“You cannot be serious”

I am yet to come to terms with what appears to be a rather weird idea from Mr. John Buchanan about using multiple captains for Kolkata Knight Riders for the second edition of IPL. What was he thinking? It’s hard to figure out the logic behind it- assuming there’s any! Is it the same game of Cricket that I have been following all my life? I am glad that he wasn’t talking this rubbish in the same pub in which Ian Chappell was having a drink with Shane Warne – there would have been no guarantee for his life!

However, if you had read or even skimmed through his book “If better is possible” you wouldn’t be too surprised with his novel idea. I must admit that I haven’t read the book completely but skimmed through it in a bookshop and even that was not a pleasant experience. It is full of buzzwords and corporate style management jargons and would have fitted perfectly in the company of Stephen Covey books! If he ever cares to read “Strategy Safari” or “Fooled by Randomness” in his life, he would be ashamed of having written such a book.

Also not so long ago he had another novel idea – to train all Australian cricketers to be ambidextrous! Imagine that for a while…. “Hey Ricky, you know why you struggle against Harbhajan – its because you are a right hander. You should start batting left-handed to tackle his threat better. If you are not convinced, go through this research of mine which proves that left handers have a 75% greater probability of success against Harbhajan than right handers”. I know I am exaggerating, but knowing Buchanan its hard to believe that such an act is beyond him.

The problem with Buchanan is that he has built this reputation as a masterful strategist because of his glorified success as the coach of the invincible Australian team. But how much of Australia's success can be attributed to the coaching skills of Buchanan is not even debatable, it’s surely negligible. I could have done as good a job if not better if I had the quality of players that Australia had in his tenure. Maybe he could be given the credit of not being a disruptive influence in a champion team (at least he is better then Greg Chappell!).

What amazes me more than his idea is his conviction of the idea as the next big thing in cricket. He articulates that cricket has changed a lot since the advent of T-20 and having multiple captains is to keep pace with that. And when someone reminded him that India had won the T-20 world cup under one captain, his response was:
"At the time there wasn't much research done about the Twenty20 format. I don't want to undermine India's achievement. But it's true that most of the renowned international players were missing then. The state-level players showed more efficiency and sharpness during the tournament. Gone are those days. The world of franchises has completely changed the face of Twenty20 cricket, The game is progressing”

Much research? So what have you done now? We are living in a time where in we are paying the price for adopting some nobel prize winning research in financial economics and here he is talking about research in cricket. Surely there’s something wrong with him. He is taking himself too seriously here. Maybe SRK should send him to some anti-narcissistic therapy clinic.

If anything, the advent of T-20 has reinforced the importance of good captaincy and leadership. Its hard to convince oneself that India would have done just as well in the world cup had the captain been someone else and not Dhoni. Just compare the videotapes of Collingwood’s restless discussions with Stuart Broad ball after ball when Yuvraj hit him for six consecutive 6’s and Dhoni’s calm and composed demeanor when Misbah-ul- haq hit Harbhajan for three 6’s in an over to completely tilt the balance in a world cup final. A good captain makes that critical difference between a secure and an insecure team. However, Buchanan wants the opposite, he wants even the captain to feel insecure!

And what about Rajasthan Royals? Take Shane Warne out and see if you can even entertain thoughts of Rajasthan Royals being the champions of IPL. The influence of Shane Warne on the team was so huge that almost everyone in the team surpassed themselves. They did not have the superstars, the million dollar players, but they had a captain who commanded respect, who was tactically brilliant and who liberated his little known players to express themselves on a grand stage. I agree that luck and skills are inseparable in evaluating a captain but cricketing instincts in us generally does a good job of differentiating a good captain from a bad one even though the scale may vary.

What an irony that Buchanan wants to try this idea out in the same tournament, which emphatically vindicated the long held (and sometimes over hyped) significance of a captain. As an add on, it also put the role of a coach in perspective (if you remember Royals did not have a coach at all! But had Jeremey Snape as a mentor). Not so long ago Indian cricket team played some of its best cricket especially overseas when it did not have a coach. I don’t mean to take anything away from a good coach. Gary Kirsten is doing a fine job for the Indian team now and so did John Wright during his tenure. Despite his dogmatic belief on coaches, Ian Chappell was not too far off the mark when he said that a good coach could make about a 5% difference to the team. And that’s all the respect that Mr. Buchanan deserves.

But Mr.Buchanan is not happy with that. He wants to be an avant-garde in cricket, to be known as the man who revolutionized cricket completely! In the process, he’s wiping away whatever little legacy he had built as a tactically sound coach. Had Buchanan lived in anonymity after his reign as coach of the Australian team we would have never known how bad he was. Thanks to his second innings with KKR, we now know the cricketing acumen of the most successful cricket coach of all time! As Warren Buffet famously said, ‘It is only when the tide goes out that you know who was swimming naked,’ Now we all know!