The greatest tactician

[Shri]

What about Kim Hughes? Tears aside, was he any good?

 

[Flem274*]

Fleming was gun. I think we're missing him. Vettori is great at leading by example but he comes off as too defensive for my liking.

 

[Uppercut]

If the cap fits...


Was easily SL's best skipper though, IMO.

Mahela Jayawardene was excellent tactically too, they've definitely lost a little in that department with Sanga at the helm. I certainly rate the tactical side of Jayawardene's captaincy ahead of anyone captaining in international cricket at the minute.

It's a vastly different job captaining Sri Lanka to captaining, say, South Africa though. With all the other **** you have to deal with, tactical acumen is pretty much just a bonus for a South African captain.

 

[sifter132]

Pure tactical genius, it has to be Jardine.

Michael Vaughan is under rated here too. To carry off that tactic of openly cheating with the use of mints and having his bowlers honors the field between spell to rest and get coached while the match was in progress, without any sanction whatsoever, was pure genius.

Yeah agree. I think anyone who can push the boundaries of the rules a LITTLE bit is the kind of 'genius' that deserves praise. The Cronje/Woolmer earpiece idea fits that category as well - not really cheating so much, but just trying to maximise their performance.

Honourary mention to Shane Warne. Not only was a very thoughtful bowler who always had a plan, but he transferred that to his captaincy too. And his Tweets

 

[vcs]

Any examples of Mahela's tactical acumen?

 

[Uppercut]

Fleming was gun. I think we're missing him. Vettori is great at leading by example but he comes off as too defensive for my liking.

It's tough because he doesn't have the weapons to captain properly aggressively. It's not like he was putting men on the boundary on the rare occasion when Shane Bond was bowling.

I definitely don't think he utilises his own bowling very well, though.

 

[Flem274*]

It's tough because he doesn't have the weapons to captain properly aggressively. It's not like he was putting men on the boundary on the rare occasion when Shane Bond was bowling.

I definitely don't think he utilises his own bowling very well, though.

Yeah, apart from O'Brien he hasn't had a consistently decent bowler to play with. I do think he jumps on the defensive too quickly though. One of Fleming's best assets was he trusted his bowlers, even if the first choice attack was out injured.

 

[Uppercut]

Any examples of Mahela's tactical acumen?

His fields to Kevin Pietersen when England toured in '07. That Sri Lankan team understood perfectly the strengths and weaknesses in KP's game at that time better than anyone, especially on the slow pitches they played on. They got pretty unorthodox at times, e.g. no slip and two midwickets. But Pietersen didn't get a fifty that series.

Or in ODIs he was always willing to delay the second bowling powerplay. Having Murali gave him the freedom to do it, but even so he was always on top of when and where to do it- slowing down a good start, or targetting the batsmen who would rather just knock it around or had particular trouble with spin.

Just the odd thing- I don't mean to say he was as good as Fleming or Taylor. But I watched quite a lot of Sri Lanka around that time and his captaincy was definitely a bit underrated. He understood really well how to manage his resources. I can't imagine he'd have been half as good in charge of Australia or England but he played the hand he was dealt very well.

 

[Ikki]

Michael Vaughan is under rated here too. To carry off that tactic of openly cheating with the use of mints and having his bowlers honors the field between spell to rest and get coached while the match was in progress, without any sanction whatsoever, was pure genius.

 

[Howe_zat]

His fields to Kevin Pietersen when England toured in '07. That Sri Lankan team understood perfectly the strengths and weaknesses in KP's game at that time better than anyone, especially on the slow pitches they played on. They got pretty unorthodox at times, e.g. no slip and two midwickets. But Pietersen didn't get a fifty that series.

Or in ODIs he was always willing to delay the second bowling powerplay. Having Murali gave him the freedom to do it, but even so he was always on top of when and where to do it- slowing down a good start, or targetting the batsmen who would rather just knock it around or had particular trouble with spin.

Just the odd thing- I don't mean to say he was as good as Fleming or Taylor. But I watched quite a lot of Sri Lanka around that time and his captaincy was definitely a bit underrated. He understood really well how to manage his resources. I can't imagine he'd have been half as good in charge of Australia or England but he played the hand he was dealt very well.

So - and I'm sincerely asking - why is he no longer captain? I had a look at some stats and it didn't seem to bother his batting at all, quite the opposite.

 

[Michaelf7777777]

I'm a bit surprised that Bradman and Lindsay Hassett haven't been mentioned yet. Bradman party for the reverse the batting order tactic in Melbourne 36-37 (As well as claiming a 3 minute longer gap between innings because the England captain (Gubby Allen who was batting at the time) hadn't said he'd declared and had just walked off the field taking his partner with him. Also in 1948 he moved his square leg fielder 5 yards when Compton came on strike and he hooked it straight to the fielder and when asked why he'd moved him, Bradman claimed that he'd remembered the particular line that Compton hooked down from the 1938 Ashes series (i.e. 10 years earlier).

