Friday, March 10, 2006
Graeme Smith; The next dada?
There are a lot of similarities between Graeme Smith and Sourav Ganguly.
1. Both are aggressive left handers.
2. Both have similar batting averages.
3. Both have a lot of flaws in their technique. Ganguly's nightmare against short balls really doomed his career. He went into the backfoot once he realized that the opponents will test him with short balls. As his mind got preoccupied by the scare of short balls, he just couldn't concentrate on his strengths, and his confidence hit rockbottom, and he is reeling now.
Smith is equally prone to such a torture, unless he starts working on his flaws. He tends to drive a lot, and he is dismal if the pace of the ball is varied. He needs to tackle the situations when the ball is not freely coming onto the bat.
4. Both took charge when their team is in a difficult situation. When Sourav took charge, Indian team was hit badly by the match fixing scandal, and there was nobody in the team who could stand up and take the lead. Many people who criticize Sourav now tends to forget this aspect. The more important part is, Sourav is the guy who built the present team India. Before Sourav, Indian team lacked professionalism, and they were like a bunch of talented pool looking for an identity. Once Sourav came, there was an air of arrogance in the team, and the "We don't care who are the champions" attitude came to the team. The team was also blessed to get a bunch of dedicated players under Sourav. Each member in the men in blues seem to back every other member in the field, and the team spirit is high. The famous huddle is implemented by Dada and it is being practised by many of the international teams. Moreover, he changed the age old tradition of respecting the selection committee decisions. He demanded the players he felt were good, and as a result, players like Harbhajan and Yuvi came into the team (This attitude was appreciated in the beginning, but later on, it turned out to be a political issue)
Simliarly, when Smith was taking over the team, South Africa was in a bad shape. With the shocking exit from the world cup and the retirement of Donald, Rhodes and the exit of Klusener, the team looked mediocre, and they had to get rid of their mechanical game plan inducted by Woolmer. To an extent, Smith has been successful, and South African team is as good as any of the top team in the world now.
5. Both are arrogant. This is important as a captain. Here I am paralleling arrogance with aggression. With controlled arrogance, the aggression creeps in. It is essential in this era, where many of the matches turn out to be a psychological competition than physical. Team Australia has been the biggest exponent of this, and now they are not the only ones who do this. How can someone forget the celebration of Sourav in the Lords stands when India won the Natwest finals? And it was considered as an indecent conduct by the cricketing world. They took it as an insult to the Holy Lords. But when Freddie did that in India some months back, it was a true sportsmanship gesture. Great!
The scornful comments that Smith make before every series are some way in which he is trying to gain psychological advantage over the opponent.
But this arrogance is a double sided sword. It can drain the character in you. No wonder Sourav has only a few friends in the cricketing world. And when his career hit rockbottom, there was not many to back him or give him a moral support. I guess the fate will be similar to Smith as well. My gut feeling say that there are not many friends for him also.
Moreover, both of them tend to get carried away trying to gain psychological advantage. This, I guess will get tamed with age.
6. Both of them tend to back the team members to the core. We can see how Smith takes care of the psycho Andre Nel. Similarly Ganguly showed his support to many players when they were facing some or the other crisis. (This can be an arguable issue, as he was a bit biased in lending the support to team mates.)
Hope, Smith doesn't end up with the same fate as that of Sourav.
1. Both are aggressive left handers.
2. Both have similar batting averages.
3. Both have a lot of flaws in their technique. Ganguly's nightmare against short balls really doomed his career. He went into the backfoot once he realized that the opponents will test him with short balls. As his mind got preoccupied by the scare of short balls, he just couldn't concentrate on his strengths, and his confidence hit rockbottom, and he is reeling now.
Smith is equally prone to such a torture, unless he starts working on his flaws. He tends to drive a lot, and he is dismal if the pace of the ball is varied. He needs to tackle the situations when the ball is not freely coming onto the bat.
4. Both took charge when their team is in a difficult situation. When Sourav took charge, Indian team was hit badly by the match fixing scandal, and there was nobody in the team who could stand up and take the lead. Many people who criticize Sourav now tends to forget this aspect. The more important part is, Sourav is the guy who built the present team India. Before Sourav, Indian team lacked professionalism, and they were like a bunch of talented pool looking for an identity. Once Sourav came, there was an air of arrogance in the team, and the "We don't care who are the champions" attitude came to the team. The team was also blessed to get a bunch of dedicated players under Sourav. Each member in the men in blues seem to back every other member in the field, and the team spirit is high. The famous huddle is implemented by Dada and it is being practised by many of the international teams. Moreover, he changed the age old tradition of respecting the selection committee decisions. He demanded the players he felt were good, and as a result, players like Harbhajan and Yuvi came into the team (This attitude was appreciated in the beginning, but later on, it turned out to be a political issue)
Simliarly, when Smith was taking over the team, South Africa was in a bad shape. With the shocking exit from the world cup and the retirement of Donald, Rhodes and the exit of Klusener, the team looked mediocre, and they had to get rid of their mechanical game plan inducted by Woolmer. To an extent, Smith has been successful, and South African team is as good as any of the top team in the world now.
5. Both are arrogant. This is important as a captain. Here I am paralleling arrogance with aggression. With controlled arrogance, the aggression creeps in. It is essential in this era, where many of the matches turn out to be a psychological competition than physical. Team Australia has been the biggest exponent of this, and now they are not the only ones who do this. How can someone forget the celebration of Sourav in the Lords stands when India won the Natwest finals? And it was considered as an indecent conduct by the cricketing world. They took it as an insult to the Holy Lords. But when Freddie did that in India some months back, it was a true sportsmanship gesture. Great!
The scornful comments that Smith make before every series are some way in which he is trying to gain psychological advantage over the opponent.
But this arrogance is a double sided sword. It can drain the character in you. No wonder Sourav has only a few friends in the cricketing world. And when his career hit rockbottom, there was not many to back him or give him a moral support. I guess the fate will be similar to Smith as well. My gut feeling say that there are not many friends for him also.
Moreover, both of them tend to get carried away trying to gain psychological advantage. This, I guess will get tamed with age.
6. Both of them tend to back the team members to the core. We can see how Smith takes care of the psycho Andre Nel. Similarly Ganguly showed his support to many players when they were facing some or the other crisis. (This can be an arguable issue, as he was a bit biased in lending the support to team mates.)
Hope, Smith doesn't end up with the same fate as that of Sourav.
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