Modern day style of captaincy leaves a lot to be desired.

The game of cricket has evolved by leaps and bounds since it was first played internationally  in 1877. Some of the aspects of the game have improved drastically while some of them have deteriorated over the passage of time. One of the disturbing aspects of the modern day cricket is the lack of innovative style of captaincy. There has been a debate on what are the qualities of a good captain. Some astute experts on the game of cricket suggest that a captain is as good as his team, some might suggest that a captain should be able to command a place in his team by virtue of his performances. All said and done a captain of a national cricket team must be able to earn respect from his fellow players and he should be a good reader of the game always a step or two ahead of the game. Some of these prerequisite qualities are missing from a majority of the modern day captains. The approach of some of the captains seems to be baffling to say the least.

The first charge (if you could call it that) is the over defensive mindset of a fielding captain when the opposition team is under pressure. There are plenty of instances where the batting team is in a precarious position with a new player at the crease who is yet to get his eye in properly and adjust to the pitch conditions, what does the captain do? instead of building pressure on the new batsmen he places an in out field whereby the batsmen is allowed to maneuver the ball into the empty spaces and ease himself  at the very start of his innings. We rarely see close in fielders trying to save the single inside the inner circle. Secondly, the modern day captains lay too much emphasis on placing fielders for bad bowling. After every couple of deliveries the fielders are shuffled all over the field and this takes up way too much time. No wonder the bowling rates are appalling to say the least. Very seldom do we come across a captain who along with his team manages to complete the requirements of finishing 15 overs in an hour in tests as well as ODI’s .

Very often we see the bowlers getting the top batsmen out quickly but due to the defensive captaincy the tailenders hang on for far too long increasing the frustration level of the entire team which has a demoralizing effect when the fielding team goes out to bat. It is indeed baffling to watch a fielding captain placing defensive fields when a pair of an established player and a tailender is at the crease. The fielding team very rarely tries to get the recognized batsman dismissed quickly but instead only tries to scalp the tailender gifting precious runs to the batting team in the process. Even when the tailenders are slogging, the captains invariably place 4 or 5 fielders on the boundary giving way too much respect to the tailenders. Modern captains invariably run out of ideas when plan A or B does not work and lose focus on the job at hand. For an attacking player like Sehwag, fielding captains invariably place deep point and deep square leg even at the start of his innings. All they are doing is playing in to the hands of the batsmen as he is much too smart and chooses to take easy singles which are on offer every time. Very rarely do we see some ‘out of the box’ bowling changes like Martin Crowe started with a spinner like Dipak Patel during the ‘92’ world cup which proved to be a masterstroke.

One of the bane of modern day captaincy is the lack of innovative ideas when the onslaught is going on in limited overs cricket or when the pitch is very dead and flat during the test match. Even during the time of declaration of the innings the captains take far too long to declare erring on the side of caution as supposed to giving such a target which the batting team can attempt to chase down and might lose wickets in the process which could make the match very interesting. Captains like Mark Taylor would announce sporting declaration and would try to make a match out of a virtual dead test match. At a time when test cricket is being seriously challenged by the T20 format, it is all the more prudent for captains to be proactive rather than reactive in their captaincy so as to produce more and more results in the longer format of the game. The modern captains might argue that they have very few match  winning bowlers at their disposal and especially when more and more test matches are being  played on tracks which offer too little for the bowlers. Even though there is some merit in this argument, all the more reason to play 5 bowlers instead of 4 by taking the gamble of playing with a batsman short when the wickets are batting friendly. The modern captains also argue that they have a lot on their plate with all the media scrutiny and they have to manage various things off the field, but with handsome monetary rewards and recognition, captains must bear in mind that they are professionals at the end of the day and should consider themselves lucky when they are at the helm of affairs of  the entire team. Captaincy is a very crucial aspect of cricket unlike other sports and it has a substantial influence on the overall result of the game.