Hassett for his tactics against the South Africans in 1949-50 when faced with the prospect on a sticky wicket of been skittled twice and losing by an innings if South Africa declared or were shot out quickly gave his bowlers instructions to bowl rubbish so that they wouldn't be bowled out and so that the pitch would appear better than it actually was. He gave instructions to fast bowler/ spinner Bill Johnston of 'Need to bowl rubbish, Bill. The best rubbish you've ever delivered. We don't want wickets, We want time.' He also set containment fields rather than typical attacking test match fielding positions feeling that catches would be less likely to be offered in these positions (Miller also dropped a sitter when no one could ever remember him having dropped a catch previously).

Hassett also did a clever ruse on that tour to get Keith Miller (the world's best All Rounder at this time) over to South Africa after he had been rather strangely left out. Because the rule at the time was that the captain chose mid tour replacements, he decided with the help of the press to exagerate the injuries that Johnston had received in a motorcycle accident so he could invite Miller as a replacement. Johnstion, who made a surprisingly fast recovery once Miller was on the boat, finished as the top wicket taker in the series.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Some great stories there, Michael.

At times it can be hard to measure, because you can be the world's greatest tactician, but if your bowlers don't execute, you'll look silly. It's hard to talk about tactics in the modern game, because the support staff will provide so much information to the skippers, captaincy is not the organic process that it once was.

 

[slugger]

S fleming had moments in his career when he applied himself, the tour of Australia in 01/02 is his best example I can think of. In the ODI tri nations. NZ just didnt give Aust a chance but he forgot about S Africa and in the finals agianst them we looked like a shadow of the team that put aust to the sword. Also the test series was one of the best, only the smallest of indictments aided Aust out of two close games.

 

[Prince EWS]

Mahela Jayawardene was excellent tactically too, they've definitely lost a little in that department with Sanga at the helm. I certainly rate the tactical side of Jayawardene's captaincy ahead of anyone captaining in international cricket at the minute.

Yep, AWTA.

 

[Burgey]

S fleming had moments in his career when he applied himself, the tour of Australia in 01/02 is his best example I can think of. In the ODI tri nations. NZ just didnt give Aust a chance but he forgot about S Africa and in the finals agianst them we looked like a shadow of the team that put aust to the sword. Also the test series was one of the best, only the smallest of indictments aided Aust out of two close games.

Nah, if it didn't rain in Brisbane we'd have won easily. Freak run out cost us in Perth too.

 

[Burgey]

Mahela Jayawardene was excellent tactically too, they've definitely lost a little in that department with Sanga at the helm. I certainly rate the tactical side of Jayawardene's captaincy ahead of anyone captaining in international cricket at the minute.

It's a vastly different job captaining Sri Lanka to captaining, say, South Africa though. With all the other **** you have to deal with, tactical acumen is pretty much just a bonus for a South African captain.

Yeah I would agree with that too. He's excellent. It's a shame he's not skippering anymore. I suppose Ranatunga gets more praise in that he took them from Bangladesh standard laughing stock to WC champs and a damn competitive test side.

 

[vcs]

His fields to Kevin Pietersen when England toured in '07. That Sri Lankan team understood perfectly the strengths and weaknesses in KP's game at that time better than anyone, especially on the slow pitches they played on. They got pretty unorthodox at times, e.g. no slip and two midwickets. But Pietersen didn't get a fifty that series.

Or in ODIs he was always willing to delay the second bowling powerplay. Having Murali gave him the freedom to do it, but even so he was always on top of when and where to do it- slowing down a good start, or targetting the batsmen who would rather just knock it around or had particular trouble with spin.

Just the odd thing- I don't mean to say he was as good as Fleming or Taylor. But I watched quite a lot of Sri Lanka around that time and his captaincy was definitely a bit underrated. He understood really well how to manage his resources. I can't imagine he'd have been half as good in charge of Australia or England but he played the hand he was dealt very well.

OK, thanks. Was just curious to know some specific examples.

 

[Himannv]

Mahela Jayawardene was excellent tactically too, they've definitely lost a little in that department with Sanga at the helm. I certainly rate the tactical side of Jayawardene's captaincy ahead of anyone captaining in international cricket at the minute.

It's a vastly different job captaining Sri Lanka to captaining, say, South Africa though. With all the other **** you have to deal with, tactical acumen is pretty much just a bonus for a South African captain.

There's a whole lot of other **** to deal with if you're a Sri Lankan captain as well. Has to be said, Mahela fitted the role perfectly. Made sure the dirty laundry was hidden from most of the world and worked past the political side of the job diplomatically.

 

[Migara]

If annoying the australians is the only criteria for being a good captain, Gangly is the greatest captain ever.

Will have a stiff challenge from Ranatunga

 

[smash84]

Will have a stiff challenge from Ranatunga

I would tend to agree. If annoying the Aussies is a criteria then Arjuna beats Ganguly to it. Arjuna could annoy the crap out of the Aussies. He was probably the best Sri Lankan captain ever and his team would rally behind him.

Did really annoy Warne and Healy in particular IIRC.