5 great cricketers who failed as captains

Brian Lara

The best left-handed Test batsman of recent times, Brian Lara was the reference point for every aspiring cricketer in the world. His technique was outrageous and the way he played his shots were beyond the levels of description.

If it weren’t for Sachin Tendulkar, he would have easily been the best Test batsman of his era – such was the magnitude of his talent. Scoring 400 runs in Tests for 11 players combined is a humongous task in itself – but Lara did that all by himself. The captain version of him, however, was far, far away from the player version.

His ODI record was formidable. With a 50% win percentage from 125 ODIls, spanning over a period of 13 years, it was his leadership in Tests that left a lot to be determined.

Commanding 47 games, he won only 10 games and lost 26 and had a win percentage of only 21.27%. It is ironic that it was in Tests where he was at his best as a batsman – it was his ground zero – but he struggled to make his team perform like him.

What’s stranger is that despite having a poor record, he went on to captain the team for 9 years from 1997 to 2006. Perhaps the West Indies board found it impossible to strip a legend off the captaincy badge. And rightfully so, Lara had earned that leeway for his years of unparalleled service for his team.

In the end, Lara retired and the armband was taken by…

Chris Gayle

It seems as though West Indies no longer produce captains like they once used to. The country that boasted of legendary captains like Clive Lloyd and Sir Viv Richards now find it hard to produce leaders like them anymore.

Replacing Lara as the captain was never going to be easy for Chris Gayle. However, his super-aggressive batting approach gave the impression that West Indies would have a more attacking mindset under his stewardship. As it turned out, though, Gayle disappointed fans more than hardcore old-school metal fans were after listening to Metallica’s Load album.

His record as a captain in ODls was far worse than Lara’s. With just 17 wins from 53 games, and 30 defeats to top it off, he is the perfect example of why cricketers with a laid back attitude must stay away from captaincy. One can never know what the West Indies board were thinking when they appointed him as captain.

However, as a player, only few can boast to possess the nature of intimidating bowlers like he does. He is one of only 4 players to have scored two triple hundreds in Tests and is one of the very few players who can do the same, at least once, in ODIs as well – such is his ability when he is having a good day.

Sachin Tendulkar

It is almost criminal to have Sachin Tendulkar’s name in a list that accumulates the ‘worst’ side of things. Arguably, the greatest batsman to ever play the modern game, Tendulkar won billions of hearts with his mesmerizing batting and humble attitude. His captaincy, though, was the only black mark in his illustrious and radiant career.

The Little Master had two spells as captain. The first one was in 1996. He lasted for a little time as the team was performing poorly. His second spell was even worse – which prompted him to resign from captaincy.

In 25 Tests, he won just 4 games and had 23 victories from 73 ODIs. It seemed as though the captain’s tag wasn’t lucky for him even though Sachin has been accredited with a number of crucial decisions that went on to favour India.

The run-machine was always seen having discussions with captains – Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and MS Dhoni – over his career and played a significant role in the on-field decisions made by them.

In fact, when Dravid resigned as captain, the then BCCI president Sharad Pawar asked Tendulkar to take over the reins – the latter refused the offer and asked Dhoni to be made the captain instead. He was the first one to see the potential of Dhoni as a captain and the rest, as they say, is history.