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Why batsmen are preferred over bowlers as captains?

Noble One

International Vice-Captain
That said, i think the very best captains would often be wicket keepers. The motivational aspect, having the best view of the action in the house and allowing every batsman and every bowler to concentrate completely on their job makes that position perfect IMO- if it's someone well-respected, good and mentally strong enough to overcome what you mentioned in 4.
I agree. Who else in the team understands better how well a bowler is performing than the keeper? Or pick up on a technical weakness in the game of a batsman? Or get a batsman's eye view of the fielding set-up.

Problem is each team only contains 1 wicket keeper. Big ask for that 1 player to also be motivational, tactical, respected and have the nous to be a captain. Many keepers are quite happy to focus on their own game, remaining in their own private zone for each and every ball.

Little suprise batsman end up as captains. They have so little to do whilst out in the field.
 

NUFAN

Y no Afghanistan flag
I agree. Who else in the team understands better how well a bowler is performing than the keeper? Or pick up on a technical weakness in the game of a batsman? Or get a batsman's eye view of the fielding set-up.

Problem is each team only contains 1 wicket keeper. Big ask for that 1 player to also be motivational, tactical, respected and have the nous to be a captain. Many keepers are quite happy to focus on their own game, remaining in their own private zone for each and every ball.

Little suprise batsman end up as captains. They have so little to do whilst out in the field.
First slip perhaps? Having a captain in the slips is fantastic, he obviously doesn't need to focus quite so much as the keeper does each ball and has almost the same view as the man with the gloves.

Now that bowlers don't seem to stand in the slips so much because you need someone to replace them when they are bowling this could be as big of a factor as batsmen vs bowler.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
That said, i think the very best captains would often be wicket keepers. The motivational aspect, having the best view of the action in the house and allowing every batsman and every bowler to concentrate completely on their job makes that position perfect IMO- if it's someone well-respected, good and mentally strong enough to overcome what you mentioned in 4.
All of what you say is true, but the simple fact is wicketkeepers have to be expecting the ball to come to them every single delivery. You can't do that - properly - if you're also thinking about bowling changes and field-settings. It's why mostly wicketkeeper-captain reigns have been short.
 

zaremba

Cricketer Of The Year
So, can we come up with a list of bowler-captains? And how have they fared?

I can actually think of very few. The only ones who spring to mind are:

- Bob Willis
- Waqar Younis

There have also been all-rounders who've captained:

- Gubby Allen
- Imran Khan
- Ian Botham
- Daniel Vettori

Any others?

And what are their records like? (I'm not a stasguru, er, guru)
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
Here are the bowlers and wicket keepers who have ledt Test sides.

Pure Bowlers

Code:
[B]TEAM	 Player      	 Tests[/B]
ENG	Lillywhite, J	2
ENG	Willis, R G D	18
ENG	Emburey, J E	2
IND	Venkat      	5
IND	Bedi, B S	22
IND	Kumble, A	14
NZL	Nash, D J	3
PAK	Waqar Younis	17
WIN	Walsh, C A	22
Bowling All Rounders

Code:
[B]TEAM	 Player      	 Tests[/B]
AUS	Giffen, G	4
AUS	Trumble, H	2
AUS	Johnson, I W	17
AUS	Lindwall, R R	1
ENG	Shaw, Alfred	4
ENG	Gilligan, A E R	9
ENG	Allen, G O B	11
ENG	Robins, R W V	3
ENG	Illingworth, R	31
IND	Ghulam Ahmed	3
NZL	Vettori, D L*#	19
PAK	Fazal Mahmood	10
PAK	Intikhab Alam	17
PAK	Wasim Akram	25
SAF	Pollock, S M	26
WIN	Goddard, J D C	22
WIN	Atkinson, D S E	7
WIN	Bravo, D J J*	1
ZIM	Streak, H H	21
ZIM	Murphy, B A*	1
Wicketkeepers

Code:
[B]TEAM	 Player      	 Tests[/B]
AUS	Blackham, J M	8
AUS	Jarman, B N	1
AUS	Gilchrist, A C	6
BDS	Naimur Rehman	7
BDS	Khaled Mahmud	9
NZL	Smith, I D S	1
NZL	Germon, L K	12
PAK	Imtiaz Ahmed	4
PAK	Rashid Latif	6
PAK	Moin Khan	13
SAF	Sherwell, P W	13
SAF	Boucher, M V*	4
WIN	Alexander, 	18
WIN	Murray, D L	1
WIN	Jacobs, R D	2
ZIM	Flower, A	20
ZIM	Taibu, T#	10
Sri Lanka is the only team which has has never tried anything but pure batsmen as Test captains.

England's very first Test captain was a bowler.

By the way the win and loss percentage overall is as under

Code:
[B]Discipline	Win %	Loss %[/B]

Bowler Allround	34.3	32.5
Pure Bowlers	31.4	[COLOR="DarkRed"][B]39[/B][/COLOR]
Wicket-keepers	[COLOR="DarkRed"][B]27.2[/B][/COLOR]	37.8
 
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GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
Shouldn't Flintoff be in the all-rounders list? Or does the fact that he batted 6 exclude him?
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
- Waqar is the most successful bowler skipper winning 10 out of 17 Tests led. Only one other bowler has a fifty percent record - Lillywhite with 1 from two.

- Pollock (14 from 26) is the most successful bowling all rounder captain. Only Giffen (2fr om 4) of the others has a fifty percent win record.

- Gilchrist (4 from 6), Rashid (4 from 6) and Boucher (2 from 4) are the most successful keeper captains.
 
