Dada or Dodo?

Siddhartha Mishra / TNN / Sep 28, 2005, 21:50 IST

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Presenting the scorecard of Sourav Ganguly as captain. Over to the Ex Men...

Presenting the scorecard of Sourav Ganguly as captain. Over to the Ex Men...
PLUSES
Winning
"With the most number of wins under his belt, on paper, Sourav is the best captain the country has ever produced," says Ajit Wadekar.

Aggression
For Rakesh Shukla, Sourav is "an out-and-out" attacking captain. "Being timid is not his style. He's always been a tit-for-tat captain," says Navjot Singh Sidhu.
Confidence
"Quite unlike previous captains, Sourav built the team by backing youngsters like Sehwag, Yuvraj, Kaif, Harbhajan and Irfan," says Vivek Razdan. Abbas Ali Baig echoes this view: "Sourav has this knack of having his way. This has helped him back youngsters with talent."

Motivation
"Sourav took over during a turbulent phase in Indian cricket; he has given team members security. Change is not necessarily progress," says Sidhu. Vengsarkar's take: "Unless one has played with Sourav, it's difficult to analyse his mind. Don't jump to conclusions based on allegations."
Strategist
"You can't fault Sourav's strategy as captain just because bowlers don't bowl to their field or batsmen don't score runs," says Shukla.
The Edge
As Sidhu says, "The best way to keep good acts in public memory is to perform new ones.��Can't rest on past laurels!
MINUSES
Arrogance
"What aggression?" asks Azad. "Why doesn't this eyeball intimidation help us win against teams other than Zimbabwe and Bangladesh?"
Complacence
"The same youngsters that Sourav once backed don't face competition for their places in the team today �� this has made them complacent," says Baig. In Maninder Singh's words, "Playing favourites never helps. It's simply because he has pampered his boys so much that we now hear complaints about Greg Chappell pushing the team too hard."
Manipulation
"He's promoted certain players at the expense of others. Any player who plays for a long time uses his manipulative skills to his advantage. Sourav is no exception," says Surinder Khanna.
Opportunist
Madan Lal says it like it is: "Sourav inherited a mature team. A good team makes for a good captain." While Baig reiterates that "Sourav's captaincy record has been backed by individual performances," Razdan says he is "definitely not" a master strategist.
Khanna points out that India has "lost to good teams from winning positions" in the last 8-10 months. "A good captain is able to drive home the advantage."

End of Article