We want Ganguly! I do, anyway.
Okay, Indian cricket is one subject about which I get very romantic. Predictably, this post is about the captaincy issue. I was not shocked yesterday to find out that Rahul Dravid had stepped down as captain. Hey, it’s his decision. He wants to concentrate on his batting. I’ll respect that. Besides, I was never a huge fan of Dravid’s captaincy. The guy is a glorious batsman and an excellent overall cricketer. I’m a great fan of his batting. But he never had his own brand of captaincy.
I read here, and couldn’t agree more, that Dravid was more of an exemplar than a motivator. IMO, that’s a very good observation. A captain has got to be a great motivator. Like Sourav Ganguly. Even if you are out of form, you’ve got to be cheery and able to motivate your team to do well.
I gather from the news channels, who in turn claim to have gathered from “reliable sources”, that Sachin Tendulkar is going to be the next captain. Tendulkar is probably the greatest soul to have walked a cricket field in living memory. But again, he hasn’t proved to be a great captain.
About Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The guy is one of the most effective batsmen in the game today. And from what we saw in this match, he is a potentially good captain. The way he marshalled his team in that match was quite impressive. Particularly, his obvious emphasis in the nets that the team be prepared for a bowl-out was superb. How else do you explain Robin Uthappa coming out to bowl? Apparently, they had a sound plan for a bowl-out scenario.
Still, the romantic in me says, the next captain’s got to be Sourav Ganguly. With Dhoni as his deputy. Call me crazy if you like. Ganguly’s fire-power brand of captaincy was always something that calmed the nerves in the dressing room. His natural instinct is to attack. And apparently, he is also immensely capable of making a strong comeback from hopeless situations. So why not give him a chance again? That will also give the selectors good time to groom Dhoni into better captain-material than he already is.
I cant believe there’s even a debate going on about who should take over – DUH! obviously the man who changed the face of Indian cricket, who was kicked out and who fought his way back.
Pri
September 16, 2007 at 12:57 pm
I think that Kumble has to be given the captaincy for the test team. There can’t be many more committed players on the field who is as fierce as they come. He has proved as a very successful leader for his state team having led them to the Ranaji trophy. The advantage of making a bowler a captain would be that the media can’t complain of his batting not being up to the mark
.
Venkatesh
September 16, 2007 at 8:52 pm