Ex-cricketers want a young captain
Posted on Sep 15, 2007 at 15:12 | Updated Sep 15, 2007 at 15:38
1 Comments
Email 
Print
Mumbai: Keeping the future of Indian cricket in mind, former players felt the selectors should name a young captain instead of an experienced one to fill Rahul Dravid’s shoes.
Former chief selector Kiran More told Cricketnext.com on Saturday that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) should now look for a young captain so that he will be in charge of the team for the next five years.
"The best man to lead India, according to me was Rahul Dravid but now he is gone. The BCCI should take a leaf out of South African selectors’ book and appoint a youngster like they did with Graeme Smith. Until and unless they appoint the captain and coach on long term basis the desired results are hard to come," More said.
"For a team's success, the most important thing is long-term planning and I don’t think there is any planning in the way BCCI functions. The Indian board, which claims to be a professional unit, is still hunting for a coach after the last coach (Greg Chappell) left almost six months ago," he added.
"With all respect to Sachin (Tendulkar), I don’t think it would be a wise move to make him the captain at the twilight of his career because no one knows how long he will be able to continue playing," More reasoned.
Former Indian middle order batsman, Sandeep Patil felt appointing Sachin as skipper would be a big mistake as the master batsman had already hinted of retiring from One-Day Internationals some fifteen day ago.
"In my opinion Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who is leading the Twenty20 squad in the ongoing World Cup, should be given the captaincy even for Test matches while Yuvraj Singh should be made the captain of the ODI team," Patil said.
"I think the BCCI should do away with this stop-gap arrangements and think of long term solutions for smooth functioning of the team. Even though Sachin is in fantastic form with the bat, it is not clear for how long he will be able to play both forms of cricket and entrusting him with the burden of captaincy may not be the right move at this time of his career," he added.
However, another former chief selector Chandu Borde refused to comment on this sensitive issue passing the buck on the Indian selectors.
"It is not for me to say who should lead the Indian team as it is the job of the selectors to choose the right man," Borde said.
"I have been asked this question by many reporters since morning but I don’t want to answer this question and antagonize others who are in the running," Borde, who was the manager of the Indian team to England recently, added.
Former Indian skipper and coach, Ajit Wadekar, endorsed More and Patil’s views and opted for a youngster to lead the Indian team.
"I don’t think it would make any sense in naming either Sachin (Tendulkar) or Sourav (Ganguly) as captain as they are not getting any younger," Wadekar said.
"Ideally, a youngster should be made the captain and be given enough time to prove his worth. The selectors should come up with a long term remedies so that the new captain, who is sure to be around for at least four to five years, gets enough time to build a winning combination," he added.
| Ads by Google |
Total Comments: 1
Read All Comments | Post Comment
Posted By raj
I think Dhoni for ODI and VVS for Test.
Read Comment