Smith and Ponting – inspirational captains whose poor batting form hasn’t affected their captaincy
Smith and Ponting — Captaincy first, batting next
By Vinay Anand
South Africa and Australia have always fought neck-to-neck with each other, especially in ODIs. The fateful 1999 World Cup semi-final is the ratification to this. Both of them have proven themselves to be the two best ODI teams in the world over the last year or two. And that is primarily due to their skippers, Graeme Smith and Ricky Ponting respectively who have led their teams for close to a decade now. What has been startling though is that even though both of them have failed with the bat, yet both captains win matches frequently.
I dare say, it’s more like in the world of business where someone like a Narayana Murthy inspires Infosys or Mukesh Ambani inspires Reliance to do well in the market with their charisma these days rather actual work done.
Smith has shown shades of his talent in ODIs as a batsman. A man, who can hit 90 runs off 59 balls against Australia in run-chase of a record 434, cannot be called a pure Test player. Yet, Smith has been a downer for South Africa as his last ODI century was in September 2009 – against England in the ICC Champions Trophy. His record away from home is not worth commenting about. He has been susceptible to swing and bowlers such as James Anderson and Zaheer Khan have done for him more often than not.
But Smith is blessed to have an in-form Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers in the middle order. Though the duo has won South Africa many ODIs in 2010, Smith’s captaincy has to be lauded. The manner in which he has read the conditions and picked his team is commendable. A bowler never wins a battle on his own. The leader sets the right field for him to make his life easier.
Smith does precisely that to the likes of Dale Steyn, Mornie Morkel and Johan Botha. He has used the old warhorse, Jacques Kallis really well with the ball. As a result, South Africa is a tough all-round team and has a great chance to win this World Cup.
Ricky Ponting has been a prodigy in the ODI game with the bat. Scoring 13,200 runs is no mean achievement. However, with the transition in the ODI team due to legendary players retiring, Ponting has had to change his style of batting from being an attacker right from ball one to a mid-innings stabilizer. This has not worked for Australia as his last ODI century was against West Indies in Brisbane in February 2010.
He is at his peak when free-flowing and at times when he fails, there is panic in the Australian dressing room because players like Michael Clarke and Cameron White too have failed to do the counter attacking resurrection job that Ponting did so well. Michael Hussey is not forever going to win matches single-handedly. Yet, my guess is that like Smith, Ponting’s captaincy has somehow kept Australia relaxed at the No.1 position in the ODI rankings.
He gave rookie bowlers such as Clint McKay and Doug Bollinger an opportunity to play and made them look extraordinary. Ponting backed the rotation policy followed by the Australian selectors and what has now transpired is that Australia have powerful bowling attack in the likes of Brett Lee, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson which can win them World Cup matches.
It will be lovely to see both the leaders get some runs for their teams, but as long as they are helping them win matches through their captaincy, runs really would not matter. After all, Sourav Ganguly, who had a run draught when he was India’s captain today, said on television that “As a captain, you gradually improve your leadership qualities, even when you are not scoring runs with the bat.”
(Vinay Anand, 17, has an uncanny eye for detail. He revers cricket – looking beyond the glamour into the heart of the game where true passion, perseverance and grit meet. To him, there is no greater joy than coming closer to the sport while exploring its intricacies through his writing and treading ahead to establish himself as a writer and presenter)