5 great cricketers who failed as captains

Andrew Flintoff won just 2 Tests as captain

Leadership is a skill that not many possess. Even the best player of a particular sport might not be a good captain.

In cricket, there have been players who were regarded among the best in their field, but they weren’t as good when it came to captaincy. On the other hand, lesser players turned out to be better captains.

So here are 5 great players who failed as captains:

Andrew Flintoff

There was once a time – during the early part of the 21st century – when Andrew Flintoff was the best all-rounder in the world. He was the pure epitome of how an all-rounder should be like – hard to get rid off while batting and almost unplayable with the ball in hand.

If it wasn’t for a career plagued with injuries, he might have finished off as one of the top 3 all-rounders ever. Having him in the team was like having two players simultaneously. As a captain, however, he was poor to say the least.

He captained the Three Lions in 11 Test games and had an atrocious record of 7 losses, 2 draws and 2 wins. Despite having an aggressive approach as a player, he couldn’t replicate it as a captain in a controlled way.

After captain Michael Vaughan and vice-captain Marcus Trescothick were declared unavailable, Flintoff was made the skipper of England for their tour of India.

Playing an outstanding game against India in his first Test as a captain, where England won by 212 runs, many thought that he was destined to be a great captain for his country. England drew that 3-match series 1-1 and “Freddie” was named the captain for the 7-game ODI series.

However, things went downhill from there as they lost the series 5-1 with Flintoff being rested for 2 games. After that Flintoff won just 1 Test game as captain – against Sri Lanka – and had to face the humiliation of losing the Ashes 5-0 to Australia.

Thankfully, for England, Vaughan returned and took over the reins from the all-rounder. As a captain, he only just won one series and that was against Australia in the Commonwealth Bank One-Day International Series. A disappointing return from a terrific player.

Heath Streak

Any man that can make Bangladesh’s fast-bowling department look great can be labelled as a genius. And Heath Streak currently holds that accolade. Since becoming the bowling coach of the Tigers, the likes of Rubel Hossain and Taskin Ahmed have flourished. However, he couldn’t inspire in the same way as a captain.

During his day, he was a great bowler himself who was more than a handy batsman when needed. With bowling averages of 28 and 29 in Tests and ODIs, respectively, he stamped his authority as Zimbabwe’s greatest ever bowler.

From 2000 to 2004, the current Bangladesh bowling coach led his country in 68 ODIs, losing a mammoth 47 games and winning only 18. It wasn’t that Zimbabwe were a terrible team – they were definitely better than the current side – and could have done much better than what records suggest.

To be fair to Streak, though, the race row that was going on in Zimbabwe at that time – with black players being on the better side of things – tied his hands a bit. He even accused the board of asking him to falsely tell the white players that “they weren’t good enough” to play for the team.

However, he still remains the greatest bowler his country has ever had and his performances as a captain were still praiseworthy, even though he couldn’t inspire his teammates to do the same – or like he has done with the bowlers of the Bangladesh cricket team.

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.