Leaders ... Part I

One aspect of cricket which enthralls me is the role of captain. Cricket is the game played with lots of tradition, rules but also with lots of time and this allows strategies to be developed during the actual play time.

Cricket captain is a general who looks to the higher picture and deploys the troops to the various frontiers but at the same time he fights like an ordinary soldier who has to take bullets on his arms and legs while giving some decisive blows to the enemy. He has to perform the role of a prime minister during the war period of involving the common public in all the proceedings. For me captaining a top international cricket side is one of the most difficult task in all the sports. Cricket world has seen many outstanding captains, some of them were excellent generals but ordinary soldiers and it has also seen the great soldiers struggling to understand what is expected from them when they become leaders. Some of them had both the qualities while some of them got it just because lady luck was favoring them.

But, what it takes to become a captain first? One has to be either excellent performer or excellent man manager and tactician of the game. Some of them had both of these qualities and they had the place cemented in the league of extraordinary captains. When I think of the names who belong to that league, names of Alan Border and Imran Khan occupy the top positions. Both were brilliant man managers and tacticians as well.

Pakistan team has always been an enigma to the cricket followers. It has always been a bunch of people with excellent cricketing abilities but never fulfilling their promise. And they needed a man like Imran as a leader. Imran Khan was an excellent captain on the field and off the field too. Imran Khan gave fame to reverse swing but he also gave some fabulous players to the cricket. Ability of spotting the raw talent and making them stars was a God's gift to him. His field positions and bowling changes or setting order of batting was good and produced results because he brought right people into the team and he brought them from small lanes of Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi. He always enjoyed the respect from his teammates, one ingredient which cannot be missed in the recipe of making a good captain in any sport.

While in the case of someone like Sachin Tendulkar just the weight of his runs was enough to make him the leader of Indian team in mid 1990s. Many people who had seen him since his childhood believed that he had all that is needed from a captain. He was young, charismatic, a true performer, match winner and had huge Cricketing IQ. What else one could expect from a captain? Then what went wrong? Well, his team was not that young or charismatic or match winning or with great cricketing IQ. He struggled with his team because he was not able to go down to their level to bring them up and that's the reason his successor Sourav Ganguly was the most successful of them all.

He knew how it feels to be left out in the cold and how to live with your inabilities. A rich young man from Kolkata was also not afraid of the establishment or media and he never gave over importance to the traditions. All he knew was he has to win to be able to stay at the top for long. In the process he backed some of the upcoming prodigious talents and fought with opposition captain, sometimes in the childish manner, just to prove that his team is no longer a shy kid in the International circuit. His team, young and old alike, got new confidence and started delivering in most alien of conditions and rose to level of the top nations. But was he that great technically, as a captain? No! Ganguly was never known for his shrewd field positions but he was known for his antics like swirling the shirt just because his opponent did the same to him or coming late for the toss and making the biggest name wait for him. But he knew, igniting the passion amongst his talented subjects can do the job.

But on the other hand someone like Stephen Fleming always relied on the on field tactics. In my eyes he is the best captain since Imran Khan. For him igniting the passion was not enough. Country like New Zealand cannot produce the talent in volume of India and Pakistan with its population of 40 lakhs. That country needs strong methodology to produce results like they are producing certainly in last 10 to fifteen years.

Big Sydney Opera

I believe Sydney Test controversies have three faces; first was atrocious umpiring by senior umpire with some assistance from his colleagues; second was accusation on Harbhajan Singh regarding racial abuse to Andrew Symonds and third was some pathetic display of sportsmanship or lack of it by the number one Cricket side in the world. Let me try to analyze these individually before thinking about impact of one on the other. Should a player walk before umpire rules him out? I think this question has only one answer at least in the mind of 'current' players and not some experts sitting in AC studios of TRP hungry Indian news channels and the answer is ‘No’! I strongly believe If umpire is going to tell you that you should go to the pavilion despite being not out then let him tell you that each and every time. So that clears few doubts regarding integrity of Ponting and Symonds when they chose not to leave their crease despite edging the ball. But that certainly raises some questions over Mr. Bucknor, Mr. Benson and the third umpire from Australia. Among 10 wrong decisions in single game three decision stood out, Andrew Symonds edging one beautiful delivery by young Ishant Sharma, Symonds again not given out by the third umpire and Rahul Dravid given out by Mr. Bucknor on the crucial last day. First and last decisions clearly show inability of Mr. Bucknor to stand as an International umpire. If the man can't see a nick and sees a nick when there wasn't any and then he doesn't go to the third umpire, who in this case was as incompetent as his mates on the field, then I am sorry to say that he doesn't have any right whatsoever to stand on the ground and turning the match to one side's favor, mostly in Australia's. For me, issue with umpiring is not about umpires favoring any side it's about incompetency and ICC should review them on this ground only and I assure you, they will be removed without much fuss. And that will be the best thing for the game.

