Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Should India consider new T20 captain?

Soumyajit Ghose
Now that India have comprehensively lost in the T20 Cricket world cup consecutively twice, both the BCCI and the selection committee should be doing a bit of rethinking. Considering the idea of having M S Dhoni as the captain for test, one day and T20 squad has poorly backfired for the shortest version of the game, the selection committee should now be working out plans to appoint a new captain among the existing young T20 cricketers.

Over the past few years, the strategy of the selection committee over selection of captains has changed with M S Dhoni being hugely successful in all formats of the game. Dhoni’s inconsistency in T20 success after winning 2007 T20 World cup was mostly overshadowed by his achievements in other formats of the game. The selection committee was also complacent enough to let it pass through its reasoning. The committee when questioned by media over 2009 T20 world cup failure, wherein the Indian team lost all the super eight matches, cited performance of individual players and other factors as its reasons. The captainship of the team was not questioned as nobody doubted Dhoni’s ability considering his past success in the T20 format and his overshadowing accomplishments in other formats of the game.

Comparatively, the Australian captain Ricky Pointing, who was their most successful one day and test captain, was brought under review after the 2007 and 2009 T20 World cup debacles, only to be  later replaced by Michael Clark as their T20 captain. The BCCI and the selection committee have made a huge blunder by not considering the options of captain after India lost all the matches in the super eight stage of the 2009 T20 World cup. Now that they have repeated it again in this years T20 world cup, the selection committee should seriously consider bringing in a new captain from the existing bunch of T20 cricketers.

Moreover, with the passage of time the sensitivity of the Indian audience, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the selection committee and the Indian team members towards debacles in major ICC tournaments has been soft and weak. There is no more huge hue and cry over these failures as people have learnt to be rational in their reactions. Only the media makes huge critical headlines to induce the popular mood. The passivity of the audience can be attributed to wholesome effect of the team but the reaction of the board, selection committee and the team is totally bewildering. If the board, selection committee and the team becomes insensitive to major debacles at these tournaments, then the matter is serious. After all, the members of the board, the selection committee and the team should ensure that cricket is played in the national spirit and not seen as just any profit making initiative.

As the Indian team represents India at the ICC tournaments, the sensitivity of the debacle should be called for. Being just a monetary success, will not fulfil the cause of the Board as it will have to identify with the national spirit and come down heavily on the causes of the debacle. As a matter of fact, it will have to open up options in the captains category like it does for the players of the team.

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