Yusuf Pathan being bowled first up. It was New Zeland, who used to do this consistently. They had this Deepak Patel, who used to bowl spin for them regularly and open the bowling for them.

[Don Sharma]

Dion Nash was one player who comes to mind. He too like S Warne was unlucky when it comes to captaincy. There was a game during the '99 series, second match, I guess Fleming was injured and Nash captained the side against us. Even though they lost, the way they he defended was really good. I think if he had overcome his injuries he wud have even replaced Fleming in the due course of time.