"Or perhaps Australia deliberately tried to be the mirror opposite of the mother country, just to be perverse!"

What a weird thing to say. Australian cricket is a meritocracy. How long have you been living in Australia? I ask because you don't really seem to understand Australians.

Maybe I am as stupid as my name implies but I would like to put it down that Murali should have been made captain of Sri Lanka long before Mahela or Sanga, he deserved his place in the side more than anyone else with consistant performances and is a thinker as implied in everything he does, was it politics ??
Or a hidden factor. Farewell Murali, you are the greatest and will remain on top forever.......

The Pakistani cricket team only ever thrives under the captaincy of an individual when the leader themselves is someone who is larger than life. They must first of all command respect but also fear, both on and OFF the field of play. There must be no doubt as to their ability and achievements. It's a psyche of total dedication, all or nothing. There is no half hearted approach with Pakistan. It's a dialectic approach to cricket of do or die. For the average Pakistani cricketer this total dedication to a captain is not easy, it is not something easily given and thus you have the merry-go-round that is the captaincy, of players who want their players to follow them, but the players reluctant to only offer total subservience to one who commands it, deserves it, not just someone who merely wants it. From time to time when they do get such leaders it can be fascinating seeing them battle to world class status. In Pakistan everyone wants to be captain, but captaincy is earned never given.

"they are still seen as the ceremonial head of the family even if they are no longer useful on a day-to-day basis."

What is this nonsense? Do you think of people as only 'useful' or 'useless'? Get out of that narrow minded mentality.

As for India, there are no grudges of ex-captain against new captain or players, though you could see lot of rumors in different fans' perspectives. India is basically a country of exemplary diversity with every state speaking different languages, having different cultures and even cuisines. And, thus every player gets stardom easily and also now IPL provides captaincy to each and every player, but India's diverse culture helps in bringing unity in diversity. And, the system is that every talented player would want to be a captain sometime and would get a chance, then come back to ranks like Sehwag did. Now, Gambhir and Raina are recent captains, apart from Dhoni. Ganguly and Dhoni used the opportunities they got and took their respective team to higher level and thus got to be captains for longer time than others. Become captain, prove yourself, if so enjoy the captaincy and power like Dada. Or return to your ranks and have nice time under new captain.

We are different. With all of our shortcomings, one must keep in mind that Pakistanis are a force to be reckoned with, regardless of who is playing. Ask the Aussies, Black Caps, or the Proteas. Heck, ask our neighbors. T20, the world's choice, is our game, a game of the gullies; our record proves it. "Fight" is in our blood, and we have fought for the better part of our national being. Wars with India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Israel, be it on the battlefield, lands or skies, mountains or oceans, Gaddafi Stadium, or Lords. We are an emotional people, very different. Ask Britain. Press the right buttons and the 'cornered tigers' will show how they react when cornered. We are different, we are Pakistanis. A famous quote goes "The one thing you can be sure about the Pakistanis is that you never know what the Pakistanis will do." Do us a favor and write us off, because that is when we tend to be at our best. Great article. Tea and biscuits anyone?

For a long time, up until Len Hutton I believe, the England captaincy was only held by 'Gentlemen'. Since that distinction was dropped I think that they've tried to follow the Australian model of picking the 'best' player. The trouble with this approach is that England, as a nation, tends to put far too much pressure on individuals anyway. So we get situations where Flintoff comes back from injury, gets thrown the captaincy and told to win the Ashes in Australia on his own. Part of this approach is the need to find someone who'll be guaranteed to be in the side over the long term; Pietersen was selected as captain as he was the only player who would be guaranteed to be in the team in all three formats. I'm not sure whether it's a matter of better selection or natural temperament but England seem to select a lot more bad captains and throw away a lot more good ones than our antipodean cousins.

Thanks for the comments thus far.

Porterhouse, I'm posing that question only because I wondered if that original meritocracy was born from that sense of trying to be the polar opposite to the English system. Thanks for your opinion.

Arvind, perhaps my use of the word "useless" was clumsy. Thanks for pointing it out. What I should used was a set of words that tried to describe the notion that just because someone is no longer a 'working' member of the group, they are still venerated because of their age, status, past contribution etc. Thanks for prompting me to correct my clumsy intentions.

