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Date Posted: 08:34:12 04/05/05 Tue
Author: jaf
Subject: Re: captaincy by spanky
In reply to: jaf 's message, "captaincy by simon hughes" on 07:30:16 04/05/05 Tue

Captaincy in cricket is more important than leadership in any other sport. In the same way that an orchestra cannot perform without its conductor, the cricket team won't function without its captain. The main reason for this is cricket takes so long that the players' intensity cannot be sustained without some kind of direction. My wit and humour and gags about Jase alone don't motivate the team as they do in short games like football or rugby.

A Valley captain's list of duties does not extend to paying for tea and phoning in the score to the local paper. In fact they extend to as little taxing as possible. I have not spent all these years on tours, etc being Muir and Neil's biatch to now have to do anything taxing now that I have slid up Fizzs slippery pole to reach the position I am now in. It's an extremely complex and involved job nonetheless. My responsibilities can be divided into six areas:

1. Selection
2. The Toss
3. Motivation
4. Tactics
5. Declarations and follow-ons
6. Media


1) Selection

Historically, most captains were batsmen. It was a class thing; batsmen were 'gentlemen'. It's still predominantly true today, batsmen generally make good captains. In the last twenty-five years all the best Test captains – Mike Brearley, Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh, etc – have all been top-order batsmen. (Nasser Hussain is now staking his claim to be included in this top bracket.) Before the current era, two of the best post-war captains were allrounders: Richie Benaud and Ray Illingworth. They appreciated both aspects of the game but didn't have the burden of top-order batting or opening the bowling. Valleys new approach is novel, selecting someone solely as a captain with no expectation of contribution with bat, ball or in the field.

A captain's influence on selection varies. The tradition in Australia is for a selection committee to meet, then hand the chosen eleven over to the captain. Occasionally, in the past, they would select the best eleven players first, then pick the captain from them. However, they didn't have much success with that method.

In England, a captain is usually nominated for a term (either a tour or a series). He has full involvement in selection. Mike Brearley said he would have hated to have been handed a team he had had no part in choosing, because he was the one who had to walk onto the field with them. The current vogue is for the captain to be one of three or four voices in the selection committee, but he may have the final say if a decision is split.

Selection is one of the captain's biggest headaches, apart from hangovers. In any team there will always be someone not pulling his weight (and in Jases case that is too big a weight for anyone else to be expected to pull on his behalf), but when do you replace him, and who with? Much of the debate will centre round the balance of the side. How many players who have ever played before do we need and how many guys that we rounded up in the pub last night. Only at the start of play will I know if I have a full team on the day.

2) The Toss

The captain surfs the net the night before the game, paying particular attention to any site with the word 'ladyboy' or 'bangkok' in the title, and gets down to the pre-match preparation of the toss.

To bat or not to bat?

One of England's most distinguished captains, Colin Cowdrey, had firm beliefs about what to do if you won the toss. 'Nine times out of ten,' he'd say, 'you should automatically bat first. The other time you should think about fielding, but then bat anyway.' It worked for him (England lost only two of the nine series during his tenure as captain), but things are a little more sophisticated now. If there's any perceived dampness above the surface, I will always elect to bat first as the likelihood is one of my players has just thrown up on the wicket and best rest them with a nice long sleep in the pavilion rather than subject them to a few hours in the field. 'Sticking 'em in' is a far more accepted course of action than it used to be especially since my subscription for Ladyboys of Bangkok came through.

Occasionally, a captain such as myself will do the unexpected and play well.

The captain who wins the toss is supposed to tell his opposite number immediately what he has decided to do. He will also make a quick sign to the dressing room, either wielding an imaginary bat or swinging his arm in a bowling motion, to indicate what the team need to be ready for. Almost always will we be doing the opposite of my sign of course so that JT has to take his pads off before taking the field or Fizz looks a knob going out to bat in wicketkeeping pads and gloves. I usually prefer the wanker sign which can be interpreted as I know what we are doing but you will just have to wait til I get back to the dressing room. The decision will usually be a consensus – I'll have canvassed opinion from colleagues, selectors, ground staff, quite probably old players and commentators found wandering about on the middle, and perhaps even a weather expert. In fact anyone that can later be blamed for the disastrous decision I have just made.

