Captaincy: The Good, The Bad and The Great

A good captain will usually make the correct decision and then relax in the knowledge that nothing more can be done. A great captain will instinctively know when not to relax because he knows that something innovative is required. A bad captain will shun the obvious in favour of something unnecessarily novel.

At Headingley in 1981 Mike Brearly demonstrated a great piece of captaincy by bowling Bob Willis uphill just to wind him up. He then switched Willis to bowling downhill and the result was a match winning 8-43 as England completed the greatest come-back since Lazarus.

This year Brian Lara took the extraordinary decision not to enforce the follow-on on the fourth day on the third test against India. Sometimes the obvious decision is the right one and by not enforcing the follow-on Lara ensured that the match was drawn. This then is an example of bad captaincy.

During the current Test match Inzamam-ul-Haq decided not to take the new ball on the first day despite there being ten overs left in the day. This was innovative, unconventional and simply wrong. Cook and Collingwood were playing for stumps and by not taking the new ball the Pakistan seam attack were denied the opportunity to get two uses of the new ball, at the end of the first day and the beginning of the second.

However, had the Pakistan spinners got a wicket at the end of the first day then it would have been a great piece of captaincy. It is only a step from the sublime to the ridiculous.