Srilankan cricket has got his unique culture but if you notice properly nearly every time they have a new captain in every world cup.after how ranatunga was deposed after 99 world cup.srilanka tends to appoint skippers keeping in mind upcoming world cup.in a way they have been pretty successful.Mahela yahyawardene started a new trend to quit captaincy saying in asia a captain should not be at helm for more than 3 4 years .let's see sangakarra follows.

One problem Englan seems to have had often is the misguided idea that their best play is therefore the best captain. I appreciate that Botham and Gower did have the problem of facing the West Indes at their peak but they seem to me to be good examples of making them captain for their performaces as opposed to their captaincy ability. There have been many more too

Pakistan is not like Australia or South Africa where players follow discipline strictly and one who is appointed captain is given due respect. there is a long history of revoults against captains. The present couch Waqar Younis himself led a revoult against the then captain and who can forget the tensions between Wasim and Waqar... everyone who performs better feels himself as the best captain. People like Imran Khan who was not only senior most, was also a good leader and later on Inzamam who was so senior and inspiring as batsman kept the team together. The key to be good captain in Pakistan is just to be senior or to perform extraordinarily.

I agree with you Mr.Arvind......

well, as far as india is concerned, i think you would first have to look at the individuals we are picking as examples - Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly, Kumble, Kapil... all highly respectable gentlemen. maybe its them thats giving the indian dressing room an image or respectability? scratch below that surface and you will find tons of examples thats not so different from political wrangling...

How could India not play previous captains? They wouldnt win a game if they didnt play all their ex-captains! Its seems that being captain of an Indian, Sri Lankan and even Pakistan cricket team isnt the honour it is compared to Australia and Sth Africa.

Compulsory military service in South Africa was abolished in 1994, thus none of the current players would have had to do the compulsory service.

Michael, you have left out Marvan Atapattu from the Sri Lankan pantheon. Regrettable, since he was a good captain for Sri Lanka for many years whilst Hashan Tillekeratna, whom you include, captained only a handful of matches and was not a successful captain. The latter's reign could not have lasted even a year (from memory). Aravinda De Silva was not a Sri Lankan captain in his own right. He was merely acting (usually for an absent Ranatunga).

@Andrew: You said it!. In India the captain is somebody who is the object of most of the blame that happens when they lose. When personally successful players (like Tendulkar & Dravid) become captains, they face a different situation than they had thus far in their carrers - unfair criticism. This leads most of them (Tendulkar, Dravid, Kapil) to leave aside this crown of thorns and go back to doing things they know well. It could also do with the Indian middle-class mentalitity of not trying to change things around them too much and only do their core jobs well. It also explains that the successful captains have almost never been the best players on the side (be it Azhar, Sourav or Dhoni)...

Good one. About my India its excaptains because of the strong intrinsic values and discipline bred by our best players right from time of Kapil. Yeah there are some exceptions like Yuvi or Bhajji but they are well under control of seniors who happen to be their idols mostly. For example a word of SRT or RD is respected not just because they are great players but more they are great Humans. Its boon we Indians got. Same so for our neighbours Lankans. Murali, Mahela or Sanga are all first better Humans and our wins despite lot of short comings is because the unity these Legendary Humans bring with them.

Good writing Jeh, as always; opening new angles and finding corners to ponder. In my opinion, the political systems of the south asian countries is a prime source that matter and affect on their cricketing sense and culture in appointing or adapting or accepting... a captain. Keep writing good.!

i agree with the writer that Pakitanis can only be captained by a player with strong character. the captain should rule with iron fist.

any Pakistani who thought Afridi was captaincy material knows nothing about cricket and has obviously never been a captain himself.

I would like to comment on the difference between captaincy approach in india and australia, the 2 superpowers. While both appoint most talented player as captain, india is open to experimentation in the light of performance. Most talented player need not be most inspiring leader, see the case of sachin tendulkar. With aussies it seems to be egoistic issues preventing to do so, a captain will leave the team mostly when he retires, no way a taylor or a border or even ponting will revert to being just a player. While it can be argued the merits of this approach, they lost some very exciting players who could have been inspirational leaders, like shane warne, the best captain which australia never had. Luckily, their approach has not backfired so far coz they enjoy one of the best teams which neutralizes the effect of a destructive leader like ponting, hope it remains so.

