Punjab captaincy, a game of musical chairs

Subhash Rajta

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 24

At the start of every season for the last seven years, the Punjab Cricket Association selectors have been doing something almost religiously — appoint Harbhajan Singh as the captain of the Ranji Trophy team. Given that the off-spinner is the most successful player ever from Punjab, handing him the reins of the team is understandable.

On taking a closer look, however, the practice doesn’t appear as reasonable, for it has been followed, especially in the last couple of years, without considering two key factors — Harbhajan’s availability and the team’s performance in the previous season.

Consider this: In the last three seasons (including the current season), Punjab have played 22 matches, but Harbhajan has featured only in five of them. And during this period, he wasn’t playing for India either — he played his last Test in August 2015, last ODI in October 2015 and last T20I in March 2016.

So what’s keeping him away for such long periods? “He told us his daughter was not well,” said a PCA official when asked why the skipper didn’t play the first four matches this season.

Other captains 

Harbhajan may have his reasons to miss so many games, but his sporadic appearances are hurting the team. He’s almost a non-playing skipper; as a result, the captaincy has become a game of musical chairs in the side. In his absence, the captaincy automatically goes to Yuvraj Singh, subject to his availability of course. And if the left-hander is also not available, the captaincy hat gets juggled between Mandeep Singh, Gurkeerat Mann and Jiwanjot Singh.

“This kind of situation isn’t good for anyone,” said a former Punjab Ranji Trophy cricketer. “Anyone who’s given the captaincy knows he’s merely filling in for Harbhajan. It doesn’t allow him to settle down, make long term plans, and take the ownership of the team.”

Incidentally, Jiwanjot, who was given the captaincy this season in the absence of the two stalwarts, did a fine job, but had to abdicate the position when either of the two chose to play.

Under Jiwanjot, Punjab secured a fighting draw against hosts Himachal Pradesh at Dharamsala in their season opener, and then registered two back to back outright wins against Goa and Chhattisgarh in away games.

He, however, had to hand over the captaincy to Yuvraj against Vidarbha at Mohali and then to Harbhajan in Amritsar against Bengal. Interestingly, Punjab suffered an innings defeat, that too at home, in both the matches.

Needless change? 

That begs the question, why PCA and its selectors felt obliged to give the captaincy to Harbhajan and Yuvraj even though Jiwanjot was doing a fine job? Other states, the Cricket Association of Bengal and Tamil Nadu, continued with their regular skippers even when India regulars — Mohammed Shami and  Wriddhiman Saha in Bengal’s case, and Murali Vijay and R Ashwin in Tamil Nadu’s case — became available to play for them. Why can't PCA look beyond the two veterans for captaincy and use their services just as players? 

At last, it seems PCA is thinking on these lines. Not happy with the team’s performance, it has decided to form a committee to review the team’s poor performance. And in all probability, the committee will have a look at the captaincy conundrum as well. “We want the captain to be involved with the team right from the inter-district tournaments,” said the PCA official. “We will wait for the season to finish and then take some decisions.”

About time, one would say.