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SPORTS TRIBUNE |
BEYOND
AZLAN CUP Bouquets
& brickbats for Buchanan |
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Bouquets & brickbats for Buchanan Former Australian coach John Buchanan’s theory of rotating captains in IPL matches has raised a few heckles, but the plan has also found some takers, says Abhijit Chatterjee WHILE there is no denying the fact that the twenty20 format is still in a nascent state, the cricketing community has been a house divided after Australian coach John Buchanan floated the theory of rotating captains. This has brought many questions to the fore about the game that has already changed to such an extent that oldtimers find it difficult to keep track of what goes on in the field.
Buchanan’s theory of revolving captains has raised the heckles of many players. If it is implemented, it remains to be seen whether it will set new standards for other teams to follow in the shortest version of the game or not. Strangely enough, the new-age cricketers are willing to give this concept a shot. According to the former Australian coach, who trains Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), which has the charismatic Saurav Ganguly as the icon player and captain, the team will have four captains, who will have different roles to play in a given situation. According to Buchanan the captaincy of the team would be shared by Ganguly, Chris Gayle (West Indies), Brendon McCullum (New Zealand) and Brad Hodge (Australia). But he did not spell out the roles that the different captains would have, both on and off the ground. What was not specified was that would the captains take charge in different games? Or would the four captains separately decide on the batting lineup, field placing, bowling changes, with one captain to coordinate between all of them. And in case the four captains do not see eye-to-eye then who will take the final call — coach John Buchanan or team owner Shah Rukh Khan? Who will go out for the toss? Or who will decide to opt for batting or bowling once the toss takes place? The theory seems to have created more questions than solutions. Buchanan, who has never played at the highest level but has guided the Australian team to two World Cup victories, says this would bring in "different ways of thinking." But many see it as a ploy to sideline Ganguly, who was the first to ridicule the move. (The Punjab team in the IPL has different players, looking after different aspects of the coaching sessions. But on the field there is one captain). An early reaction to the Buchanan’s theory came from South African coach Mickey Arthur, who advocated the traditional approach to the captaincy issue. "I favour the one-captain situation because then the team is clear about who is in charge at all times. If you have more than one guy as leader, you don’t know whom to turn to," he was quoted as saying. Sunil Gavaskar, too, was critical of the Buchanan’s plan as was another former skipper — Dilip Vengsarkar. But the theory did find some supporters as well. Former South African coach Ray Jennings, who was replaced by Micky Arthur, thought the idea was interesting. Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath and skipper Ricky Ponting echoed similar thoughts. Ponting went on to say that Tasmania actually experimented with two captains a few seasons ago with one captain doing the field placing, while the other looked after the bowling changes. There are some takers for this theory among the younger Indian players, too. Robin Uthappa, who will be joining Team Bangalore this season, says, "The four-captain theory is a unique concept. It is possible that people may accept it later". Star batsman Sachin
Tendulkar has neither appreciated nor denounced the plan. However, he
doesn’t see anything novel in the idea for senior players always chip
in with suggestions, he adds. But he made it clear that no such
experiments would take place at the Mumbai Indian camp. |