Sometimes the variety of suggestions is more confusing than it is helpful. Against Zimbabwe in 2000, Nasser Hussain had heard so many conflicting opinions, he didn't know what to do two minutes before the flick of the coin. Having won the toss, he followed his hunches and chose to bowl. It was a good decision. Within six overs Zimbabwe were 8-3 and soon after lunch were bundled out for 83. I was screaming from the sofa 'Bat, Nasser, Bat'.

3) Motivation

You get all types of captains. Loud, hands-on-hips types (Mike Gatting); quiet, detached types (Mike Atherton); disciplinarians (Alec Stewart); laissez-faire-ists (David Gower); fitness fanatics (Graham Gooch); it will be all right on the night if i just keep my head down-ists (me). The best captains employ a range of responses – emotional in some situations, philosophical in others, and know when to be stern and when to be sympathetic. Sometimes the whip is required, on other occasions the carrot is more appropriate. Mike Brearley, England's most successful captain, described the job as 'a bit like gardening – some plants need fertilizer to thrive, others need pruning'. A coaxing word for one and a cattle prod for another. Keeping unruly perennial misbehavers like Fizz and Fat Boy Mitchell in line is difficult especially when you believe Man Lee to be a character from your favourite website rather than a characteristic to alow you to impose your authority on the team.

Communication

Having said that, a general outline of tactics is necessary in the dressing room – a pep talk before each session of play. This may be imparted in measured tones, as in 'It'd be nice to get one out today' or 'Now let's not forget that Smith is very strong against anything short', or in more forceful ones: 'I told you Smith [80 not out] was a good hooker and puller. Anyone listening out there?' or 'If we bowl badly enough they will knock these off in no time and I can get back home to my computer. I will lead from the front boys - do you think he will be better dispatching rank long hops or full tosses?'

Fred Trueman and his ilk would be quick to say that any Test cricketer worth his salt shouldn't need telling how to do his job, or require any motivation. 'Three lions on my chest were good enough for me,' etc. But players do need direction and, with the endless amount of club cricket played these days, the odd gee up. Nasser Hussain addresses his players in a little huddle on the field, just before heading out to the middle, as a final reminder of what's at stake.

Once play is underway, the captain's motivating words are on a more individual basis. He might sense a bowler is just going through the motions and chivvy him into greater effort, or take him off and let him stew on the boundary for a while until he's champing at the bit. He might be aware of someone feeling a bit of a spare part and give him an earlier bowl than he might have expected. He also has to be strong enough to take that bowler off again if he doesn't deliver.

Canvassing opinion from other members of the team, however junior, is also a good way of ensuring everyone feels important. Asking others what it would be best to do next is good team psychology and it doesn't mean you have to follow their suggestion. Mike Brearley suggests, in his classic book The Art of Captaincy, that charisma is not a prerequisite for a captain, but communication is. However icy the wind, he must not keep a glacial distance from his players. More importantly, he must be able to manipulate the team mood, rather than be manipulated by it. The last thing you want is to alienate people. One way to alienate people is 'floating' myself in the batting order so I bat at the best position when the easiest bowlers are on but contrary to my previous sentence I feel that a little bit of alienation is ok in the right circumstances.

4) Tactics

When all's said and done, a captain's primary task is to organise the bowling and set the field. In this sense, tactics and motivation are inextricably linked but of less importance than self-fulfillment, guaranteeing a full spell regardless of match situation and own performance. It's no good setting a really attacking field knowing the bowlers prefer to be more defensive. This is a sure way to lose runs. Bowlers should have the major say in their field setting. If they don't get it, they'll get very shirty. But, no matter, the captain reserves the right to overrule them. He has the final say.

