Much importance is placed on the importance of a captain to his cricket team. Several great sides have achieved success largely thanks to an innovative and aggressive captain, and many poor sides have escaped obscurity under the direction of a committed and pugnacious leader.
Recently, however, former Australia coach and current manager of the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League, John Buchanan, has developed a theory revolving around the sharing of captaincy responsibilities amongst several players, in several areas of the game. This theory is in its infancy, and has yet to be tested at length in international cricket - however, after being experimented with by Buchanan's side in the IPL, it is now beginning to polarise opinion among some of cricket's biggest names.
The Multi-Captain Approach
Buchanan's ideas revolve around the principle that every player has specific strengths and weaknesses that can, and should, be exploited for the good of the team in order to be successful. He has sought to harness these disparate strengths and weaknesses by encouraging his players to become active in leading others in their particular area of expertise.
For example, this would mean that while Buchanan's side, be it the Knight Riders or any other, were batting, the batsmen at the crease would have full input into the level of aggression with which they played; while they were bowling, senior bowlers would decide on bowling changes; and in the field, a 'fielding captain' would be appointed to ensure maintenance of morale and enthusiasm, while also assisting the 'official' captain in determining field placings.
Split Captaincy Intrigues Ponting And Others
John Buchanan's approach has attracted widespread attention from the cricketing media in recent weeks and months. While the aims of his new ideas are clear - allowing team members to take greater responsibility and to maximise performance in every area - it was not until receiving a measure of support from current Australia captain Ricky Ponting that the 'multi-captain theory' was lent any credibility.
Ponting has claimed, talking to the Australian Associated Press, that the idea of cricket teams with more than one captain "has some merit". He claimed that the system would need to be trialled further before any real judgment could be made, but cited past experience of a 'shared captaincy' system in the Tasmania side as evidence that such a system could be made to work. Indian batsman Mohammad Kaif is also among several others to have expressed a desire to see the system in action more often.
Voices Of Dissent Grow Rapidly
Following Saurav Ganguly's outburst at Buchanan's attempts to rob him of a degree of authority as Kolkata's captain during last year's IPL, the 'multi-captain' system's future use was always going to attract a degree of negative attention. This attention came in the form of legendary Australian bowler Glenn McGrath, who claimed with reference to Buchanan, his former coach at international level, "I am not sure why he has had this idea."
McGrath also stated, talking to the Indo-Asian News Service, a belief that "there should be one leader on the field and he should be accountable for all decisions", expressing a clear distaste for Buchanan's innovation. He was backed up by Ian Chappell's later assertions on Cricinfo, which claimed that the recent 'Super Over' in an IPL match between Buchanan's Knight Riders and the Shane Warne-led Rajasthan Royals was evidence of the positive influence of a single captain, when that captain is as strong as Warne.
Whatever the common opinion about the nature of cricket captaincy - and there has rarely been anything resembling a consensus on the subject - it cannot be denied that in the age of Twenty20 cricket, 'switch-hitting' and double-jointed spin bowlers, cricket fans are seeing more innovation and adaptation than ever before. Whether or not Buchanan's 'split captaincy' ideas are a success, his revolutionary approach to one of the game's most complex arts will no doubt encourage further experimentation from coaches and captains - however many of them there may be - in the future.
