Sport Today

Hello guys,

        There have been a lot of discussions going on about captaincy of
        the Indian team. These are my views on the same topic.

        1. The loss of the Indian team in the Aus series, B&H and WC series
           can't be blamed totally on Azhar's captaincy. ie. there is no
           point in making his captaincy the scape goat for all these losses.

        2. The lack of coherence between players is to be blamed on Azhar's
           captaincy. Similarly his inability to motivate and bring the best
           out of them, were limitations of his captaincy.

        3. Azhar was too adamant on many issues, for example he was so
           adamant in not to receive advice from senior players. This was
           very well pointed out by Ian Chappell in one of his articles
           in India Today. In the latest News India there is an article which
           say he use to take most of his advice from Tendulkar and he use to
           ignore seniors completely. Baig himself, in a interview given at
           New Delhi said Azhar needs to learn a lot about captaincy. He said
           the seniors should have adviced him on the field atleast.

        4. If there is a basic resentment among players about the captain, it
           will be better to change him, otherwise it will affect team-spirit.
           If such a resentment exists, each player will play for his own
           good than for the team.

        5. The worst thing to happen during the world cup was the day to day
           interference of BCCI in running the show. A friend of mine has an
           article from a leading Indian news paper which says, the board
           members used to call the Indian manager before every world cup
           match and demand that he needs such and such player to be
           played for this match. This sort of behaviour from the board
           members were unfortunate. Even if you have the worlds best captain
           and manager in the Indian side, it is not going to do any good if
           the board interferes like this. Then, why is the team managment
           for ?.

        6. Azhar may not be a great captain, may be he doesn't have the stuff
           to be a great captain, a lot of things necessary to be a good
           captain comes through experience, some people have leadership
           qualities born with-in them, some develops these traits as they
           move along. Azhar to me is not one of those born with leadership
           qualities, but I think he is one of those who is developing those
           traits as he moves along. But things he should know is, not to
           develop that resentment among player, give senior players the
           respect they owe, try to get as much advice from them (because
           none of them are going to give to him unless and until he
           approaches them). He should learn to earn respect and not to
           command respect.

        7. In my personal opinion, not because of the losses, but because he
           has developed that resentment and has lost that faith in his
           fellow players, it is time to give him a break. I think it will
           be a good idea to bring Kapil back as the captain and make Azhar
           his v.captain. Shastri because of so many obvious reasons, doesn't
           think to be a good candidate for these positions. Let us say
           Kapil plays for another 3-4 years, by that time he can mould the
           present young Indian team and by making Azhar his deputy
           can learn a few tricks from that veteran. So by the time Kapil
           retires Azhar will be much more ready than he is now. By
           bringing Kapil back we are not repeating the same mistake we did
           in 87. Instead, if they bring a new guy(for agrument sake let us
           say Manjerekar) as the captain then we are repeating the same
           mistake. In that case we will be better off retaining Azhar himself.

Tittu Mathew    

losses.

        Agreed.

        Two things should motivate you: 1) you are playing for your
country 2) You are making money.

        Ian Chappell makes his money by writing stuff people will be
pleased to read.

In the latest News India there is an article which

Azhar need not approach you for advise. You can give it. He can be
accused for not taking it. Whether if he had followed it, India would
have won the test series, WSC, and WC is debatable.

Baig himself, in a interview given at

Surprise! Now we know why we lost. Baig has as good a chance as any to
be the manager for the SA tour.

Resentment will exist as long as just one person is the captain. Make
the leading player from every zone the captain. Five captains that is.

Lets say if Imran and Brearley haven't won all those matches, would we be
calling them good captains. There is a tendency to just look at the
records! Azhar as I can see is the first Indian captain to have used
four fast bowlers in a test match. He did look very positive defending
the 125 in WSC and chasing fourth inning totals in test matches. Maybe
we need captains who can win the first test at Bombay and draw all the
rest five.

Kapil has had enough chances, including the chance to set the field
for Malik in the Calcutta one day game. Kapil's captaincy can be seen
best by not watching the WC 83, but the Bangalore test match against
Pakistan.

kk

So what mate. just see what one says rather than who says it, why he says it
and how he say it. i am not sure whether Azar did not heed any advice from the
senior players or not. but his captaincy is not very good. that is for sure.

        what u say is true. but when u try to give advice volantarilly to some
one and if u r ignored, what kinda incentive or motivation will u be having to
give advice again. i am not saying that is what has happened. it might
have which could have put people off.

ofcourse Baig is right. azar as a captin need to learn a lot. and unfortunately
his learning curve is very flat. i will strongly advocate for the appointment
of professional managers like bob simpson of OZ (Pataudi or Gavasakar's name
spring to mind). rather than using management of a team as a backdoor pension
scheme for ex-players.

I dunno y u are bringing in regional politics now. if people have talents and
they work hard to give the best for the team and if it is not recognised,
naturally one tend to develop resentment.

Y u have not contrdicted this ? must I assume that u agree with this. if so,
again as Prabhakar and others complained, Azar does not have any say in the
team selection. IMO, in a tour, the selection committee consists of captain, VC
and the manager only because they know the local conditions. if that is
influenced by some "bunch of jokers" from Delhi, that shows the lack of
leadership and captaincy (Azar) and management (baig)

Nobody is complaining Azar for losing matches ( eg Adelaide and Perth) .
Winning and losing is part of the game. Going down without giving a fight is
the wrong thing. U need a die-hard, no surrender attitide, mate. that is what
Azar lacks. Even in losing u should keep ur head high.

This is what I call "looking at the records". We never needed four fast bowlers
before and we won more matches with our spinners than with our seamers.  Using
four fast (?) bowlers is not a credit man, how effectively the captain uses
them and what kinda results he can produce. Crowe for example opened the
bowling with Patel, an off spinner. that is not a credit by itself but how he
used him and how much damage he inflicted on other teams. that is the credit.

  or we need captain who (can) think positively only when the score is 125 ?

I agree

If u think Azar has not had chances u r wrong. almost in all the matches in the
recently concluded series, Azar erred in his judgement. Even if he listened to
Channel 9 commentary, he could have learned more that what he gained all
through his stinct as captain (for info, all the commentators of 9 are
ex-captains. (Australia (Ian and Greg Chappel, Bill Lawry, Richie Benaud)
England (Tony Greig) and India (Gavaskar) and lately Clive Rice (SA)) Forget
about what Kapil did in one match five years ago. Consider the overall
performance of the team and how they lost their matches. He is a die-hard
cricketer, learns by his mistakes faster (Chetan to javed incident in sharjah.
even today, he make sure that he bowls the last over (i have seen Kapil
reminding that to Azar couple of times). Good God, Prabhakar is coming out good
in bowling slog overs).

U may be a fan of Azar. I dont care. I am also a fan of Azar as a player. but i
think he lacks the leadership qualities. thats all. if he has leadership
qualities to the same level as his batting techinques, it would be wonderful.

but leaders are born and not made.

Paarthaa
ChemEngg