The greatest tactician

[JBMAC]

I never saw Simpson playing or captaining but my father thinks so high of Bob the skipper.

Bob Simpsons role as skipper would often be undervalued however when he came out of semi retirement to lead Australia during the WSC fiasco he was superb. That was his crowning glory as skipper

 

[slugger]

what i find interesting about these so called great tactictians (skippers) is when it comes to picking the best XI teams these guys dont seem to get in,based on this merit alone. so my point is then does a great tactictian only come about when they have a poor team or the quality of the other team is far supieior thefore they are required to think beyond the realms of the tried and tested.

 

[weldone]

Douglas Jardine, Mike Brearley and Ian Chappell are the first 3 names that come to mind related to this thread.

 

[Jono]

Mahela Jayawardene was excellent tactically too, they've definitely lost a little in that department with Sanga at the helm. I certainly rate the tactical side of Jayawardene's captaincy ahead of anyone captaining in international cricket at the minute.

It's a vastly different job captaining Sri Lanka to captaining, say, South Africa though. With all the other **** you have to deal with, tactical acumen is pretty much just a bonus for a South African captain.

Indeed, but I very much doubt that if Mahela recommended a tactic to Sanga, that he wouldn't employ it.

They're a tag team of captaincy IMO. Sanga is more defensive (as I've outlined in a previous thread), but there hasn't been such a ridiculous fall in tactics because:

a) Mahela willingly gave up the captaincy
b) He was kept as VC
c) Him and Sanga are obviously close

So - and I'm sincerely asking - why is he no longer captain? I had a look at some stats and it didn't seem to bother his batting at all, quite the opposite.

It's quite hard to be the captain of a subcontinental team for a long time. It's hard to explain really, but the idiocy of the boards at times and the pressures of the fans can eventually grind.

Mahela obviously felt he could still offer plenty to the team whilst giving Sanga the captaincy, who was always destined to eventually get it.

An example is Dravid quitting when he was just starting to become a gun captain, after the huge series win vs. England in 07.

And the captaincy didn't affect Dravid's batting. If anything his batting has worsened since. Not saying it's due to the captaincy, but the timeline and stats don't suggest captaincy affected his batting, nor that letting go of his captaincy helped his batting.

 

[G.I.Joe]

Yeah, pretty sure it was one of either Dravid or Mahela who mentioned that there was a shelf life to a sub-continental captain.

 

[Daemon]

afridi

 

[smash84]

Douglas Jardine, Mike Brearley and Ian Chappell are the first 3 names that come to mind related to this thread.

Was Imran Khan a good tactician too or just a good leader of men?

 

[Engle]

Imran was a good leader of men, but also knew who to listen to and what advice to follow. He knew that Miandad did not rate spinners and Mudassar was too conservative. So he balanced their advice with his own and encouraged Qadir and played aggressively.

C.Lloyd deserves a mention for making the decision to adopt a 4-pronged pace attack.

I.Chappell was more a leader of men than a tactician; his bro may have been the reverse

 

[smash84]

Imran was a good leader of men, but also knew who to listen to and what advice to follow. He knew that Miandad did not rate spinners and Mudassar was too conservative. So he balanced their advice with his own and encouraged Qadir and played aggressively.

C.Lloyd deserves a mention for making the decision to adopt a 4-pronged pace attack.

I.Chappell was more a leader of men than a tactician; his bro may have been the reverse

Who was the captain during that under-arm ball incident? Greg was it? That was quite shrewd wasn't it???

 

[Debris]

Best captain I have seen tactically is Mark Taylor by some distance. It was freakish how often he would set a plan for a batsman and it would immediately come off. Not old enough to remember Mike Brearley but his reputation is similar.