Now coming to the second issue of racial abuse, I think many of us, almost all, believe that racially abusing a player is a big NO NO. In India we have reverse racism where we feel that White man is superior to Indians and Indians usually don’t discriminate blacks on their color, so even if we consider Harbhajan has uttered the word ‘monkey’ it is noting more than just little bit school boy stuff of calling names. These days the captain of an international side needs to be an ambassador of that country and this is where Ponting fell short. He should have had a casual chat with Kumble, Harbhajan or for that matter senior statesman Tendulkar who was on the field with Harbhajan when much hyped incident took place. Things could have been taken in much lighter manner if Ponting and Symonds were told that ‘monkey’ is just an ordinary insult in India and Harbhajan used it as an answer to Australia’s frequent chirping near his ears. But he chose to take this matter to the referee who sadly took the leaf out of his umpires’ book and made a mistake of judging the Sardar as racist just because he felt Australians were right. Well, doubting Sachin Tendulkar’s alibi on his face needs some guts And Proctor did it. I hope he has sufficient evidence to prove himself right otherwise I afraid he will have tough times ahead just because he proved Tendulkar wrong. I also hope this doesn’t open the Pandora’s Box as Mark Taylor rightly said on Channel 9. Sledging in cricket is like ‘Humam me sab nange hain!’ We all know that barring few gentlemen everyone opens his mouth to distract the opposition and people from Down Under are way ahead of others just like they are in any other department of the sport. If Australians want people to be charged for being naked in the bathroom then Australians many times prefer to roam naked outside the bathroom too. Now let’s use some common sense and let’s not make this issue a National issue but yes let’s make use of India’s might in the Cricketosphere and let’s force ICC to do justice to Harbhajan with proper investigation and trial.

When Sachin Tendulkar guided a delivery from Stuart Clark back on to his stumps, I had a feeling of déjà vu. Indians were doing it again. They were on their path, path turning into a highway, losing all their wickets in 2-3 sessions on last day of the Test. Fifth day wicket troubles Indians more than anyone else. I think fifth day ‘mind’ troubles Indians more than anyone else is more appropriate. But soon two veterans took charge of the proceedings. Both of them are in form of their lifetime, the difference is Dravid is in his worst form and Ganguly is in his best form. I have never seen Ganguly batting so fluently in Tests after 1996. He is hitting the balls with confidence with bat meeting the ball at the right place and at the right time. Both looked in great touch that day. Playing in fourth innings of the match for Dravid is like hunting seal in icy cold water for an Eskimo. He has grown up doing that. But his hunting was cut short by dreadful decision by Mr. Bucknor. As said earlier I fail to see any reason which could hint such an experienced umpire to raise his finger. Dravid walked in disbelief and Gilchrist was flying in the air as his rare act of gamesmanship earned his country a priced wicket of stubborn Dravid. Indians love Gilchrist, they really do. They don’t remember his poor run against Harbhajan in latter two tests in 2001 but they remember how he came and conquered Mumbai with his finest display of batting scoring a ton which proved fatal for India in the First Test of excellent 2001 Series. That appeal from Gilchrist hurt many Indians and I believe sense of Australians doing some mischief started building after seeing otherwise saint Gilchrist turning con. What Ponting and Clarke did after that was just an extension of Gilchrist appeal as shrewd character inside Ponting guessed it right that it’s their day and Umpires are acting like Umbrella seller in late September. He took advantage of this and did some shopping which costs India dearly. And ugly chapter in the History of cricket unveiled on great Sydney Cricket Ground.

Having said all this I believe, if India had succeeded in saving the match they would have chosen to continue with their policy of pardoning the wrongdoer but Indian loss came like the first rain, it brought some acid down with it but hopefully it has cleared the air for the future.