Ricky Ponting Vs. Sachin Tendulkar - As Captains

[Sanz]

I will admit, this is a slightly opportunistic thread since Australia are not doing too well at the moment. Despite the recent failures, Ricky has the results and Tendulkar, despite his failures as captain, has shown taht he has cricketing brains and great understanding of the game. Those who have played with SRT, always value/seek his opinion and consider him a fairly intelligent cricketer

Since we already know know who is the better batsman. Please disregard their batting achievements and focus on the captaincy and tell us who is the better captain and why ?

 

[susudear]

Bet

10 to 1 this thread ends up (locked perhaps) in a stat-babble between a Tendulkar fan and a Ponting fan.

As for the topic, at this point, anybody is better than Ponting the captain.

Arguments include the years of grooming under Waugh, the wizards McGrath and Warne at disposal, end-less luck with the toss esp in Australia, Last-Second action hero Gilchrist, etc etc.

 

[Ikki]

Ponting. Better batsman and Captain. Tendulkar's win/loss/draw record should disqualify him in almost any discussion about captains. And yes, this is a very opportunistic thread.

 

[Chimpdaddy]

I have never really rated Ricky Ponting as a great captain, despite his record. The fact is that he had some great players (Warne, McGrath, Langer, Gilchrist, Lee) he really did not need to do that much. Just get his field set correctly, and try and execute their plans. However, as seen recently in India and against South Africa, when the chips are down he lacks variety. He is a good captain. But a great captain can somehow muster out a wicket when it is not going well.
Don't know much about Sachin as captain, so can't really comment there. Both are terrific players, needless to say. My 2 cents worth anyway.

-Chimpdaddy-

 

[JimmyGS]

Ponting. Better batsman and Captain.

AWTA

 

[susudear]

There she comes

Ponting. Better batsman and Captain. Tendulkar's win/loss/draw record should disqualify him in almost any discussion about captains. And yes, this is a very opportunistic thread.

The bait is out.

Shame of you to comment on their batsmanship when the thread creator has specifically asked to judge their captaincies.

 

[JimmyGS]

Since we already know know who is the better batsman.

The bait is out.

Shame of you to comment on their batsmanship when the thread creator has specifically asked to judge their captaincies.

If he didn't want to talk about it, he shouldn't have mentioned it in the first place.

 

[Zinzan]

Never really rated either as good captains

 

[Ikki]

The bait is out.

Shame of you to comment on their batsmanship when the thread creator has specifically asked to judge their captaincies.

"Shame on you..."

 

[susudear]

Good one

"Shame on you..."

 

[pup11]

I really don't think there is much to choose between the two as captains, surely Ponting has as good an individual record as any captain in the history of the game, so in that way Ponting has surely risen to the occasion with the added responsibility of captaincy, so nobody can accuse him for not leading from the front, but Ponting or Tendulkar just aren't tactically blessed to make terrific ploys,etc.

Just goes onto show, that being a great player doesn't necessarily turn you into a great captain.

 

[honestbharani]

Sachin is a good tactician but that is not all there is to captaincy..is there?


Ponting, I think, has the tools to be an inspirational leader but he seems rather less gifted as far as tactical nous goes... Plus, he has been a part of a great inheritance and as such hasn't been able to stamp his WAY of playing into a young team which you see with a lot of guys like Vaughan, Fleming, Ganguly, Imran, Dhoni etc..


At the end of the day, the best captain has good tactical nous and the ability to be a good leader of men. It varies from team to team and culture to culture. Like for a team like India, the ability to be a leader is more important than tactical nous and to an extent it explains why guys like Dravid and Sachin weren't that great.. Leadership and man-management is more important in our team than tactical nous.. You have the whole coaching staff and all the senior players out there to help you out with that part.


But obviously, the best captains are good at both.


For the question, I rate both of them to be pretty mediocre as captains.. And I can't really pick out a winner from the two..

 

[biased indian]

Tendulkar ..had said that he started expecting the same motivation and performance from his fellow players. motivation agree but all 11 cannot play like tendulkar ..thats the biggest weakness i have found in tendulkar as
captain

Ponting was what his team made him ..but still better bet than tendulkar ..but would rate ganguly better than poting any given time

 

[Zinzan]

surely Ponting has as good an individual record as any captain in the history of the game,

Thats kind of irrelevant considering the quality of the teams he's captained & he did manage to lose the first ashes in nearly 20 years, not to mention this latest historic loss.

I mean if you just look purely at his win/loss ratio, it looks like he's up there with some of the best of all-time, whereas most knowledgeable fans know someone like Stephen Fleming was a much more astute captain than Ponting, despite his inferior record.

so nobody can accuse him for not leading from the front, but Ponting or Tendulkar just aren't tactically blessed to make terrific ploys,etc..

Nail on the head there, certainly no doubting his leading from the front, its just his tactical nous ( or more precisely, the lack of it) thats in question

 

[krkode]

I don't think this is a very useful comparison. Maybe we can compare Ganguly and Ponting as captains. Fact is, Tendulkar was never cut out to be captain and his performance suffered a lot while captain. Ponting's has actually improved in the years he has been captain and he has blossomed into a great batsman. Whereas, on the other hand, for Tendulkar, captaincy was probably the only thing he could never do that well. Not to mention, the Indian team was kind of bad during his time at the helm whereas Ponting "inherited" arguably the strongest XI to ever play cricket.

That said, being captain and being a "leader" or someone people seek out for advice are different things, I think. The latter comes with seniority and Tendulkar has been a "senior" player for pretty much 10 years now. Captaincy, on the other hand, is another skill altogether and may or may not have anything to do with seniority. Ex. Fleming when he started out as captain and Dhoni.

 

[Zinzan]

I don't think this is a very useful comparison. Maybe we can compare Ganguly and Ponting as captains. Fact is, Tendulkar was never cut out to be captain and his performance suffered a lot while captain. Ponting's has actually improved in the years he has been captain and he has blossomed into a great batsman.

I agree that his batting has improved since taking the reigns, but honestly don't think his captaincy itself has much at all in the last 4-5 years

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

From everything I've heard, Ponting commands a great deal of respect off the field and seems to bring the team together pretty well, aside from the '05 Ashes where I think things got a bit much for him in general.

It is worth noting that as a captain he's overseen two successful WC campaigns, which is easy to write off because of Australia's talent but it's still a significant achievement. He's also been the best captain I've seen in recent years in terms of showing up with the bat when it counts.

Tactically I don't think Ponting is anything special. But in terms of leadership, I think he's pretty good in most respects. Wouldn't be my pick to captain a World XI or anything but I don't think he's as bad as a lot of people make out.

 

[Zinzan]

From everything I've heard, Ponting commands a great deal of respect off the field and seems to bring the team together pretty well, aside from the '05 Ashes where I think things got a bit much for him in general.

It is worth noting that as a captain he's overseen two successful WC campaigns.

Captaining onedayers & captaining tests aren't the same thing, I do think he's a better one-day captain tbh

 

[Uppercut]

It's Ponting i believe, and i'd probably marginally take him first as a batsman too.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Tendulkar's clearly the better batsman and it's also doubtful whether Australia would have fared any differently if he'd been captain of that side instead of Ponting.