Ok let's isolate Graeme Smith's captaincy for a second here. That isn't really in debate here. We can have our own views on whether he was a good captain or not and have our arguments. The issue here is the arguments that Chappell uses. Never seen him make the same criticism against Ponting though. You're right, just being number 1 does not make one necessarily a great captain. But then why was Ponting off the hook? Once McGrath and Warne left, Ponting's team repeatedly failed to pick up 20 wickets. I didn't see any jibe about 'negative' or 'defensive' captaincy then. But when Dhoni with far inferior bowlers fails to do that, Chappell will be the first one to knock him down.
Whenever he has talked about great captaincy, it has always been an Australian captain he has put forward as a great leader (usually Benaud, or Border or Clarke and now Steve Smith) and everyone else whether Cook, Dhoni, Misbah, Smith (Graeme) fall short.
My point isn't about whether Graeme Smith was a great captain or not. We can discuss that in another topic at another time. My point is that I have found a tendency of national bias in his analysis, which is why when he comes out and criticizes Smith or Dhoni, it's not really a credible source for me.
As far as his overall analysis is concerned, yes he can be very sharp about a lot of tactical matters and I find them insightful and his analytical or tactical ability is not in question here.
Just to go back to the original conversation and how this started.
The original point was Chappell seems to think Ross Taylor struggles against pace.
My response is that it doesn't really say much because it's from Chappell and it's non Australian player.
