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Wanted: Non-playing captain

We have seen the Indian tennis team becoming very successful, led by a non-playing captain. Here I want to make a case for non-playing captain for the Indian cricket team.

Our team is currently in a crisis, following Tendulkar's decision to resign as captain. The resignation has no doubt been brought about his inability to cope with the pressures of both his individual performance as also his captaincy. But why has this situation come about?

If you look the captains India have had, most of them have been the best performers of the team. So we had Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Azharduddin, who when they were the captain, were also the best players of the team. What is the problem here, you may ask?

In today's cricketing world, there is more to matches than mere batting, bowling and fielding. Lots of strategies come into picture - analysis of opponents, their individual strengths and weaknesses, the nature of wickets, the climatic conditions, the size of the playing field, and a host of other things.

In a team where there are only two or three performers and the others are more an excess baggage, the performers can't afford to put their guards down even for one match. The consequences of that was felt in the recent Australian series. In this scenario, when the best team performer is also burdened with captaincy, where has the captain the time to mentor his players, suggest tactics, when he also has to worry about his performance in the next match?

You may ask, how it works in other teams. Take Australia, the world's best side. One wouldn't consider Steve Waugh as the best player of the side, by any means. The same applies to the South African captain, Hansie Cronje. These men have leadership qualities, more than the greatest of cricketing talent.

The best performer need not always be an effective leader. The leader necessarily doesn't have to be the best performer, though performance is certainly one way to lead the team.

The current Indian team lacks "leaders". We do have other performers like Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly. But what guarantee is there that these players will not meet the same crisis which Tendulkar had to go through. In order not to repeat such a scenario, I'd like to see India having a non-playing captain. What are the advantages in this case?

a) He is not burdened with the need to perform. Instead of worrying about his individual performance with the bat or ball, he can spend his time, giving individual attention to the players of the side - making them build their strengths and pointing out their weaknesses.
b) He can chalk out the strategies and tactics much better. He can research the various pitches, the kind of opponents, the playing conditions and come out with strategies and tactics. For this, the non-playing captain must be a man of tremendous experience.
c) He can be held accountable when there is a tactical mistake because he commands a bird's eye view of proceedings from the pavilion and is a better judge of what to do next than from the ground.

So what should the qualities of the non-playing captain be?

a) He should have leadership skills
b) He must be a person admired and respected by all
c) He must be in close touch with cricket and all its associated aspects
d) He must be a man of experience, who has played against all kinds of oppositions, in all kinds of scenario.

Considering these qualities, currently there is only one Indian cricketer who qualifies for this job - Sunil Gavaskar. He has kept himself in touch with cricket, he commands the respect of players of all sides and he is a shrewd tactician.

You may ask who will decide on bowling changes and fielding positions when the team is on the field. This can be done by the vice-captain of the team. In fact, he will do a better job of this, as he doesn't have a captain (read accountability) tag attached to him. The captain can always correct any possible mistake by sending a word out through the 12th man. The only hitch to this theory is whether the cricketing rules permit this. I'm ignorant of that. Also, the credit for this theory goes to my cousin - V Easwaran.