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SJS

Hall of Fame Member
Shouldn't Flintoff be in the all-rounders list? Or does the fact that he batted 6 exclude him?
He has three times as many centuries as five wicket hauls - six against 2. I have not taken Botham also although he has 27 five wicket hauls.

Here I have taken captains who are basically bowlers. They just happen to have a Test century (two in the odd case) otherwise I would have called Wasim Akram a bowler really and even Vettori.

Genuine all rounders like Botham, Kapil, Imran, Flintoff etc are not included.
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
Noble is a borderline case actually. I was going to leave him (and Benaud) out initially.
 

GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
He has three times as many centuries as five wicket hauls - six against 2. I have not taken Botham also although he has 27 five wicket hauls.

Here I have taken captains who are basically bowlers. They just happen to have a Test century (two in the odd case) otherwise I would have called Wasim Akram a bowler really and even Vettori.

Genuine all rounders like Botham, Kapil, Imran, Flintoff etc are not included.
Fair enough, makes sense :)
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Here are the bowlers and wicket keepers who have ledt Test sides.

Pure Bowlers

Code:
[B]TEAM	 Player      	 Tests[/B]
ENG	Lillywhite, J	2
ENG	Willis, R G D	18
ENG	Emburey, J E	2
IND	Venkat      	5
IND	Bedi, B S	22
IND	Kumble, A	14
NZL	Nash, D J	3
PAK	Waqar Younis	17
WIN	Walsh, C A	22
Truly telling that only 4 bowlers have ever had captaincy careers of the remotest substance (15 Tests or more), and that the biggest captaincy career for a bowler is 22 matches.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
England's very first Test captain was a bowler.
That's not entirely substantiate (as it were) though, is it? The term "Test" had, UIMM, never even been used at the time of Lillywhite's tour in 1876/77 - never mind the thought being countenanced that those 22 players were playing the match which would start something which would become remotely what Test cricket has.
 

zaremba

Cricketer Of The Year
Here I have taken captains who are basically bowlers. They just happen to have a Test century (two in the odd case) otherwise I would have called Wasim Akram a bowler really and even Vettori.
Out of interest, SJS, why have you omitted all-rounders? It seems to me that the main difficulty with a bowler being captain is that he's got enough on his plate in the field already, since he has to focus on bowling / recovering. Surely this applies just as much to a Botham as to a Willis?
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
Out of interest, SJS, why have you omitted all-rounders? It seems to me that the main difficulty with a bowler being captain is that he's got enough on his plate in the field already, since he has to focus on bowling / recovering. Surely this applies just as much to a Botham as to a Willis?
I feel an all rounder (particularly a good batting all rounder) is able to think like a batsman more often and most of the time than as a bowler. I was reading Proctor's autobiography just the other day and he writes that he likes to think of himself as a batsman and thinks like one. Mind you most people will agree that Proctor, one of the great all rounders after Sobers, was a greater bowler than batsman. I think that does make a difference.

By the way, many people have written on this mater including Bradman in the Art of Cricket recently reviewed by me on CW but one of the finest on the subject is from Brearley in his fascinating book The Art of Captaincy. I hope you can read them clearly

 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
On Bowlers and All Rounders being Captain

By far the largest proportion of captains, at least at the level of first-class cricket, has been provided by those who are predominantly batsmen. This pattern arises from the class distinctions I have spoken of: gentlemen batted, players bowled, a pattern repeated in services cricket. I remember playing a Combined Services team composed mainly of officers; the bowling was opened, however, by Stoker Healey and Private Stead. Since Captains came from the ranks of the gentlemen, it is not surprising that few captains were bowlers.

But are there any intrinsic reasons for this…. Bradman for one maintained that the captain should ideally be a batsman; for it is extremely hard for bowlers to be objective about their own craft. They tend to either over-bowl themselves or not to bowl enough, from conceit, modesty or indeed self-protection. The captain has decisions to make and a job to do while his team is batting to be sure. But by far the greater part of his work is to be done in the field, changing the bowlers and fielders, keeping everyone alert. There is a strong case, therefore, against giving the job to someone whose primary task is to bowl.

On the other hand, two of the best post-war international captains were Richie Benaud and Ray Illingworth. Indeed Illingworth argues in his book Captaincy that the all-rounders, and specially the slow bowling all rounders, are, all else being equal, in the best position for the job. Unlike fast bowlers they do not have to inject so much adrenalin and aggression into their bowling, nor is it quite so physically exhausting. Being bowlers and batsmen they should be able to understand the mentality of both. It is, therefore, easier for them to criticize both. One of Illingworth’s refrains as captain and manager was that he could not understand seam bowlers who are unable to bowl on one side of the wicket. (‘I could do it better blindfold’ he used to say.) Expecting high standards of himself both as batsman and bowler, it was easier to demand them of others. Moreover, a bowling captain is in a position to convince the rest of the team that a declaration is well timed if he will be relying on himself, among others, to prove it right.

I would agree there is a strong case for an all rounder, if he is a slow or medium paced bowler, as captain. The one argument against is, however, a strong one: is he in the best position for deciding when to bowl himself? In my opinion, Illingworth’s main flaw as captain was in not bowling himself enough.

I have already implied my opinion about fast bowlers as captains; it takes an exceptional character to know when to bowl, to keep bowling with all his energy screwed up in a ball of aggression, and (still) to be sensitive to the needs of the team, both tactically and psychologically. Willis in particular has always shut himself up in a cocoon of concentration and fury for his bowling. Our headhunters should recommend a fast bowler only as a last resort; unless, of course, they have a man of Mike Proctor’s qualities available.​

Mike Brearley's in The Art of Captaincy .... to be continued...
 
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