One Captain Only

The second season of the IPL has shown how vital captains are in the game and that it is a job for one captain and John Buchanan’s idea of multiple captains does not have any standing.

Cricket differs to others sports in the roles of captains but in cricket they are paramount where they have to select the team, making tactical decisions, being proactive, man-management and installing confidence into the team. In the 2005 Champions League Final where Liverpool played AC Milan Rafa Benitez made the tactical decisions at the start and during the match and where captain Gerrard was inspirational in leading his team to a famous win. The success of Rajasthan Royals in the first IPL was hugely down to the success of Shane Warne, a team who started the season horrendously, did not have the best team of big names but what he did was bring the squad together enjoying each team member’s success, Warne got the most out of all his players using all his experience tactically and dealing with pressure situations.

Before the start of the second season Kolkata Knight Riders coach John Buchanan that they may use multiple captains which did not sit well with anyone in the cricket world and was knocked back the idea immediately. But the success of MS Dhoni and Shane Warne shows that cricket belongs to one captain only, both teams Chennai and Rajasthan had slow starts to the season to the season but as the season has progressed the teams have got stronger which is a lot down to the captains.

The Twenty20 format has shown how vital captains are and the amount captains have to consider is immense. The conditions of the pitch, the balance of his team, the size of the boundaries and how to place the fielders, if you win toss whether to bat or bowl first and if you lose the toss and a batting paradise ensuring your team don’t lose hope they cannot win. Then during the match you have to think on your feet in what is the best bowling combination, how many different spells should you bowlers bowl ensuring there is a balance with bat and ball. Then when the team is batting there is not much the captain can where he has to have faith in his batsmen to do the job that is required from them and read the situation and bat accordingly. He will be able to provide the batsmen with confidence they can succeed his most crucial role could be maybe changing the batting order which could lose you the match and be severely criticized or it could be match winning innings and be seen a masterful tactical move. There are many more factors that will have to considered, the captains will have to answer all the questions to the journalists before and after the match, consider tactics about there next match, the composition of the team if players in the team are out of form whether to keep faith or drop them and build up there confidence.

The most successful captains in the IPL have been Shane Warne and Mahendra Singh Dhoni who have there own style of captaincy and leadership which is vital for the team to be successful. What both Warne and Dhoni have is a calmness and persona whatever the situation and when the pressure is immense they come out on the winning side where other captain may lose there persona and heads and make the wrong decisions. Both captains have the respect from all there players which are vital and look to them when required the most and they have a winning mentality that rubs off and will do anything to succeed. If you look at the other captains in the IPL of all have been successful players but when it comes to captaincy they can be questioned, the biggest flops have been Tendulkar and Pietersen where to be fair both players have not played much of the shorter format. McCullum has been the biggest disappointment where Kumble is the warrior we all love but has not had the results he would have hoped for and Gilchrist who started the season strongly but as the season goes on there will be many more questions about his captaincy.

Captains will continue to always be the corner stone of any cricket team in any format when they win they will be hailed as heroes and when they lose they will criticized and should not be captain any more.