Former captains would do well to offer advice to young leaders of age-group teams to prepare them for bigger challenges at the highest level. WITH three versions of the game now deeply embedded, it’s worth considering how captaincy has evolved and what is being done to prepare cricket’s future leaders. There’s no doubt more hurdles are placed in the path of the modern captain than there were for those who tackled the task when there was one major version (Test cricket), with occasional forays into the limited-overs game.
The obstacles vary from increased regulation, including fielding restrictions and Powerplays, to a plethora of coaches and advisors, and somewhat limited opportunities to hone your captaincy skills prior to reaching international level.
The fact that prospective captains play very little club and first-class cricket because of the cluttered international schedule means vital steps are now missing in a player’s leadership education. Club cricket was an opportunity to hone tactics and strategy, while the first-class game tested man-management skills and the ability to handle pressure situations.
Someone like Virat Kohli has gone from successfully captaining the Under-19 Indian side to, with very little further leadership experience, being awarded the job at Test level. That’s akin to completing a couple of years at secondary school and then skipping off to university.
This is one reason put forward for the rise in popularity and presence of international coaches. That theory would have more validity if the bulk of those coaches had some previous success as a captain – preferably at international level – but this is rarely the case. With the earning potential of players and former players rising rapidly since the inception of the IPL, former captains are going to be even less inclined to take on time-consuming coaching roles in future.
Therefore it makes sense to utilise these former captains in a part-time mentoring capacity and have the coach’s role revert to being a managerial job, where he relieves the captain of any peripheral tasks. As a captain, all the Ws and Ls are going against my name; I’m not interested in delegating any task that will influence those results.
The problem with the mentoring role is where to utilise a former captain’s expertise. Advice is most effective before the prospective captain reaches international level. However, the best players often also captain their underage teams and this can mean they miss a golden opportunity to lead the A side because they’re quickly elevated to national duty.
In this case the only opportunity for mentoring would come at the underage level. The best way to improve as a captain is to do the job and learn from your errors. From the age of about 16-17 a captain should be left to his own devices, and after play a mentor could then discuss with him the reasons behind his tactics and strategy.
If young captains are influenced by coaches with limited leadership knowledge, it won’t elevate the standard of captaincy. When I was a golfer, I resolved not to take too much notice of advice given by players with a handicap; I’d adopt a similar principle with captaincy.
The current system requires the captain to be even more strong-minded than usual to ward off well-meaning advice from coaches and the other advisors who now proliferate in the game. However, in this environment, if he is single-minded, he’s in danger of being labelled hard to handle, which places him in danger of unfairly losing the captaincy job if he suffers a few setbacks.
When it comes to laws and playing conditions, my preference has always been for legislation that encourages captains to be imaginative, so the good ones prosper and the plodders are exposed. In the limited-overs versions of the game, the stifling regulations too often lead to “formulated” captaincy, which can in turn provide mindless periods of play.
A good captain backs his own judgement, while also relying on advice from his senior bowlers and team-mates. His development can be enhanced if he’s exposed to a valuable mentor or two while he’s learning the role. – ESPN Sports Media