Captaincy

phoneJunky

phoneJunky

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Captaincy is both overrated and underrated. It is overrated because people expect too much of it in the short term. Very few losing teams can be galvanised by a single stirring team-talk. "Gee them up!" is the commonest (and stupidest) advice given to captains.

But captaincy is underestimated over the long term. Losing teams often think that they should change the captain every five minutes "until the right person emerges". Quite the opposite happens: the latest captain merely takes over an unsteady ship. In contrast, successful teams quickly forget their debt to their captain, imagining that they would be just as good - or better - if they axed him. When you're winning, it's easy to underestimate the culture that helped you to win."

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From http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/553354.html

So my question, in this whole Smith saga - Do we think we will be better without him, because we are winning? Not that we are the best team in the world or anything but the last six years we are undefeated in tests away from home.
 
Yes, but we have loads of people that want him out of the Test set-up as well, even though his test figures are not that bad, except for the last couple of years. But even then, not that horrible either.
 
He's a good test captain, a bit defensive at times, but still good. That's one of the reasons why we haven't lost an away series in 6 years.
 
phoneJunky said:
Yes, but we have loads of people that want him out of the Test set-up as well, even though his test figures are not that bad, except for the last couple of years. But even then, not that horrible either.
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I agree. I feel that smith is fine for the moment as captain of the test side. IF he however loses batting form I will kick him out of the side as he is not such a great captain that he can justify his place in the side just for calling the shots.
 
I think Smith still has alot to offer south African cricket, especially in tests.
 
wallsend said:
I think Smith still has alot to offer south African cricket, especially in tests.
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Don't doubt it for a second. all I am saying is that he is not such a great captain that should his batting fail terribly that he should be kept in the team as a captain only.
 
He is still one of the first names in my test side, wouldn't be in my odi or t20 side thought.
 
stefan9 said:
He is still one of the first names in my test side, wouldn't be in my odi or t20 side thought.
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+1. Good slip fielder, good captain, and a solid bat in tests.

Damn I really wish that the cricket will start now!
 
In Tests Smith is one of the best captains in the history of the game.Its as simple as that.
Its just that his over confident character deters some people and he looks terrible when he gets out.
 
DrYes said:
In Tests Smith is one of the best captains in the history of the game.Its as simple as that.
Its just that his over confident character deters some people and he looks terrible when he gets out.
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Do you have some figures/source to back this up?
 
Looking at Waugh's stats - really impressive. No wonder the Australians are so "confidant" about there cricket. But it is strange to see that in the dominant era of Australian cricket we had two captains with a better W/L ratio than Smith. Even though we haven't lost a lot with Smith, we certainly haven't been dominant.
 
phoneJunky said:
Looking at Waugh's stats - really impressive. No wonder the Australians are so "confidant" about there cricket. But it is strange to see that in the dominant era of Australian cricket we had two captains with a better W/L ratio than Smith. Even though we haven't lost a lot with Smith, we certainly haven't been dominant.
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Much of the Aussie success was down to the team they had, not just the captain. A case in point - Pontings captaincy record since everybody else retired has taken a serious dip.
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
Much of the Aussie success was down to the team they had, not just the captain. A case in point - Pontings captaincy record since everybody else retired has taken a serious dip.
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Haha. agreed.

// Do I give Mcgrath or Warne a turn.....
// Who will get all those runs, myself, Gillie, Hayden...?


Tough choices.

this is also the reason why I feel smith's winning ratio is a tad low in the last couple of years as he has a great batting line up and an awesome bowling line up to work with (barring a spinner).
 
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Mike Hoxbig said:
Much of the Aussie success was down to the team they had, not just the captain. A case in point - Pontings captaincy record since everybody else retired has taken a serious dip.
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I wasn't really speaking about his ability here, just that I knew they were dominant - just never thought they were that dominant. Because there were a couple of instances that I felt we were just really unlucky. And most of their "luck" was probably based on Waugh's decisions and the always go for the win mentality that was instilled within that team.

I mean not even Viv's great WI team's numbers matches Waughs one. The only other one close the Waugh is the English captain that I don't really know.
 
Comparing his stats with other SA captains he looks average. He looks even worse when Boucher isn't around telling him what to do.

Throughout his career he has had the best batsmen and bowlers in the world at his disposal.
 
Devill said:
this is also the reason why I feel smith's winning ratio is a tad low in the last couple of years as he has a great batting line up and an awesome bowling line up to work with (barring a spinner).
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One must take into consideration that Smith has to work around the auspices of the UCB in enforcing a transformation criteria.
 
DrYes said:
One must take into consideration that Smith has to work around the auspices of the UCB in enforcing a transformation criteria.
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I don't really think that Smith has to work around transformation criteria. I actually think his predecessors had more of a problem than him.

I also think that CSA development plans worked better than the other sporting codes ones.

I think Smith had had the stronger team of all the captains thus far, so seeing him last on the list post-isolation is really a shocker.
 
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