The role of a captain on a cricket field is a very critical aspect, and more often than not the moves made by the skipper on the field during crunch scenarios is where the matches are won or lost. Hence, it becomes imperative that the captains are appointed with a lot of thought and then they are given a long rope to build their team according to their own philosophy.
However, there have been instances when captains of various teams have not been able to produce results on the field, which has led to friction within the team. This has prompted the respective boards to step in and resort to desperate measures.
Here in this list we take a look at 5 captains who were unceremoniously sacked as the captain of their teams midway through their tenure.
#1 Kim Hughes
The right-hander was an attractive batsman on most days, but many believed he was never a natural leader. He was also not the one to take on the administration, a trait which surfaced when he decided to stick with the national board when Kerry Packer introduced the World Cricket Series.
However, when he was appointed the captain, much was expected of him, but then frequent overseas tours led to many indifferent results, and the media pressure and scrutiny on the man kept rising.
His downfall came during the 1984 tour to the West Indies when the Australian team were bruised and battered by a rampant Caribbean side. The Aussies lost the 5-match series 3-0, and there was a clarion call to sack Hughes.
However, he somehow managed to save his job, but when the West Indies toured Australia later in the year, things only worsened for Hughes. The home team lost the first Test by an innings and 112 runs. In the second game, there was no respite as Australia was bowled out for 175. Hughes then dropped two catches in the West Indian innings and made just 4 in his second innings.
This became an unbearable burden for the man, who decided to relinquish captaincy, and thus was sacked by the management. He broke down when he read his resignation letter to his team.
#2 Sachin Tendulkar
The not so impressive record of Sachin Tendulkar as a captain has been well documented all over. But the man himself has expressed disappointment at being sacked as the skipper during 1997 after the series against Sri Lanka.
"At the end of the series, I was unceremoniously sacked as skipper. No one from the BCCI managed to call me or inform me of my removal as captain before someone from the media called to say I was no longer captain," Tendulkar wrote in his autobiography, Playing it my way.
Although Sachin's record as the captain was not very good, his sudden removal did raise many eyebrows, as the reins were then handed over to Mohammed Azharuddin, who did not have too great a record to boot.
#3 Ross Taylor
In what would become one of the worst fallout between players and management, Ross Taylor was stripped of his captaincy in a very vague manner by the New Zealand cricket board.
“It was felt that the workload for a young captain was a lot,” NZC chief executive David White told reporters.
White also added that Taylor had rejected an offer to remain Test captain, even as Brendon McCullum was appointed the captain in limited overs.
Following his removal from Test captaincy, Taylor said he "never" received support from Mike Hesson, the New Zealand coach, during his time as captain. The right-hander also took some time away from the game after this fallout.
#4 Alastair Cook
There is no doubt over the ability of Alastair Cook, the Test player, but his ability in the limited overs format was always under question.
Thus when Cook entered a lean patch in the limited overs format where he scored only one half-century in 22 innings in ODIs, and England too lost five of their last six multi-match series, there was bound to be some action taken.
The ECB did step in and Cook was stripped of his duties in ODI cricket just before the 2015 World Cup, and Eoin Morgan was given charge of the team.
The left-hander was visibly upset with this development and said that he is gutted at being axed as the skipper, but at the same time understood the decision made.
#5 Darren Sammy
The speech of the charismatic West Indian skipper after his team won the 2016 World T20 in Kolkata was nothing short of a diplomatic masterclass, but the way he attacked his own cricket board had to have repercussions. And yes it certainly did.
The winner of two World T20 titles was sacked as the skipper of the T20 side. Sammy posted a very emotional video on his Facebook page where he informed everyone that his captaincy had been taken away from the selectors. He also said that the selectors had reviewed his captaincy and later informed that Sammy won’t be part of the team anymore.
“I got a call yesterday morning, it was probably 30 seconds, from the chairman of selectors telling me that they’ve reviewed the captaincy of T20 and I won’t be captain anymore of the T20 team, [and] my performances have not merited selection in the squad,” Sammy said in the video.
Carlos Brathwaite was appointed as the new skipper of the Caribbean side.
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