BARBADOS is dripped with cricket history. Every corner, it seems, has a cricket story to tell, every significant roundabout has a legend to boast. The Garfield Sobers roundabout is more of a cricket landmark than a traffic junction. It was made famous for his bronze statue, that captures the grace of his cover drive, and which has now been relocated to the Kensington Oval.
Next to Garys roundabout is the “The W’s” roundabout, which recognises the power of Worrell, Walcott and Weekes. The charm of island cricket runs through the narrow winding roads to the “3W’s Oval”, a university ground dedicated to honour the exploits of the three great cricketers and where Walcott and Worrell are buried. It also honours the Legends Club, a pleasantly appointed lodge, to lionise the greats of Barbados cricket. It was here that I got to meet and listen to the last “W” alive, Sir Everton Weekes, a man who still holds the world record for most consecutive hundreds.
Now in his late 80’s, he was as sharp as a razor, and spoke eloquently and wittily about the game. He likes the technology but would have not taken well to T20 cricket. Besides, he cannot fathom why the West Indies batsmen put their pad in the line of the spinning ball rather than the bat, or their inability to read the doosra which “is an easy ball to pick”, he says.
When queried about the best way to get back into form, he charmed his listeners with an anecdote from the England series played in the 40’s: “I was dropped from the team after a string of low scores, and got back in by chance when great George Hadley had to pull out at the last minute.
“Throughout the first half of the Test I was booed by the Jamaican crowd, who wanted the local John Holt to play, but once I got the bat and batted for a long period, their harshness gave way to kindness and eventually won their appreciation when I reached a hundred. That’s how you get back into form — by occupying the crease and scoring runs!”
How uncomplicated and simple, I thought. It was a tongue-in-cheek reply but if you observe it at length, the principal works even today.
The essence of his chat was that the times may have changed but the rules that govern a genius are still the same. It was a simple game in the 40’s when he played it and remains so even today, albeit that the tools and toppings have smeared its shape and made it into a complex art.
Sir Everton would be a complete misfit and a lost soul if he walked into a present day dressing room, where the laptops have taken over the ‘neck tops’ and a captain’s authority has been marginalised by backroom staff. To me, more bums in the players joint means more confusion for the players which can lead to mayhem.
Let us count the possible heads making small and big decisions in the modern day dressing room: captain, vice captain, head coach, bowling coach, batting coach, fielding coach, mentor, trainer, dietitian, masseur, manager, assistant manager, selector and computer analyst. It’s a full squad of 14. Surely such a room has to affect the chain of command and cause confusion.
The more clear-cut the chain of command, the more effective the decision-making process and greater the efficiency. So I am not at all surprised when I hear captain Afridi foul mouthing the coach for meddling in his business, or the coach, cribbing about selectors, for undermining his team’s chances with poor selection because if you get the order mixed up, things are bound to turn ugly.
A captain has to be the commander-in-chief of his troops, otherwise the dressing room system will collapse. The game was designed around the captain and by fiddling with its dynamics, the managements are running the risk of inviting disaster.
The concept may sound archaic, but it holds firm even today. The players must have one-man to report to and take command from,
otherwise their quarters will invite selfish interests and politics as long term guests. In no other game does the captaincy play a more pivotal role, so it is critical to pick the right leader, more so in present day dramatic settings in which he has to define roles for the players and for the staff in the dressing room. A 14 in one guy!
Mike Brearley, the successful England captain, did define limits for the irrepressible Geoffrey Boycott. He touches on the dilemma even in his book that Boycott, in the field, would come up with so many sharp insightful comments on the state of the game or an individual that it made Mike feels a complete amateur at the job. And he would be in his ears so often that it started to affect captain’s own processes. He had to stop him (Boycott), and ask him to supply his views when he needed him to!
Pakistan dressing room needs a culture change. It won’t come from computers or an army of technical team, but with an environment which facilitates bright discussions about the game and character building. A captain has to drive home that theme, hard enough to enthuse the players and all the stakeholders to put shoulder to the wheel. The mission should be to groom players to think on their feet, and turn out cricket recruits who are able to read situations smartly.
Pakistan is unique in a way that it’s players have developed the trade on the strength of natural talent and self-honed bag of tricks. Such an enterprising uniqueness should not be fettered to the walls of the players hutch with microchips and hard-drives. It is bound to suffocate them. We need to be original and different.
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