Flintoff Given The Poisoned Chalice Of Captaincy
Flintoff has been awarded the captaincy following the absence of both Vaughan and Trescothick and he faces a real baptism of fire. Very few bowlers have made successful captains, as they find it impossible to decide when to bowl themselves.
For once England fans will be hoping that Flintoff fails to emulate Botham, who skippered England 12 times without ever leading them to victory. Botham faced back-to-back tests against the West Indies, whilst Flintoff faces a talented Indian team, in India, with an untested spin attack, a batting line-up missing its two most experienced players and to top it all his wife is about to give birth to their second child.
To make Flintoff captain was a mistake. A player's form inevitably declines when given the poisoned chalice of captaincy and the selectors should have realised that England are too reliant on Flintoff the player. They should never have contemplated Flintoff the captain.
posted by Unknown @ 10:00 pm
5 Comments:
Pretty interesting comments! However, I beg to disagree regarding captaincy undermining the performances. Rahul Dravid, Ricky Ponting, Sunil Gavaskar, Greg Chappell all are good examples of performing even better after being made captains! Its tragic really to have been robbed of a great contest between 2 very talented sides. I hope England comes up with a surprise or two to make it a great series!
I guess I was thinking more of English captains.
Just for the record, Ricky Ponting does have a better average as captain, as does Greg Chappell. Sunil Gavaskar about the same (50.72 as captain, 51.33 not as captain) but Rahul Dravid has a far worse average as captain: 34.85 compared to 60.12.
Like you, I'm hoping for a contest tomorrow.
Thanks for posting in my blog. The figure you mentioned about Dravid also include those when he was the "Stop gap" captain in the Ganguly-Wright era. I am sure if you were to take his average after he became a full time captain it will be much better!
Flintoff has just too much of a burden and its absolutely ridiculous that he was asked to captain the side.
I think they should have asked Strauss to be the captain as he has the proven experience of handling the double responsibility of both batting and leading the side (Middlesex).
I agree Reem. Strauss would also be better placed to decide when to bowl England's most dangerous strike bowler.
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