World Cups are won by captains. Take any year, and captains are either the leading performers or inspirational players, usually both.
Think Clive Lloyd 1975, Kapil Dev 1983, Allan Border 1987, Imran Khan 1992, Arjuna Ranatunga 1996, Ricky Ponting 2003. The teams looked up to them, and they delivered.
The shorter the game, the more important is the ability to make a quick decision and the greater the impact such decisions have on the outcome of the match. An unexpected bowling change, a minor adjustment in the field that leads to a catch or a run out, a sudden decision to keep down runs for five overs before going on the attack — such things can turn a game. Little things matter and it is the captain who controls the little things.
Some captains lead by instinct, leaving the justification to theoreticians after the event; others lead by intellect, every move logical and susceptible of a ready explanation. Again, the best combine the two, as Imran Khan did. He could talk the talk as well as walk the walk.
Of course, often captains are responsible for losses too. In the 1987 semifinal, Kapil Dev, national hero of four years earlier, chose to put England in (a difficult decision — rival captain Mike Gatting said he would have fielded first too, while leading batsman Graham Gooch said he would have batted first), but then ruined it for India with a mid-innings slog that took them out of the game.
Inspired by Kapil Dev, India made a hash of scoring 56 from the last ten overs with five wickets in hand and lost by 35 runs, batsman after batsman going for the illogical slog.
Kapil Dev was sacked as captain after that, a fate that has not befallen any other Indian captain following a World Cup.
It is a lesson that Mahendra Singh Dhoni will do well to remember.
There is no immediate threat to his captaincy, and therefore he can afford to be a little more adventurous than he has been in recent months. Dhoni has a presence that inspires players to play above themselves in much the same way Kapil Dev had, and unlike Kapil Dev who had to constantly look over his shoulders at Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri who might take over — an occupational hazard for Indian captains — Dhoni has no such worry.
Although two captains, Mohammad Azharuddin and Sourav Ganguly have led India in more one-dayers, Dhoni has the best record, a win percentage of nearly 61, which is the same as Border’s and superior to Imran’s.
Yet the man who will lead India is not the same person who led the team to the Twenty20 world title four years ago. Then there was a willingness to experiment, a boldness to attempt risk and a self-confidence that came naturally to a 25-year-old. Four years later, more than the defeats he has suffered, it is the victories that seem to be putting pressure on Dhoni.
His captaincy has become self-conscious; now there is greater concern for defeat, and there is too a safety-first approach that some people get with age, and others never do. ODI tournaments are seldom won by captains who are over-conscious of security and unwilling to take chances.
Whatever the expectations from Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag on the one side and Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan on the other, it will be Dhoni who will decide India’s fate in the tournament. Not just as batsman and wicketkeeper, two crucial roles he plays, but as captain who will decide the tenor and texture of India’s game.
His advantage is that he is still Captain Cool, unlikely to panic under pressure, but he will have to rediscover the edge that made his captaincy exciting. In South Africa, India were lucky to get away with only a 2-3 defeat; it had more to do with the generosity of the hosts than anything startling in India’s approach.
Dhoni has occasionally surprised with a tactical move that has caught the opposition by surprise, but mostly he has led by instinct, and that has served him well. It is possible that his recent cautious approach might have something to do with the numbers game — the rankings, in short.
None of this will matter if Dhoni repeats Kapil Dev’s feat. Success is the ultimate justification, as any international captain will tell you.
—The writer is an author and columnist who has written on Indian
sports for over a quarter century
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