Field-setting strategies

No field settings will be pre-planned. The team will know that I tend to bowl the ball in a particular area (shoulder area, leg-side) and therefore retreat to the leg side boundary to cover it.

One of the most thorny issues is how long to keep the field 'up' (lots of close catchers). Obviously if the ball is constantly being edged, it's sensible to persist with a predatory slip cordon. But the time will come when edges have ceased or developed a tendency to scoot along the ground towards the boundary (perhaps as the ball gets softer). I always employ slips who are incapable of holding a catch for as long as possible before scattering the field.

At some stage, protection (in the form of a third-man fielder) will be needed, which means removing one of the slips. But how soon? That is the perennial question. It's important to be flexible (especially to get into some of Man Lees favourite positions). Pre-planning is good, but persisting with a ploy if it doesn't work is not. If the captain has put a team in on an apparently damp pitch and they've raced to 90-0 it's time to ditch the attacking fields and opt for Plan B - start consulting your vice-captain lots so you can blame him at tea.

A stubborn captain is far more likely to rile his team than an adaptable one. The best captains are like the best sailors – they have a feel, maybe an extrasensory perception, of when the wind's changing, and they can alter course accordingly.

Bowling changes

As for bowling changes, although there will be a strategy beforehand (minimise damage to self, always ensure bowling at kids and women unless they look like they can play), these are very much at the captain's whim. Managing the attack, so that the best bowlers are not over bowled and remain fresh for those vital moments, is a skill that requires acumen, a cool head and some luck. Opening bowlers will normally be rested after a six- or seven-over spell, though they may go on longer if they're taking wickets. Rotating the bowling so that, for instance, all the quicker men get a burst downwind, keeps everyone happy, except the left armer who is lumbered with wheeling away endlessly into a gale (but Jases face suits misery so much more than joy). Sometimes it'll be evident when a bowler is tiring, sometimes it won't. The trick is to relieve him before he sends down that weary over, costing 30 runs. Through a long, tiring day, it's sensible to share the workload.

Keeping up the pressure

What should always be uppermost in the captain's mind is how to keep the batsmen under pressure – putting bowlers on or fielders in positions that the batters specifically don't like. A batsman who is uncomfortable or frustrated will inevitably get out. There are a-thousand-and-one tactical ruses to prosper in the field: from the obvious (maintain relentless accuracy, as Australia do) to the bizarre (Mike Brearley's overs of slow, head-high lobs with everyone back on the boundary, confused even the most confident batsman).

It's easy to distinguish a good captain from a bad one in the field. The better ones seem always one step ahead of the game, putting bowlers on who immediately take wickets, placing fielders in positions where they stop runs. They have vision and direction. The also-rans 'follow the ball', plugging gaps that have already gushed runs and leaving bowlers on for long spells, letting the game atrophy. A good captain, a man with an agile tactical mind and a perceptive eye, is worth his place in the team for this alone. Fortunately we struggle for 11 so I am quite safe.

5) Declarations and the Follow-on

This does not apply to our version of the game. If it did the timing of our declaration would be crucial, in that it would be always after I had batted.

6) Media

These days a captain's work is never done until the last te last scribe has vacated the press box. It is bad enough to be humiliated on the field of play without the gory details appearing in the County News.

Playing the game

Cricket captaincy is one of the hardest jobs in sport – the captain is pit-face worker, Asda employee, shift supervisor and trades-union spokesman all rolled into one. They have a lot on their plate, and it's no wonder their own game sometimes suffers though when you have no game to begin with yourself there is not too much of a detioration.

Star players are a captain's best friends. Players like JT, Andy Mck and Fizz can camouflage a multitude of inadequacies and get 'luck' on your side. Without them captaincy is a severe test of character. Taylor has been the outstanding Test captain of the last decade. He was constantly able to rub the lamp and conjure up something. I have therefore been practicing rubbing a lot since this appointment was confirmed though I don't have a lamp. But it helps to have a few genies at your disposal.


Copyright material reproduced under license from Macmillan Publishers Ltd. London, England

Copyright © Simon Hughes 2001
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