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January 21, 2010Posted by Samir Chopra on 01/21/2010 in Samir Chopra
Getting caught out as captain
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| Captaincy, while being an honour and a privilege, is also a rum business © Getty Images |
A couple of weeks ago, on my return to play a game with my old Sydney team, I was generously invited to captain the team in the absence of our regular captain, who had been called away on family duty. And I learnt once again, that captaincy, while being an honour and a privilege, is also a rum business.
Many years ago, in my final undergraduate year, I had captained the Mathematics Department in the Interdepartmental competition. We lost narrowly to Chemistry by three runs as I failed in both tactical and performance dimensions as captain: I glibly assumed the one attacking plan I had would work, and later, I failed to stick around long enough to let our star batsman finish the job he had started. In the former, I assumed our star opening bowlers, both left-handed quicks, would simply run through the opposing line-up. The bowlers instead, lost their line and length and I was left floundering. When we chased, I came together with our best batsman and simply had to hold up one end while he blasted away. But I got too cute, and in trying to play a clever tickle, got myself bowled. The collapse of the tail was inevitable, and we were out of the competition.
My recent experience in the Northern Sydney Suburbs competition was similarly educative on another aspect of captaincy: how is the captain to assert authority? I was captaining a team many of whose players I barely knew: the personnel turnover had been high in my absence. I had gone in at No. 10, and scored one not out; they had no idea whether I was a decent bat or not. And I couldn't bowl, because I had a bad back. All I could do, really, was ring in the changes, set the fields and say the right things out on the ground.
Easier said than done. Our opening bowlers were set upon by the opposition batsmen who began blasting boundaries on a smallish ground. It's hard to make fielding changes when boundaries are being scored at a high rate. Where does one make the necessary changes? Several of them seemed to suggest themselves all at once. But could I really send a man or two out of the park? For ball-retrieval, sure. But for fielding?
And then things got worse. Our leftie seemed to be struggling a bit with form. It would help if he got a wicket. Sure enough, he induced an edge. And I dropped the catch at second slip.
At that moment, the balloon of authority was well and truly punctured. Our team is a good-spirited one, and my catch wasn't the first to be dropped. But I was the captain, and I had placed myself at slips.
Did I say things got worse? More gloom awaited. We dropped more catches, and continued to get carted all over the park. Time was running out. We had taken two wickets (both bowled, thankfully) but needed more. I decided to call back our quickest bowler for one over. He already had two catches dropped off him. He came on, induced the edge. And I dropped it.
Mercifully, the match ended soon thereafter. While I hadn't made too many tactical blunders, I had failed in a very simple way: I hadn't performed. Whatever chance I had of stamping my authority on the game and the players rested on my being able to take those chances when they had come my way.
After the game, we drank our cold beers, and cracked a few jokes at our collective fielding incompetence. It was just as well I hadn't been the only one with butter-fingers out there. And it was just as well it hadn't been a close game.
Posted by: Kunal at January 21, 2010 9:43 AM
You should have just quoted Brearley to your men, "Do as I say, not what I do." LOL Just kiddin'. But it's nice how u put your experience to make your point, before an good ol' Boycott comes along to say that only experienced cricketers are qualified to comment on cricket subjects like captaincy. Also, makes me envious that you can play the game at leisure in Australia, while leather-ball cricket is a dream in vain for most working people in India. Cheers, man!
Posted by: Brendan Layton at January 22, 2010 1:38 AM
Captaincy has its perks and its problems. I was captian last year of my cricket team and we only managed to win one match, in which one of our players hit a club record 183 to win the match.
I find I'm actually enjoying the game better when I'm just a player. Or maybe I just took the game a bit too seriously as captain.
Posted by: Shariz of Malaysia at January 22, 2010 3:10 AM
bro... sorry to hear your sad story but if mohammad yousoff of pakistan write's his maximum failed story of captaincy, you might be in tears, mate! at least you are not a pro like yousuff. that poor fella has let his whole country down. u gotta feel for him and the able guy younis is killed by politics. another very sad u-turn which possibly can only happen in pakistan. good thing malaysia has no cricket team. better not to have than have such a killingly lousy one! hahaha...
Posted by: karam at January 23, 2010 1:35 AM
well my friend....the teaching point here...you are only as good as the team you have at your disposal (yourself included)...a good captain (leader??) inspires his men to give their best....and that is all they can do
Posted by: CLIFTON LOBO at January 23, 2010 12:36 PM
well captaicy is not only all that you have to lead the side or a honour,but infact theres a ;ot that goes along with it,pressure,scoring runs or taking wickets,handling the boys,field placing,plan and mind games etc etc,but thats true being captain it does effect the performance but then i must say dhoni is a superb captain,hes positive,planning and very active on the field ans always with the boys and whats the current status that the tactics to be used.
Posted by: rajeev at January 23, 2010 3:08 PM
the most obvious thing is -- stay away from the slips the next time. And I hope you stood your team at least one round of beer.
Posted by: Haris at January 26, 2010 8:50 PM
So many of us "captains" can relate you this article. Well written. I was captain of my club, although I am a lefty fast bowler I do however drop catches here and there. It is not a good feeling, trust me. You feel as if you dropped a match. But for my bowling performances, I tend you perform better when I am captain or have responsibilities. I am no longer captain and playing as a player. The season I captained my team, I took 30 wickets in 18 games. Compared to now 12 wickets in 16 games.
The only thing that I can suggest to you if you want to get your authority back is to bat higher in the order. As you can not bowl you will have at least your batting to back you up. You dont have to be a best batsmen, but you can just be there to support the best batsmen.
Good Luck!!!
- Shanaka Amarasinghe
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Shanaka Amarasinghe Possessing the best disguised googly in Sri Lanka (because no one has ever really seen it), Shanaka is the finest legspinner to never have played top-level cricket. He is a popular cricket analyst and host of The Score, the No. 1-rated, if slightly infamous, sports show on radio in Sri Lanka. While in England playing rugby, he earned his LLM at King’s College and is a lawyer by training if not inclination. He is also an actor, a journalist, a writer, and thinks he is a comedian.
- Mike Holmans
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Mike Holmans, a database consultant by profession, has spent thirty summers (and a few winters) going to the cricket. Brought up in one and working in the other, his dearest wish is for a season to end with Yorkshire winning the county championship by beating runners-up Middlesex by one wicket with five minutes to go. If it’s also a summer when England win the Ashes, so much the better.
- Michael Jeh
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Michael Jeh Born in Colombo, educated at Oxford and now living in Brisbane, Michael Jeh (Fox) is a cricket lover with a global perspective on the game. An Oxford Blue who played first-class cricket, he is a Playing Member of the MCC and still plays grade cricket. Michael now works closely with elite athletes, and is passionate about youth intervention programmes. He still chases his boyhood dream of running a wildlife safari operation called Barefoot in Africa.
- Saad Shafqat
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Saad Shafqat takes special pride that his cricket-watching life began during the three-month interval between Javed Miandad's debut Test in Lahore and Imran Khan's 12-wicket haul at Sydney. Although a practicing neurologist based in Karachi, cricket has never been far from his activities. He has co-authored Javed Miandad’s autobiography Cutting Edge and has been a contributor to Cricinfo since 2005. His regular column Reverse Swing appears fortnightly in Dawn, Pakistan’s leading English daily.
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