Quote:
Originally Posted by Pheobe
A look at the captains of the present Test world indicates :
R Ponting - Aus - Batsman
M Dhoni - Ind - WK
Y Khan - Pak - Batsman
C Gayle - WI - Batsman
D Vettori - NZ - Batsman although camouflaged as left arm spin
G Smith - SA - Batsman
M Jayawardena - SL - Batsman
A Strauss - Eng - Batsman
Even if we take the names of past captains, we cannot see many bowling captains. Exceptions are there like the rotating chairs of Pakistan, Walsh for WI, Kumble for India, Flintoff for Eng etc. But 80-90% of all test captains in history have been batsmen.
Why?
Considering the fact it is undisputed that bowlers are the ones who win matches and batsmen set them up, it is slightly bizzare to notice the huge skew in favor of batsmen. And not that the bowler captains have done a terrible job. Imran Khan, Kapil Dev, Walsh, Kumble etc were excellent and inspirational captains.
But still it seems to be a tradition that teams prefer batsmen as captain. Australia for instance has not had a single bowler captain since the days of old Richie Benaud.
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Presumably because boards want their captain to take note of all that is going on whoever is bowling. I personally wouldn't want a bowler to be thinking about anything other than his own bowling.
I think spinners can potentially be good captains. It's astounding Shane Warne has never captained Australia. He's had some good captains, but I'd have chose him over Ponting every day of the week.
Imran Khan and Kapil Dev are the exceptions to the rule I feel (as far as seam bowlers as captain goes).
Of the names you listed, there really aren't any other candidates for the captaincy who haven't already tried their hand at it.
I don't like Dhoni or Gayle as captains but take out Tendulkar & Dravid from the India team regulars and you're left with Sehwag, Laxman, Dhoni, Khan, Ishant, Harbajhan. Sehwag as VC would be the best fit probably, but you aren't overwhelmed with natural leaders. In the WI set-up, only Gayle, Sarwan, Chanderpaul, Ramdin, Taylor & Edwards are defo's and none of them are natural leaders IMHO.
For Australia, there is Hussey & Katich who I believe could do equally as good a job as Ponting has. Michael Clarke will be a future Aussie captain I'm sure but it's too early for him.
I would personally say that Strauss, Khan, Vettori, Smith & Jayawardene are the best joices as captain.
So there really are no bowling candidates for captain in the current world XI's.