View Full Version : Rating cricket captains
courtjester
17 Nov 2008, 10:17
There has been a lot of crap written in the media about Ponting's captaincy in India. There are some facts to note about his captaincy.
1. A test captain can only be as good as his team (notably strike bowlers).
2. India is a difficult place to win a series.
The reasons S.Waugh and Ponting (to this point) have been successful as captains are Warne and McGrath. Great bowlers make great captains. Look at history:
Waugh- McGrath, Gillespie, Warne, MacGill
Chappell- Lillee and Thompson
Benaud- Miller, Linwall, Davidson, Benaud
Bradman- O'Reilly, Grimmett
Test cricket demands 20 wickets in 5 days for a victory. The Australian attack will struggle with that demand til the next great bowler/s emerges.
Oh, I am just sick of hearing about rating captains and the like.
Who gives a flying **** if they had good bowlers. You may be the worlds greatest captain but if you don't have the personnel to put the ball in the right spot you aren't going to win games.
Captains in cricket are SOOO overated, the captain can't go out there and help Glen McGrath bat can he?
I AM SICK OF HEARING PONTINGS RECORD IS ONLY GOOD BECAUSE OF WARNE AND MCGRATH.
LIONS then DAYLIGHT
17 Nov 2008, 13:11
So am I.
On the last day Ponting had a massive predicament, should he bowl Watson and Krezja and ignore the over rate situation. If he did India would have almost certainly employed the same tactics the next day. Ponting could well have rightly been accused of cheating, denying the opposition the amount of overs they deserve in the search for victory.
It is a storm in a teacup, Richie Benaud sums it up best when he says he has never ment a great captain who didnt have a great bowling attack.
No doutb if Punter gets a ton on the first day of the gabba test then it will be very interesting with regards to the media.
Freo Big Fella
17 Nov 2008, 13:32
The way people have been rushing to absolve Ponting of any responsibility whatsoever for what was an absolutely shithouse bit of leadership is absolutely mind-boggling.
I mean why have a test captain at all? According to LtD he's responsible for precisesly nothing at all on the field!
So am I.
On the last day Ponting had a massive predicament, should he bowl Watson and Krezja and ignore the over rate situation. If he did India would have almost certainly employed the same tactics the next day. Ponting could well have rightly been accused of cheating, denying the opposition the amount of overs they deserve in the search for victory.
It is a storm in a teacup, Richie Benaud sums it up best when he says he has never ment a great captain who didnt have a great bowling attack.
No doutb if Punter gets a ton on the first day of the gabba test then it will be very interesting with regards to the media.
Stephen Fleming was a good captain and thinker. He had a shit bowling attack.
There has been a lot of crap written in the media about Ponting's captaincy in India. There are some facts to note about his captaincy.
1. A test captain can only be as good as his team (notably strike bowlers).
2. India is a difficult place to win a series.
The reasons S.Waugh and Ponting (to this point) have been successful as captains are Warne and McGrath. Great bowlers make great captains. Look at history:
Waugh- McGrath, Gillespie, Warne, MacGill
Chappell- Lillee and Thompson
Benaud- Miller, Linwall, Davidson, Benaud
Bradman- O'Reilly, Grimmett
Test cricket demands 20 wickets in 5 days for a victory. The Australian attack will struggle with that demand til the next great bowler/s emerges.
And you must remember that Taylor would have lost alot more games if it wasnt for Steve Waugh. Waugh was the only reliable batsman we had in the mid 90's and for much of Waugh's career he was in the top 3 batsmen in the world (the other 2 being Tendulkar and Lara).
LIONS then DAYLIGHT
17 Nov 2008, 16:28
Stephen Fleming was a good captain and thinker. He had a shit bowling attack.
That is fast becoming one of the biggest cricket myths ever circulated based primarily on the fact New Zealand nearly stole a series here in 2001, albeit aided by rain. And also the fact that there one day side had the wood over us in the 2001/02 VB series. Martyn in that series was caught once or twice cutting to 4 fieldsmen positioned more or less in the same spot. As such people have been lauding Fleming as a genius for some time.
Good isnt great though.
LIONS then DAYLIGHT
17 Nov 2008, 16:33
The way people have been rushing to absolve Ponting of any responsibility whatsoever for what was an absolutely shithouse bit of leadership is absolutely mind-boggling.
I mean why have a test captain at all? According to LtD he's responsible for precisesly nothing at all on the field!
Ponting should have dealt with the over-rates before they became a problem, but once you were 10 overs down then you cannot simply ignore it. In that case Ponting needs to pull his finger out and fix this over-rate problem.
However, if we had continued on that rate and said "stuff the overrates" then Ponting would rightly be accused of cheating and India would be within their rights to bowl the same amount of overs when we were chasing a target.
But hey, jump on the bash Ponting wagon and just forget about the disgraceful and dumb fast bowling that was evident in 4 test matchs.
You know the type, bowlers bowling short of a length to get smashed time and time again.