Indian Obsession with Captain Fantastics

So again Indian fans are out for the head of the Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni, this one declared earlier to be the most successful ever in India. While this diaspora remains tempestuous (in the 1990s they’d stone the cricketers’ houses to show their disapproval), they are simply saying ‘out’ meaning they don’t want him as skipper in any format. However, at least former cricketers like Saurav Ganguly are being specific that it’s ‘Tests’ he should step out of.

Aussie intellectuals

Ian Chappell: for Virat Kohli's elevation

The highly respected Australian Ian Chappell too is in favour of Dhoni’s ousting in Tests for the better of Indian cricket. However, are these changes mooted by the feeling that Virat Kohli has shown a sort of future captaincy potential, that too since the end of 2007 when he led the Indian Under-19 team to a World Cup victory? Both the senior and Indian teams were paraded and Dhoni and Virat sat on a podium, the images etched in everybody’s mind. Did we in India expect too much with too much certainty? It’s almost like we decided we had to have the results were used to in that heady September month of 2007 and therefore any failure especially from the senior captain meant we had to have Virat in as skipper.

Mallya’s style matches Virat’s?

It’s partially also the reason Vijay Mallya seems to have re-invested hurriedly in Virat Kohli for the Indian Premier League, this year being the seventh successive year that Virat has been retained. That is, he believes he has always had the future Indian captain in his side. And of course, he would go to great lengths in the third Great Auction in the IPL’s 6-year history to secure this man.

Virat: Gotten off the right foot for Indian fans since 2007

Dan Vettori seems to have been ousted from the Royal Challengers Bangalore team as a player (well he probably chose not to be in the auction and avoid a ‘junior’ feeling creeping into him and was chosen as team coach) because he would be dethroned by the popular opinion of elevating Virat to captaincy, more than any really good algorithm.

Vettori: Faith in him jaded too fast?

 Is this also the old Indian feeling of wanting fast results? Because Vettori-led Royal Challengers Bangalore failed in both the 2011 IPL and Champions League final (incidentally at the same venue Chepauk and against the same side Chennai Super Kings), popular opinion in RCB seems to have found the ‘witch’ easily in what would otherwise have been a witch hunt.

Grand Plan

There is little doubt now that Dhoni would be retained as captain in all formats till the 2015 World Cup so as not to destroy his rhythm for this tournament, the biggest prize of all. After that, his ouster from Tests seems a mere formality, barring suddenly good Test match performances by India. What India must realise though is that we must allow for some failures if we want them to perform at that peak in other tournaments.

Ganguly: A different style to Dhoni's?

Simply because India won all matches in a longish Champions Trophy tournament in England while winning the trophy in the end does not mean that winning everything is a must to be a good team. You just can’t have everything.

Know when to peak?
Maybe a team needs to play at 85% after a gruelling series or tournament or as a build up to a major tournament two or three months later. To create a lax feeling before crucial tournaments, although some may call it the admirable quality of invincibility, will actually steer the focus away from them. And then the fans will want to criticise the team for not winning the ‘World Cups’ the times that somehow to them will ‘matter the most.’

Indian Fans

Dhoni is a tired man because of the strain by expectations India puts on him and of course the quantum of cricket played. We must allow for his failures. But unfortunately, we’re quite an impatient nation. This time, Ian Chappell who’s provided an unbiased outsider’s view will have galvanised the Indian opinion that Dhoni must step out as captain soon because Virat is available. Are we so convinced of the belligerent Virat’s ability to carry a team through a whole generation?

Do these gestures hype Virat's abilities?

Is he truly capable of the maturity required to lead the most heavily taxed cricket team in the world? His aggression and outward attitude may not be the best indicators. Nor can a few victories under this young leader indicate truly how he will carry the load over a larger period. Well, we’re so overcome with flamboyance in leaders that we haven’t even considered if there’s anybody else in the Indian team who is as good as Virat. Sure, Ian Chappell is likely to offer an unbiased opinion but do we not have a truly unbiased opinion of our own in India?

Indians calling timeout on Dhoni

Can we not give Dhoni the luxury of some more mistakes? Well, the historically ‘pure’ form of the game cannot be neglected, right, or the Indian team will show poorly in ‘records?’ Maybe it’s time to sacrifice some records and realise the cricket world has already moved to ‘faster’ cricket. 'Pure' is such an outdated expression.

Crystallize the idea

By Vikram Afzulpurkar

Is an idea a bane unless of course it sounds brilliant first up? How will Indian cricket prepare for the future?

Indian cricket seems to have entered a new mature era. Foresight. Their top test cricketers are now regularly rested so they can play heady series like Down Under and whichever else the Board deems necessary. Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and the veterans, including trump card Dhoni look fresher when they head out.

When MS Dhoni captained India to their 2007 T20 World Cup win in South Africa and topped the following year with establishing India in the top three rankings in most forms of cricket, India breathed easy and was delighted. The team also looked balanced and even had legends like Dravid, Tendulkar, Sehwag, the pace bowling though fast-medium at best, was looking composed with RP Singh as the new strike bowler and veteran Zaheer Khan.

