The IPL's inaugural tournament has
thrown the spotlight on leadership in
the T20 format. Never before has
leadership come under the scanner so
much as in this form. Looking at all the
aspects, here is my take on leadership
styles in the IPL so far. Some
leadership styles worked for me and some
didn't.
I was rather skeptical about the
leadership of Dravid and Laxman from the
beginning. Though I rate their
understanding of the nuances of the game
highly, I feel they were not suited to
lead this format. Dravid is a thinker
and a delayed 'doer' - as a T20 captain
that is not good at all - he reacts an
over too late, a match too late.
Consequently Royal Challengers did no
justice to their potential and were
clearly below par.
Laxman's team, the Deccan Chargers, had too many
players of individual charisma and personality
that only someone with a strong personality
would have made it work. By the time Gilchrist
took over, the damage was done. It was just a
personality problem, a sub continental trait of
leadership by consensus.
I had great hopes on Sehwag whom I rate highly
in terms of intuition, courage and
implementation. But what let him down I felt is
his penchant to ignore the small details. I feel
Sehwag made the mistake of thinking that
everything could be tackled as it came-batting,
bowling, fielding. Everything could be tackled
by his intuitive captaincy. A bit more planning,
more informed decisions and taking it match by
match and situation by situation could have
probably seen Delhi Daredevils faring much
better. After all they have one of the best
balanced sides.
Mumbai
Indians got off with the wrong captain -
Harbhajan, who is too immature to be a good
captain. Pollock pulled the team together and
steadied the sinking ship. Now they have the
tactical genius and inspirational presence of
Tendulkar and will do much better. Tendulkar,
one can be assured, will have all the
information, all the tactics in place for every
match, every situation. The only thing against
him is that is presence is awesome for most
players (including Jayasuriya who admitted it)
and it depends on how he channelizes their hero
worship. I feel that if he lets the players be,
with a quiet word of encouragement and not
burden them with his usual high standard of
expectations, he will get them to do even
better.
Saurav's
leadership lacks his usual confident and there
seems to be some dichotomy in his mind. Whether
it is the pace of the game or the individual
brilliance of his team members that's making his
captaincy appear sluggish I cannot fathom, but
he has not fared too well so far with his
leadership.
Dhoni is doing well in his own
quiet, unobtrusive way, keeping things under
control and taking things match by match. Most
experiments are done, the team's doing well and
they seem headed to the semi final. Dhoni's
style intrigues me, he is very undemonstrative,
yet very effective. He lets everyone make their
own method to execute the team plans and that I
think is the beauty of it - there are eleven
players thinking like captains and Captain Cool
to soak in any pressure. His clarity and
composure will serve the Chennai Super Kings
well as the matches get tighter.
Yuvraj has learnt very fast from his early
outings in the IPL as captain and has pulled his
team through admirably. I must admit that I was
not a great fan of his captaincy after some
initial gaffes, but he has motivated the team
well enough to perform even when he, their key
batsman, is not scoring. That's a tribute to the
spirit he has infused in the team and it's now
one of those teams where everyone seems to be
focused on one goal-the team's victory. Irfan
has got his swing back, Piyush is bowling
beautifully, Mahela, Marsh..it's great to watch
this side in T20.
The
best model for this form of the game is the
Rajasthan Royals model. A lot of high potential
fringe players who have everything to prove and
nothing to lose. An icon like Shane Warne at the
helm puts even a Graeme Smith secure in his
role. Warne is canny, street smart, tactically
on the ball. He knows every player inside out,
their strengths, their roles...he throws them
into the deep end and expects them to do well.
And they respond. How he infuses confidence in
the younger lot is something I would dearly love
to know but I know this much-he will not do it
quietly like Dhoni; Warne will articulate it.
All fringe players know their role, know their
captain knows how to use them, all senior
players with well defined roles again, and at
the very top, Shane Warne using the power of his
personality, his understanding of human nature,
the game of cricket and what it takes to get the
slightest of advantages and convert that into a
win.
It will be interesting to see how these
leadership styles evolve further. But this much
I know. They will all evolve. Just as the
players will. Exciting days ahead.
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