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Pietersen as a Test captain, anyone?
By Jonathan Liew 2 months ago, 9 Comments »
There’s always a tendency to make your best player captain, but of late it’s one England have found it quite easy to resist. Captains need guile, nous, subtlety and tact. Mike Brearley had those things. Conversely, I reckon there’s about a 10% chance Kevin Pietersen hasn’t even heard of Mike Brearley.
For the moment, though, KP appears to the man in possession, which allows a tantalising glimpse into an imagined, post-Vaughan future. The present skipper clearly wants to make it as far as the next Ashes series, although so did Graham Thorpe, you might remember. In fact, any one of a number of circumstances could derail Vaughan before next summer - poor form with the bat, a thumping at the hands of South Africa, a disastrous winter tour, that blasted knee, an invitation to take part in Strictly Come Dancing - you know, anything.
And so, a number of names would be in the frame. Collingwood, if he’s still in the team; Cook, probably; Flintoff as a romantic outside bet; Strauss, heaven forbid. Pietersen, though, will definitely be a front-runner. If his stint as one-day captain goes well or he has a sensational run of form, his hand will be strengthened still further.
What would Pietersen be like as a captain? More importantly, perhaps, what would Pietersen the captain be like as a batsman? This is how the captaincy has affected the batting averages of some modern-day captains:
Ricky Ponting: 62.00 as captain; 55.97 not as captain
Brian Lara: 57.83 as captain; 50.12 not as captain
Rahul Dravid: 44.51 as captain; 57.66 not as captain
Michael Vaughan: 37.71 as captain; 50.98 not as captain
Interesting, isn’t it? The best two captains - Dravid and Vaughan - are the two whose form actually dips when given the top job.
When you consider the circumstances, it begins to make a little sense. Imagine that Vaughan or Dravid comes out to bat at 10 for 1 in reply to a score of about about 500. Neither man is exactly going to come out with all guns blazing. As captain, that would be irresponsible. Vaughan and Dravid feel a great and justifiable sense of responsibility towards their team which sometimes inhibits them from playing their natural game.
If Ponting or Lara came in in the same situation (Lara’s retired, I know) they would feel less constrained by the match situation. The reason? Ponting knows that if he’s out cheaply, chances are one of the batsman coming after him will save the day. Lara knows, or knew, that even if he scored 150, the West Indies would still very possibly lose. Neither Ponting nor Lara are as central to their team’s batting line-up as Vaughan or Dravid are, and they can thus play with a far greater degree of freedom.
That’s not to say that players whose figures improve when they become captain are simply selfish and single-minded; merely that the more freedom you have to play your natural game, the less it matters whether you’re a good captain or not. Ponting could be a terrible captain and Australia would still win most of the time. Lara could be a brilliant one and the West Indies would still lose. It’s the likes of Vaughan and Dravid, in the middle ground, who have to rein themselves in for the good of the team.
The qualities that make players good captains, then, actually render them less effective as a batsman. If KP ever becomes England captain, it looks like someone else is going to have to get the runs.
9 Comments »Excusing India’s defeat
By Will last year, at the end of August, 10 Comments »
I’m in India, hence the total lack of any posts here (bar Ian’s - thanks), but while I was wolfing my breakfast this morning I read a curious sub-header in today’s Hindu. I don’t have it in front of me now, so forgive me if it’s not entirely accurate, but it said of Dravid’s decision to field first: “Probably due to extensive cloud cover”. The partisanship here is like no other country. Face it; England outplayed you.
The channel I watched it on contained commentators who shared a mixture of English and Hindu. But when Sachin was scratching around, as is his modern wont, any drive which pinged off his bat was met with “What a shot! What a shot there from Sachin Tendulkar…and it’s fielded in the covers preventing the single”.
Anyway, it’s a topic for another day. Here’s the brilliant contraption in which I was pushed up 46kms of India’s “Blue Mountains,” the Nilgiris. It really is spectacular here.
Got a minute or ten?
By Will last year, mid-July, 1 Comment »
I had the good fortune of (finally) meeting Patrick Kidd for lunch today and, among other things, he told us about his interview with Rahul Dravid yesterday (certainly worth reading). He managed 800 words - a fine feat considering he was afforded just two minutes with the India captain. Two. He and another journalist were given five “precious” minutes with him which never ceases to annoy me. With such a short time frame, you often end up firing questions at them, nodding furiously but not listening sufficiently, and it becomes a barrage for the interviewee. Of course, neither party - least of all those being interviewed - have hours and hours spare. But all we’re asking for is 10 minutes. That’s a fair amount of time in which to conduct a decent interview and get to know the human behind the sound-bites.
