Then Again...
In my last post I vehemently defended Ganguly and made some rather big claims, however this post is from the head, not the heart.
Perhaps like any great warrior, there is a time when the old must be shunted away and the new given their chance. Ganguly hasn't been the greatest player in the team in a while, he has a lot of biases and this is perhaps the reason why a crappy player (Yuvraj Singh) still has a chance when a far better player (Kaif) doesn't get as many. Perhaps the reason why Tendulkar is shunted to patrolling the boundaries, why Kumble (by far India's finest bowler ever) has to duel with Harbhajan Singh to get a place in the team.
What Wright left dormant for his 4 years on the job, Chappell let erupt in 4 months. Perhaps its a good thing aswell. The system can be cleansed and India can go and play with a new vigour. Dravid has been deputy for a while now and his fleeting marriage with Captaincy (which usually ends in a quick painless divorce) has been uninspiring to say the least. While he is a great batsman, he isn't the best captain going around.
I still firmly believe that Sachin Tendulkar was the best captain India never had. He was put into captaincy at a period when it was the most difficult. He had no great players, had no support and his own batting was letting him down. There is still a chance that his batting may let him down if he is captain again, but he is far more inspired, hungry, clever and cunning than Dravid will ever be.
Amongst "The Big Three", there is one man who has been overlooked time and again, and perhaps he even more so than Tendulkar was the best captain India never had: Anil Kumble. A fierce competitor, a brilliant tactitian, a determined warrior and a talented individual. He is also experienced enough to lead the Indian team to great things - it will never happen due to IP (no not Internet Protocol, Indian Politics). He could have been the one - he should have been the one.
Perhaps now it is too late for Kumble, so instead of trying an ageing man like Dravid or Tendulkar, they could hand the reins over to someone like Laxman or perhaps if the BCCI was daring enough - to someone like Kaif. See what happened to South Africa when they handed the captaincy to a young guy - a bit unconventional yet successful tactics.
Ganguly may have to go (perhaps not yet in the Test side) but if India wants to do well at the 2007 World Cup, they need someone or something more than Rahul Dravid. Dravid is the backbone of the team, if his batting collapses (due to captaincy or otherwise), you can kiss our chances goodbye.
A wash out is needed, its happening, it's just that the detergent applied should be worth it. Why waste another man's batting potential when we already got Ganguly who isn't scoring all that well (although it's not THAT bad). Dravid, Tendulkar, Kumble, Laxman, Kaif, all good at what they can do, but thats not the point. Are they good enough to do what Ganguly has done?
This entry was posted by Blogpur, on
Friday, October 14, 2005.
You can leave your response.
9:11 AM
I still firmly believe that Sachin Tendulkar was the best captain India never had. He was put into captaincy at a period when it was the most difficult. He had no great players, had no support and his own batting was letting him down. There is still a chance that his batting may let him down if he is captain again, but he is far more inspired, hungry, clever and cunning than Dravid will ever be.
A captain for a country like INDIA requires more than cricketing brain and strategies. He needs skills from outside the cricketing world, he has to tackle politicians, media, player attitudes and most important of all 'man management'. These all were skills from kingdom 'FAR FAR AWAY'to tendulkar. Any captain appointed newly is given same authority, it is about how well u use the authority. Ganguly possesed more of these skills than on the field skills. This is the reason he was and will ever be the best captain for INDIA for a long time to come.
10:40 AM
Jay
A great, another Ganguly fan like me! You have a good point about Tendulkar which I overlooked to a reasonable degree. I think the same problem is there with Dravid, he can't handle the media with that much power and I doubt he can use the authority well.
If not Ganguly (who is my first choice without a doubt) who would you recomend for captaincy?
11:06 AM
I feel that after the World cup, only Harbhajan and Yuvraj was comfortable playing under Ganguly. He failed to win the confidence from other members.So there is no point in having a person who didn't win the confidence of his own team members.This was the same case with Tendulkar.He failed to motivate the team,no one felt that,it is a pride to play under Tendulkar.Though Dravid might not be as agressive as Ganguly still i feel he might take the team a step further than it is now.
7:48 AM
Cipher,
I would not completely agreee with your statement. My theory would be that Ganguly dug his own grave, he did not work on his weakness. NO NO NO NO .... I am not talking about the short ball ....but something else that was off the cricketing field. Great leaders start with arrogance and command, but once they emerge as a leader-manager, they camouflauge with the situations and become more like oil on water. Steve Waugh, Pataudi...all started with arrogance but later they knew how to be with the flow. But these are some examples....take any leader for example not alone in cricket, and study their careers....the flow is the same. Ganguly started out good, but his changing curve has been slow. This cost him his position. People just got fed up.
The 'MEN IN BLUE' so existed an INDIAN team in 2001-2004. This team had a leader-manager, not a captain (which INDIA has had many in the past), this was a 'TEAM' and not 'A group consisting star players', this was a team which had a group hug in the field, this was a team that had a bowling captain and fielding captain, this was a team that chased any totals, this was a team in which players sacrificed their strengths to others for team needs, this was a team when the players felt they can do what they think to make the team win.
This induced changes off the field, changes in BCCI policies towards players- Contract system, selection system etc.....
All these changed with the involvement the ass politicians......fights in board elections..stupid politicians taking election results in to the field.
etc ...etc....etc.....
Ganguly bought in the confidence in the team for the players. Here are a list of players who made debuts under tendukar...
L.Shukla, A. Khurasiya, S.Ramesh, N.Chopra, G.Khoda, H.Kanitker, R.Sangvi, R.Singh, N.David, Kuruvilla, Mohanty, Harvinder, BKV Prasad, N.Kulkarni, A.Kapoor, DJ.Johnson, S.Somasunder, D.Gandhi, S.Karim......a few I remember
What is the probablity that atleast one player did not succeed in this......I leave this to argue futher
Finally here we are......debating ......Oops....I argued too much....
To end he is my quote : Srinath mentioned in his cricinfo article 'WE DID NOT PLAY CRICKET UNDER GANGULY, WE PLAYED WITH HIM'
Cheers and All the best to Indian team for the future
9:31 AM
Jay
You have demonstrated your extensive knowledge of cricket! I was thinking perhaps if there are more people like you visiting this blog it would be worth having cricket quizzes?
Any comments, feedback?
12:52 PM
Thanks and by the way....Mohd Kaif would be my choice....