I once asked Tiger Pataudi how tough was it to captain India. He thought for a moment, then replied with a mischievous smile: Depends on how much you wanted to complicate it. That was typical of Tiger, someone who believed in keeping things simple.
When I posed the same question to Raj Singh Dungarpur, another stalwart, his response was completely different. Captaining the Indian cricket team, he said with dramatic exaggeration, is very difficult -- it is the second toughest job in India.
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| Why Virat Kohli is world’s busiest captain |
Why Virat Kohli is world’s busiest captain
That is a bit of a stretch but captaining India is challenging. The job extends beyond cricket, there is relentless scrutiny and every move of the captain is played out in full public glare. As the ‘face’ of Indian cricket, the skipper must take on heavy workload to meet the expectations of passionate fans.
Captain Virat Kohli, like his worthy predecessors and all Test captains, is responsible for delivering on-field results but unlike Jason Holder or Hamilton Masakadza (Zimbabwe), he is regularly dragged into other activities. Virat takes a call on yo-yo tests (yardstick for fitness), decides team culture, works on a long-term vision for Indian cricket and pushes for better wages. He is part of the team selection and, going by recent experience, has a say in appointing the coach/support staff.
Elsewhere, these matters are handled by professionals but in India, the bandwidth of the Indian captain is badly comprised. England has a Director Cricket (Andrew Strauss till recently) , a football style supremo with a veto over captain Joe Root and head coach Trevor Bayliss .
Ideally, the Director Cricket, or a High Performance Manager, should decide if Bhuvneshwar Kumar or Jasprit Bumrah need a break, whether MS Dhoni should play Vijay Hazare Trophy or Cheteshwar Pujara/Ishant Sharma would benefit from a stint in county cricket.
Sadly, without this robust support structure, the Indian captain has to step in and get his hands dirty. Kohli is hopelessly overburdened and forced to become a multitasking all-rounder -- player, leader, selector, Director Cricket -- all rolled into one.
It only happens in India that the captain dives deep into technicalities (match scheduling, practice games, quality of net bowlers); player welfare matters (contracts, match fees, allowances) or peripherals (travel clothing, size of suitcase, dress code).
Usually, the Players’ Association does all this but India is the only major cricketing nation without a players’ body. The BCCI is opposed to a trade union of players which could bargain aggressively and, in an interesting twist, neither are top players keen on uniting on one platform. The present arrangement works for both: BCCI happily accommodates top players, and Team India knows it can get what they want.
Some feel powerful Indian captains should leverage their influence to advance cricket and strive for ‘common good’. A contrary view suggests players should focus on playing and leave reform to the BCCI and the Supreme Court.
The Indian captain operates in a unique ecosystem that is chaotic and confusing. Kohli may not hold the second toughest job in India but he is certainly the busiest Test captain in world cricket .
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