BOMBAY, 4 June 2004 — Four international cricket captains hit the headlines almost at the same time last week. They either expressed their unfettered views on various aspects of the game, or were spoken of in glowing terms by others. Such an occasion presents itself only rarely, as it does at the ICC annual get-together of captains, or at the time of a cricket conglomeration like the World Cup.
The first in the news was Nasser Hussain who suddenly decided to retire from international cricket. Known more as a successful captain than a batsman, Hussain had scored a century and had helped England to beat New Zealand, before making up his mind to retire. Just last season, he had relinquished the captaincy in favor Michael Vaughn.
In a freewheeling talk at the otherwise staid Lord’s of London, Hussain expressed his views on a wide gamut of emotions connected with the game. The main reason for his calling it quits was to give an opportunity to a younger cricketer to play for England.
Probably the best tribute to Hussain was paid by Sachin Tendulkar. “He was probably the best captain I have played against. He was a master strategist,” said the world’s leading batsman. Tendulkar recalled that Hussain, when he led England on the tour of India in 2001, had used a negative line of leg-stump attack against him to blunt his strokeplay. “I don’t think that Hussain, by doing so, had ever breached either the spirit or the laws of the game. It was just his master strategy,” said Tendulkar in an exclusive interview to BBC.
Another captain to get himself in the news was Saurav Ganguly. As is his wont, he made loud noises about the standard of the game these days. Ganguly suggested that the countries playing Test cricket should be divided into two classes, the elite and the second division. Although he did not name any countries not worthy of being in higher company, his hint was on teams like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.
In his newly found arrogance, Ganguly seems to have forgotten that under his very own captaincy, India had lost a Test match to Zimbabwe, just a couple of years ago.
It was left to former Australian captain Steve Waugh to shoot down this suggestion in his own inimitable style. “There are only ten countries playing Test cricket. If we divide these in divisions, we will be running terrible short of Test matches,” he said in Bombay the other day.
Waugh is a frequent visitor to India for his charity work. But this time he had flown in for an ad campaign. He took this opportunity to shower the highest praise on Muttiah Muralitharan. “Let us celebrate his immense success of having become the highest-wicket taker in the world and not talk about any doubts in his bowling action,” he said and added “I rate him as great, if not a greater spinner than Shane Warne.”
The fourth international captain to sneak into the glare of publicity was Inzamam ul-Haq who is rather low in confidence after losing both the Test and One-Day series to India at home recently. Although the Pakistan Cricket Board has given the benefit of the doubt to Shoaib Akhtar, Inzy still believes that the legendary fast bowler had let down Pakistan. “I will insist on a fitness certificate all over again, whenever Akhtar decides to play for Pakistan next,” he said during an interview.
That statement may be in fitness of things, but it appears that Inzy’s own captaincy may be on the line, if one were to go by the views of some of his critics.
Several former players feel that Inzamam is too soft to handle the Pakistani team that is made up of players who are in fierce competition with each other. He is also given to sulking when things do not go well for the team. As such, he is unable to bring the best out of his players. One could see a sharp contrast in the approach of the Indian captain in this regard. Aggression is writ all over Ganguly’s face, however indifferent his own batting form may be.
A likely change in the captaincy of the national side appears to be just one of the several problems faced by the PCB. Dissension is once again raising its ugly head within the body. The chief patron of the PCB, the country’s president himself, looks upset with the state of affairs. There may not be any great shake-up, to talk of, but some major changes in the set-up are surely in the offing.