Some pundits however warned that that was the time to shred the old Indian laxative mentality which in bygone eras had assumed 'The team has arrived.' It historically led to a take-it-easy philosophy in terms of what to do with Indian cricket planning. Wise people opined that Indian needed to focus on succession planning, even if 'stick with the best while they last' was a trend that would continue. If a new crescendo had been reached because of the talismanic qualities of skipper Dhoni, even a new skipper had to be groomed about four years since that period.

That wisdom would now ring true. Welcome to a new era in Indian cricket, the age of the outspoken cricketer. Even at what can be considered a mid-career-phase for arguably India's best ever captain, Dhoni has said he is not sure of playing the next world cup in 2015 and would decide by 2013. He's stuck to his guns in the sense that when casually asked two years ago when "if at all" he would consider retirement, he said "Definitely before Sachin Tendulkar." It was of course his testimony to Tendulkar's undying passion but had a ring of trueness about his own ambitions.

Purists, then, would typically be shocked to hear that the most valuable player in a team who made his debut 15 years after another player would actually consider retirement before him. But the shock is less. People have realised that cricketers have ambitions of their own, commitments to family and interests outside cricket. Yet, the statistic is though procative.

Well, with the modern-day lessons learned that time passes too fast and the tiring nature of Indian cricket exhausts cricketers faster, the BCCI too has decided it will form a pool of fast bowlers all ready to play at a ‘telephone call.’ As opposed to nurturing the chosen few who represent the country currently and 'grooming’ youngsters. Indeed, the volume of cricket played by Indians is alarming and these solutions should actually be applied to even regular batsmen, spin bowlers and even wicket keepers. Surely, Parthiv Patel figuring regularly in Indian teams is an indication that administrators are wary of their main gloveman missing out because of injury.

Anyway, coming back to things more pleasing to the eye, what better treat than to have our famed trio of Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman playing on for another three years in Tests? So, what’s the solution to see that happen, considering that age nowadays is only a number? Play them only in series identified as crucial or iconic. It does not mean necessarily play them in an England series in England just because it's the home of cricket. Australia, a destination with unique challenges, South Africa a hard-as-nails nation in cricket and a Pakistan series are the must-have selectives to prolong careers of these warriors.

Just picture the scenario that we build an India team without these three playing against New Zealand, Sri Lanka, the West Indies and others. Suddenly, we have them for crucial series in tough conditions. Does that not add an X factor, a potent item for a series win? Therefore, we have the resources and abilities to build purely a rotational team. Well, almost rotational.

John Buchanan

To reject an idea after due consideration is fine but never must we stick to old methods just because they were at one time considered correct? When a futuristic Aussie coach suggested that he field three captains in the Indian Premier League, a former great criticized him straightaway and we lapped up that conventional wisdom contentedly. How many of us bothered to analyse that the coach, John Buchanan, meant having separate thinkers for batting, bowling and fielding and the idea needed to be at least tried in an environment of less pressure? It seems that the general outcry against it led it abandonment in the crystallizing phase.

We are usually ready to accept that the pressure on Dhoni is more because he has to be the captain, the thinker; Remember, how his batting style changed after he became skipper, from being of gay abandon to that of a cautious, late-firing type?

So, why can’t we accept that when a player does not have to be the thinker in say, keeping tabs on the batting order, his own batting may flower. This would be possible in the experimentative scenario of multiple captains. But change is too strong an idea for us to accept, huh?

Careful India, the future is here already. Will you make the mistake of idea rejection?

Swap for God's sake

Sachin a good skipper?
Last year, there were whispers that had Shaun Pollock been allowed to continue the Mumbai Indians' captaincy in IPL-1, they would have won the games to see them through to the knockouts; Sachin missed some games, during which Pollock led the team to a frightening five consecutive wins including the eventual champs Rajasthan Royals who seemed unflappable even at the time.

Well, this year's IPL edition took off with the little master captaining his side to a comprehensive win over runners-up Chennai Superkings.

Dhoni's 'A-Gony'
Why was Joginder Sharma sent ahead of Manpreet Gony (No. 10) who impressed no less as an allrounder last year. Probably, yes, to get the crucial runs if it came down to a collapse. But on this occasion, the match situation at six wickets down should probably had go the Chennai Superkings captain thinking differently. Joginder Sharma distinctly couldn't get the ball off the square for three or four deliveries on two separate occasions. I think the match was lost here for the Chennai Super Kings.

Chidambaram Stadium Paradox
Takes me back to 1997 when in a one-day series against Pakistan (Saeed Anwar's 194 n.o.) Indian chased the mammoth total well, with Dravid duly getting a century on the belter of a batsman's track. However, come the crunch and we have Nayan Mongia walking out at his appointed number when a slog was on to get those elusive runs in the last overs. Hey, wasn't Sunil Joshi the effusive left-handed allrounder, top hand player and all that, the right bet to displace Mongia, which Tendulkar somehow didn't think of. Lack of some imagination in the team's think tank at that stage. One or two blows over the heads of the fielders, mechanically more possible by Sunil Joshi would have set us on course but we fell woefully short. The paradox in this context is that we're talking about the winning Mumbai Indians captain donning the role at Chennai a decade ago. Hope some cues are taken in Indian cricket and if this analysis is right... there is no batting order cast in stone in limited-overs cricket.