When you look at Pakistan, the most successful captains have been the best player in the team who have some leadership skills. In Pakistan, I agree that everybody wants to be the captain, that is why only the best player can earn respect and maintain the captaincy. The biggest challenge for a Pakistani captain is to bring unity and then the team starts winning.
Also, with the best player leading, there is a history of him and second best player disputing, for example Imran Khan and Javed Miandad, then Wasim and Waqar, then Inzimam and Shoaib Akhtar. And now we are in a shamble because we do not have a standout best player who can lead.
As far as culture is concern being a Pakistani, I can tell from experience every Pakistani like to impose his ideas and views, and the only time one will listen is when somebody undisputedly proven better than you is telling you what to do.

What about Brian Lara for the West Indies? Which group does he fall under?

Pak cricket is a basket case. No point in trying to understand or asking the fans (if any left) to opine. They are happy that they could win an odd meaningless T20 game and now Afridi is the best Captain there ever was. Great. Let them be where they want to be. The Pak players only play for themselves, while mouthing off pride, love of the nation etc.

You can feel that the Paki team is entering the ground two hours before they actually do. Know why? Because their egos get to the ground first, before they actually show up.

So, like my friend Pakistani says, let us be happy with one odd win here and there and leave us alone. We are very happy to be the frogs in the well.

This is one of the best Blogarticle I have read, couldn't finish reading it, so bookmarking it. I can put my own inputs, but I don't want to take anything away from this Blogarticle (I made this word, copyrighted haha)

Cheers, brilliant.

There is no one in Pakistan except Yunus Khan who can lead the team now, because of his records, seniority and ability. Truly speaking the PCB did not allow someone to become a long tern captain whereas in other countries the board appointed a captain and backed him. It is cricket board and the selectors who are responsible for the unruliness in the players. Pakistan and west Indies are good examples in the recent past. Even Lara did not have good time as captain. The Australians and Indians are doing very well since they have good Board and they know what to do when a player does not listen to his captain. Pakistan board should have a tutorial session with the Indian/australian board. That might help them. The dull old man needs a tutor.

Could you please compile the comments of PCB chairman, selectors and coaches in last few years. You can see how many disgraceful comments have been posted in different blogs about PCB and its chairman. My big question is : why don't they listen to the expert and the spectators. Recently an ICC official have given a name yo PCB chairman. Does he feel bad? he is destroying the game in a country. May be time has come when other countries take a strong action to solve the problems in Pak cricket. It seems to me that country does not have anyone in the sports ministry or in Govt. to take any action. May GOD bless that country, named Pakistan.

Yeah Michael I'm just trying to point out such a stupid course of action is not something we Aussies would do. We love putting the Poms in their place on the sporting field but most of our institutions are straight copies. If it isn't broke then it would be stupid to change it just to spite the Poms. And besides we did go to four wars just to back the blighters up. Anyway Happy Black July day! I see it's been 27 years since you arrived but still don't seem to understand us too well.

Aravinda was Sri Lanka's captain for the 1992 world cup in which Arjuna played as a player, after Arjuna was removed following the 1991 tour to New Zealand. The latter was restored to lead Sri Lanka after the World Cup and Aravinda went back to being his deputy.

I do not recall Aravinda being appointed to captain the Sri Lanka Test team while Arjuna was in the team. Any Ideas?

WelL I don't agree with the captain having to quit in 3-4 years, probably if he was good enough and keen enough for the job he should be around longer.

As for Murali I don't think politics played a hand in him not captaining. It was a more a bias towards the captaincy going to batsmen. Every where this is true. Barring Wasim and Waqar; Walsh and Shaun nor other bowling captains come to mind. These days Daniel Vettori can easily be taken as an all rounder though if you want you can include him. Imran Khan himself said when he became captain people were thinking bowlers can't captain.

I think Ponting is a genius, a superb captain, the conditions are overcast, there was rain overnight, pakistan cannot bat at all, but they can bowl, with 3 very decent bowlers, one of which is superb (aamer)and what does he do? bat first, I have known schoolboy captains who are smarter than him, do you know why he did it, to prove his and australia's machismo, we can face anybody, so they get get bowled out for the lowest total since, Garner, Holding and Marshall. I hope he continues to be captain of australia, I hope he continues to prove his machismo, over and over again, as he did in 2005 when McGrath was injured but he stil wanted to have a bowl. You won the toss, wanted to bat, 88 all out, if you had bowled, you would have got Pakistan out for 48. The aussies should be proud. Keep him as captain, we can all use a good laugh now and then.