A captain is as good as his team

There is a famous saying in cricket "Wicket keeping is a thankless job". For 6 years in the Indian team Dhoni has donned the keeping gloves and he should be pretty aware of the saying. The Indian cricket team has for sure hit a road block, all the good work done by Kirsten and Dhoni seems to have been undone but Dhoni alone is not to be blamed for this fiasco. When a team is doing well, whatever the captain does is appreciated. The captain makes a change and the ball goes there and people say that he is an astute captain; he has a great cricketing brain etc. But as soon as the team starts to lose he becomes a villain.

That’s the bane of being an international captain. Let us try this theory, a captain is only as good as his team, he is not a miracle worker and cannot individually turn the fortune of the side period. The only think which I will hold against Dhoni is the fact that his batting form was woeful during the Australian tour but other than that he is only a part of the overall failure. The Indian team has failed collectively, the batting has struggled, and the bowling lacked direction and fielding poor. When you have all departments of the game desert you, how are you supposed to win?

A captain can strategize, inspire, motivate and sometimes pull of a brilliant bowling or field change during a match that’s about it. Every player has a role and when they perform it to the hilt a team succeeds. The Indian team was doing that pre world cup and the results were there to see. The sudden loss of form of the batsmen is something which made it difficult for the team. A captain cannot play for the other 10 members as it is them who have to do the job. Dhoni received lots of flak for Indian performance which is okay but calling to replace him as captain seems childish. India doesn’t have replacements and Gambhir and Sehwag aren’t captain material to be frank. Dhoni needs to continue, couple of poor tours does not make him a bad captain. He just captained a very poor and out of form unit in the two tours.

Andrew Strauss’s England team just got whitewashed by Pakistan, that does not mean that he suddenly becomes a bad captain but it just proves that the team collectively failed to perform. When the team does not perform as a captain you cannot do a great deal but to keep trying to inspire. Ricky Ponting had a great run as captain once he took over from Steve Waugh but in 2007 when he lost the greats he struggled. Stephen Fleming is called one of the best brains in cricket and captained New Zealand brilliantly in early part of the millennium but his team hardly won. Not entirely Fleming’s fault as the team wasn’t good enough.

Dhoni has been a great captain for India. He took over the reins when India was going through a rough time and inspired a young team to wins in South Africa (T20) and in Australia (CB series). He is a great leader of men who currently faces a tough task of managing a team which is underperforming and with ageing stars who have past their best. This is not the time to make hasty decisions as India is going to lose the greats. The greats in the middle order need to go to make way for the youngsters but the captain needs to remain. This is the time when Dhoni’s services as a captain are required to carry the team forward. The better option would be to continue with Dhoni as the captain in tests and probably groom someone for the future. Australia has had success with such process when Ponting was groomed under Steve Waugh and Clarke was groomed under Ponting.

This is a phase when the team needs a strong character like Dhoni at the helm. He still is the best person to lead the national team. People calling for his head don’t realize that there is no worthy replacement in the squad at the moment and making anyone as the captain is not an option. I as an Indian cricket fan wholeheartedly support Dhoni at this point of crisis as this is the time when he needs utmost support of his fans. CCL grabs interests of the fans.

Article by: Giridharan Subramanian