In Ireland, I was lucky to speak to a number of the players and the restrictions were far less. Rare and priceless. I wonder if and when that’ll ever happen? Anyway - go and read Patrick’s piece and of course his blog, Line and Length, immediately.
1 Comment »West Indies are all over India
By Will 2 years ago, at the end of June, 2 Comments »
Title says it all. In the 38 overs bowled so far in the fourth Test, India are 56 for 3. That’s under two runs-per-over! Rahul Dravid (inevitably) and Yuvraj Singh have put on 22 for the fourth wicket to steady proceedings, but it’s a cracking start to the Test. Check out the live scorecard.
Update: 91 for 5 from 50 overs
Update: 91 for 6. Read my colleage Jamie’s comments in the ball-by-ball coverage at Cricinfo:
Collymore to Dhoni, OUT, GONE! Short ball on off, Dhoni goes for his favorite cut shot but can only hit it to Dwayne Bravo in the slips, what a good catch, made it look so simple, another Indian falls prey to this disciplined bowling attack, they’re in tatters here at Sabina Park, what a batting display, check one more for the Windies
Yes, he did say disciplined! What a first day West Indies are having.
2 Comments »India v England, 1st Test, Nagpur, Day Three
By Will 2 years ago, at the start of March, 37 Comments »
Interesting day, yesterday. England fought their way to 400 (falling just short) and, thanks to the lower-order supporting him, Paul Collingwood hit a fine first century. He’s not Bradman, but he does have a lot of guts.
So India trail by 257 runs. At stumps yesterday, Rahul Dravid (40*) and Wasim Jaffer (73*) were batting quite serenely - but they still trail, and won’t be sleeping too easily. Were it not for Collingwood’s century, England would be in a mess right now. And while his knock has helped balance the scales somewhat, the ball is in India’s court. It could be a long day for the fielders.
Chat away, chaps.
37 Comments »Athers: “Offspinners were crap in my day!”
By Scott 2 years ago, at the start of February, 3 Comments »
If it’s Sunday, it must be time to see what Mike Atherton is writing in the Sunday Telegraph.
Mike, if you read this, I pick on you because your good. I don’t do this to Roebuck or any of the other hacks out there.
This week, our hero is writing about England’s dire spinning options heading to India. No doubts there. But not to worry, no English spinner was ever going to bowl out Dravid, Tendulkar and co. England’s strength is in their pace bowlers. If England are going to win in India, it will be Simon Jones and Andrew Flintoff that are the men to do the job
But Athers goes into his own memory to make a point:
The best off-spinner that I played against, Tim May, didn’t bowl a ‘doosra’ but he did grasp the need to vary his pace and his flight, change his angle on the crease and give the ball such an almighty rip that a huge, bleeding gash was routinely opened on his spinning finger each time he started a spell.
TIM MAY????
*scott falls on the floor laffing*
Truly, your kidding, right? Actually, “Mayhem” was a pretty decent offspinner, who never took himself very seriously at all. It’s one of the funny things in life that Tim May, who was a affable joker of a player has transformed into the uber-serious head of FICA, the cricketer’s union.
The first Test I ever actually went to was Australia vs West Indies, 1992-93 (yes THAT one, where we lost by one run.) I had to catch my train back to the country town I was living in, so I had to leave the ground with an hour of play to go. As I regretfully walked out the Victor Richardson Gates at the Adelaide Oval, May was just coming on to bowl. He took 5 for 9 in that hour, routing the West Indies, and causing the rest of Adelaide to lose the plot. And I missed it! And Tim scored 42 not out to nearly take Australia to the Frank Worrell Trophy. There was real steel under that goofy grin, and real talent, too.
But I still want to know how much Mayhem paid Athers to write that. All of Tim May’s friends, family and fans want to know!
3 Comments »C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la guerre
By Scott 2 years ago, mid-January, 11 Comments »
That was a French General reacting to the Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854. It is also my reaction to the First Test, where India, as I write, are 0 for 403, and they’ve just gone off for bad light. Sehwag is 247, and Dravid is 128. This is in response to Pakistan’s 679 for 7 declared, a total that could have been far larger had Pakistan put their minds to it.
So by my creaky mathematics, we’ve had 1,083 runs and 7 wickets.
Great. But to me, this is almost as much nonsense as that Twenty-20 rubbish. Sorry to be an incurable snob, but to me, cricket is a contest between bat and ball, not a batathon. If there is any justice in this world the curator should be impaled with a pristine cricket stump, and I am sure Shoaib, Danish Kaneria, and indeed Harbhajan Singh and Irfan Pathan would endorse my sentiments.
11 Comments »