So Who Should Lead

[apocalypse]

Laxman is even doubtful for Test Squad. If you are saying about 12th Man as a captain then it is a different thing

[living]

Why did RD quit captaincy? I forget ....

[Chandan]

Why did RD quit captaincy? I forget ....

..to concentrate on his batting or that is what he said. BTW, here is what Harsha Bhogle has to say about this captaincy conundrum: The winning captain Harsha Bhogle Cricket coaches aren’t exactly knocking on the door of Indian cricket, and captains are moving away like vegetarians might from a steak house. There has to be a problem even if we are shy of acknowledging it. You must pick captains and coaches from as wide a pool as possible, not from among those that are left. After all, this is meant to be a post of honour. We are not asking people to be Benazir Bhutto’s bodyguards. So are we going to ask people to put their hands up or are we going to yank someone’s hand up and say “there, you!” Asking Sachin Tendulkar to be captain was a mistake and while he has taken the right decision, we now need to find someone else. And unlike finding a coach where meetings, decisions and right choices can be delayed till the glaciers move another couple of inches or till the Left finds the next reason to hold the government to ransom, a captain has to be found soon enough. Very little has changed since the day Mahendra Singh Dhoni was appointed the captain of the one-day team. It was clear as daylight that day that the next captain of the test team could only come from a shortlist of three: Dhoni himself and the two seniors who weren’t playing one-day cricket: V.V.S. Laxman and Anil Kumble. Each of those three has much to offer and that would have been a good debate in itself. Dhoni, the brave and impressive generation next man; Kumble, tough as nails with a very clear vision of what aggressive is as opposed to what it is made to look like; and Laxman, a thoughtful, intelligent man who reads the game and people well. But the issue with the captaincy is deeper than merely giving a man a title. India’s captain is often out on a limb, alone, and having to fight elements in the administration to take an inch forward. Rahul Dravid spoke of the pressures that come with it and nobody had five minutes to read and understand why he was saying it. Now Tendulkar has said no, and that has merely given some in the media another opportunity to package fiction as news. Meanwhile, I haven’t heard anything about the BCCI holding a meeting to find out why people are not enamoured of their top jobs! The BCCI should be up on its toes, worried and galvanised for their image is taking another battering. That Tendulkar was asked and declined should have been an internal matter but information in Indian cricket is as guarded as water in a shower is. Every day selectors and other “insiders” tell the media what is happening. It requires five phone calls, one to each selector, to find out who is leaking what. Thereafter it requires one letter to say their services are no longer needed. But Indian cricket has a strange relationship with the media. People complain about it one moment and provide it with fodder the next. And so, the media has a field day, speculating with no restraint, rushing to the studio, or into print, with the speed and desperation of someone having a bad stomach. The media must analyse, the media must inform but the media must, at all times, be truthful. It is not a burden but a wonderful responsibility to carry. But there is an epidemic around town and its virus is feasting on truth. The captains won’t tell you that but having motives assigned to you that you didn’t know of can tire and disillusion people; scrutiny is not bad but fiction is. In recent times Sachin Tendulkar, we have been told, has written to the BCCI about not accepting the captaincy and has spoken about being unhappy with the way the seniors have been treated. He didn’t say that but for all of India to be told that he did can be stressful. And how about this line from a young reporter about Dhoni’s decision to bat at number four. “Could it be that he did so deliberately in order to delay Dravid’s return?” Should Dhoni contradict such nonsense, such immaturity, and spend the rest of his captaincy contradicting things? Or should he let falsehood roam merrily in his kingdom? Captains, you might say, must take this in their stride. There is a familiar, but poor, argument that I often hear. If they are willing to take praise for anything they must take this kind of criticism too. But two wrongs don’t make a right, especially if neither is true! You and I wouldn’t take it, so why should they? Captains and leaders have to be sensitive and caring; they must have conviction but being thick-skinned cannot be the prime qualification. So who should India’s next captain be? I believe it rests on the answer to one question. Are we confident about Dhoni’s cricket in Australia? If the selectors are, the meeting should get over before tea is asked for. If however they believe that he is still on the learning curve, like he so obviously was in the first few weeks in England, then they need to look at the only other names in the hat. If it comes to that, Anil Kumble will be a fine choice. He is a dignified man, his credentials are outstanding and his own cricket is aggressive. For some reasons bowlers are rarely considered on the premise that they might either underbowl or overbowl themselves. But bowlers are clever men, they know when it is not working for them and when it is; and unlike fast bowlers who need to graze awhile at long leg to gather their energy, spinners have no such concerns. Laxman, like Kumble, is a man of great integrity. A very gifted player who, you sense, is allowing petty arrows flung at him to bother him, this will be the recognition and the encouragement he needs. Like Kumble, he will not let India down and will consider it an honour. The BCCI could do with that kind of news once in a while.

[beetle]

good one from harsha....