by dechuck » Thu, 24 Jan 2008 11:12:06
Any thoughts?
by JPD » Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:05:06
Actually, Border's attitude pre-Simpson was not all that different
from Ian Chappell, hitherto regarded as one of our greatest captains.
Chappelli would lead with his own performance, and would expect the
other 10 members of the side to maximise their own performances in
turn - after all, they had been selected, so they must be good enough
and any coaching should have been done three levels down when they
were learning the game.
Richie Benaud, indisputably a great captain, would lead by example but
would also drive through the team his idea of the way to play. He is
credited with reinvigorating the Sheffield Shield competition as
captain of NSW in the 50s, bringing a play-to-win attitude and
spreading it around. It certainly wasn't coaches or ex-players who
did the job for him and it wasn't necessarily his team setting the
agenda for him, either. (The likes of Keith Miller and Brian Booth
might have helped his cause, though).
But when we look at the last 20 years, roughly speaking, the level of
professionalism in the game has increased in strides. Media, sponsors
and supporters are no longer staisfied with a team which goes onto the
field to just go through the motions and let the game happen - they
require all of the players to be personalities, they require
consistent action and evidence of a "game plan", and they require more
than one source for post-game comments in order to maximise reporting
copy. To achieve all of these things, the entourage of a national
team has grown at least as large as the team itself, and the XI
players at the centre cannot help but absorb the attitudes, ideas and
morale of the support crew. Pre-match practice drills are no longer
led by either the captain or by a single coach, but by a staff of
specialists.
Nevertheless, even with all this support and influence, the captain
still has a vital role to play when it is just the XI on the field.
If the captain fields poorly, or overbowls himself when he is
ineffective, or fails to deal with the necessity of changing the field
placements, then the whole side will feel this drop in performance and
will match it. Consider also how much more effective is a team when
there is one undisputed leader out there, rather than a gaggle of
voices - I see it every week in club cricket, that teams in the field
with four or five guys barking orders are much less effective than
teams being led by one voice.
Finally, it is tricky to make a judgement on this with such a small
sample - eight or nine international cricket teams. Some teams with
batting captains - Australia, England, South Africa, West Indies - are
certainly inlfuenced by the success of that guy with a bat in his
hand, although failure by Ponting or Smith does not necessarily lead
to a batting collapse as we have seen. Sri Lanka are strongly in the
grip of Murali's success or otherwise, but he is not the captain. New
Zealand lean heavily on Vettori's bowling but they don't win games
unless the seven guys batting ahead of him score plenty of runs. We
can't actually see and hear what goes on in the dressing rooms, but if
we are just watching captains' performances on the field then there
seems to be little correlation between personal success and team
success. If the captain is driving and influencing the success or
otherwise of the team, then it must be in ways that are not easily
seen by the public and which are not as basic as mere runs and
wickets, and that makes the OP's question one that might not be
answerable.
--
JPD
by dechuck » Thu, 24 Jan 2008 15:31:49
> The days of the captain being the sole driver of team ethos and
> performance disappeared, from an Australian point of view, in 1987
> when Bob Simpson was appointed to have his hand up Border's back - and
> a good thing that it happened, too, because Captain Grumpy had only
> one plan prior to the 1987 World Cup and that was to lead with his bat
> and *** all the rest of you useless shower if you can't be as good
> me.
> Actually, Border's attitude pre-Simpson was not all that different
> from Ian Chappell, hitherto regarded as one of our greatest captains.
> Chappelli would lead with his own performance, and would expect the
> other 10 members of the side to maximise their own performances in
> turn - after all, they had been selected, so they must be good enough
> and any coaching should have been done three levels down when they
> were learning the game.
> Richie Benaud, indisputably a great captain, would lead by example but
> would also drive through the team his idea of the way to play. He is
> credited with reinvigorating the Sheffield Shield competition as
> captain of NSW in the 50s, bringing a play-to-win attitude and
> spreading it around. It certainly wasn't coaches or ex-players who
> did the job for him and it wasn't necessarily his team setting the
> agenda for him, either. (The likes of Keith Miller and Brian Booth
> might have helped his cause, though).
> But when we look at the last 20 years, roughly speaking, the level of
> professionalism in the game has increased in strides. Media, sponsors
> and supporters are no longer staisfied with a team which goes onto the
> field to just go through the motions and let the game happen - they
> require all of the players to be personalities, they require
> consistent action and evidence of a "game plan", and they require more
> than one source for post-game comments in order to maximise reporting
> copy. To achieve all of these things, the entourage of a national
> team has grown at least as large as the team itself, and the XI
> players at the centre cannot help but absorb the attitudes, ideas and
> morale of the support crew. Pre-match practice drills are no longer
> led by either the captain or by a single coach, but by a staff of
> specialists.
> Nevertheless, even with all this support and influence, the captain
> still has a vital role to play when it is just the XI on the field.
> If the captain fields poorly, or overbowls himself when he is
> ineffective, or fails to deal with the necessity of changing the field
> placements, then the whole side will feel this drop in performance and
> will match it. Consider also how much more effective is a team when
> there is one undisputed leader out there, rather than a gaggle of
> voices - I see it every week in club cricket, that teams in the field
> with four or five guys barking orders are much less effective than
> teams being led by one voice.
> Finally, it is tricky to make a judgement on this with such a small
> sample - eight or nine international cricket teams. Some teams with
> batting captains - Australia, England, South Africa, West Indies - are
> certainly inlfuenced by the success of that guy with a bat in his
> hand, although failure by Ponting or Smith does not necessarily lead
> to a batting collapse as we have seen. Sri Lanka are strongly in the
> grip of Murali's success or otherwise, but he is not the captain. New
> Zealand lean heavily on Vettori's bowling but they don't win games
> unless the seven guys batting ahead of him score plenty of runs. We
> can't actually see and hear what goes on in the dressing rooms, but if
> we are just watching captains' performances on the field then there
> seems to be little correlation between personal success and team
> success. If the captain is driving and influencing the success or
> otherwise of the team, then it must be in ways that are not easily
> seen by the public and which are not as basic as mere runs and
> wickets, and that makes the OP's question one that might not be
> answerable.
> --
> JPD
next time a yes or no will do :-)
not serious if that is the quality of your posts
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