The greatest tactician

[Shri]

He didn't make Waugh wait for the toss out in the sun, Ganguly wins.

 

[Prince EWS]

Nah look, no-one annoyed Australians more as captain than Jardine. It's not even close.

 

[smash84]

He didn't make Waugh wait for the toss out in the sun, Ganguly wins.

He took his team off the field and the aussie batsmen were waiting out in the sun....not one but two players......so ranatunga wins

 

[JBMAC]

Pure tactical genius, it has to be Jardine.

Many others in the tier below. Chappelli was great, though a lot of that was his players would walk over broken glass for him. Benaud was apparently superb, Brearley too. Though I suspect the latters ability was more man management than pure tactics. Taylor a superb tactician, Fleming was too.

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

Must agree with Burgey on those highlighted parts above. Jardine for devising his "leg side theory" and being able to put it into practise and Benaud was sheer genius as skipper. Saw him win as skipper many times just when the chips were down and he would devise "something" , not necessarily in the textbook ,and it invariably worked

 

[JBMAC]

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.

These were "lucky" moments in his(Bradmans) career. When Bradman walked on the field with his side bowling the ONLY worrds he would use to set his field was "Scatter" and the players all went to their respective positions in which each was considered a specialist

 

[smash84]

These were "lucky" moments in his(Bradmans) career. When Bradman walked on the field with his side bowling the ONLY worrds he would use to set his field was "Scatter" and the players all went to their respective positions in which each was considered a specialist

Sound so cool....."Scatter"....I like that

 

[honestbharani]

Gary Kasparov.

 

[Howe_zat]

Cricinfo piece today about Jardine.

'What Jardine did encapsulates Test cricket' | Cricket videos, MP3, podcasts, cricket audio at Cricinfo.com

 

[Checkmate]

Cricket history is littered with excellent captains but my vote for the best of all is Jardine. He had to achieve what he did on his own as the tour management didn't like his tactics, nor did a couple of his own team and the entire Australian nation hated him (not that he gave a **** about that of course) - worth remembering too that what he achieved was to comprehensively defeat a quite outstanding Australian team

Very interesting. It must have taken a lot of guts to do what he did considering the atmosphere in even his own camp, let alone that of the opposition. Ian Chappell got a piece out today on Jardine:

Douglas Jardine of England, the captain during the Bodyline series, has always fascinated me. For two reasons. I think he was a really smart captain. If you really want to encapsulate what Test cricket is all about, just look at what Jardine did.

Don Bradman was an imposing player who was devastating all the opposition. Bradman at that stage had an average of around about 100. So what Jardine decided to do was, "Right, the champion player in the opposition side. I'm going to try and cut his average down.

What Jardine did encapsulates Test cricket. If you want to increase your chances of winning a Test series then you have to try and disrupt the averages of the best players in the opposition - batsmen, if you can bring them down, and bowlers if you can push them up - if you do that, you increase your chances of winning a Test series enormously. And that's what Jardine did. The other areas where Jardine was smart was, he realised the importance of fast bowling in Australia, so he brought a lot of good fast bowlers to Australia.

The third thing that I would say about Jardine is that if the administrators did not want the field placings he placed, then the administrators should have thought about it beforehand and put it in the laws. What annoys me about not only Jardine's situation but take my brother Greg's situation when he ordered the underarm, is that, whether you agree with what Jardine did or what Greg did, it was [permitted] in the laws. The problem that I have is that it's always the players or the captains who get it in the neck, not the administrators who make the original blunder.

So it really annoyed me that Jardine and Larwood, in particular, were castigated for what they did. When all they were doing was playing within the laws. So Jardine, I think, gets the most unfair rap.

I didn't ever see the series, but just reading about it and being fascinated by it and having had a grandfather, Victor Richardson, who played in that series, the series has always fascinated me. And I have looked upon Jardine as a very smart captain, and obviously a very good captain.

'What Jardine did encapsulates Test cricket' | Cricket videos, MP3, podcasts, cricket audio at Cricinfo.com

Fascinating, the bolded part. But I guess that's what researching the opposition is all about.

I don't agree with his comparison to the underarm incident though. Totally different scenarios.

Edit: Haha, beaten by Howe_zat

 

[Checkmate]

Gary Kasparov.

Fischer tbh

 

[fredfertang]

Very interesting. It must have taken a lot of guts to do what he did considering the atmosphere in even his own camp, let alone that of the opposition.

I don't think the atmosphere in his own camp would have bothered Jardine much. Gubby Allen refused to bowl leg theory but he still picked him - of the others it was said Pataudi wasn't keen but that's all - all the professionals supported Jardine and the use of leg theory as did his vice captain Wyatt - though a number were rather less keen the following season after Voce and a few others started bowling it in County matches

 

[Checkmate]

I don't think the atmosphere in his own camp would have bothered Jardine much. Gubby Allen refused to bowl leg theory but he still picked him - of the others it was said Pataudi wasn't keen but that's all - all the professionals supported Jardine and the use of leg theory as did his vice captain Wyatt - though a number were rather less keen the following season after Voce and a few others started bowling it in County matches

I see, so was it just Larwood and Voce who bowled leg in that series? Maybe Hammond too?

 

[fredfertang]

I see, so was it just Larwood and Voce who bowled leg in that series? Maybe Hammond too?

Bill Bowes did too although he only played in the second Test and only got one wicket (quite a useful one though - Bradman first up in the first innings) - I don't recall reading anywhere that Hammond ever bowled to the packed leg side field, and I wouldn't have thought he was quick enough, but he may have had a try at it at some point

 

[Prince EWS]

Hammond was apparently pretty bloody quick when he could be bothered. Not Larwood pace or anything, but quicker than a lot of specialist bowlers in his time.

 

[Checkmate]

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.

He simply didn't want to be captain for longer than that, and also wanted to focus more on his batting. Here you go:

Jayawardene to step down | Sri Lanka Cricket News | Cricinfo.com

 

[dro87]

Mike Brearley? Managed to justify his place in the team based on captaincy alone, while averaging 22 with the bat.

This article was taken from crickinfo's columm Ask Steven.. Great exaple of Brearley's pure "innovation" in captaincy!



I heard that Mike Brearley, frustrated by Middlesex's inability to break a stubborn partnership, put the spare fielding helmet in front of the wicket to try to tempt the batsmen to hit it and score five easy runs. Is this true or is it an urban myth? asked Mike Shearing from China

No, it's not an urban myth, it did happen, and I was there! (I was working at Lord's at the time.) Mike Brearley mentions it in his excellent book The Art of Captaincy, saying it was in a match against Yorkshire, "who were batting without much sense of adventure". I remember him calling to the bowler, Phil Edmonds, "Let's try The Ploy": they placed a spare fielding helmet on the ground at short midwicket, to try to tempt the batsmen to play across the line to Edmonds's left-arm spin in order to collect the five penalty runs they would have received if the ball hit the helmet. Brearley doesn't mention the year, but I think it must have been this match in 1980. If that is the one, the ploy doesn't seem to have worked, although Edmonds did take three wickets, and shortly afterwards the regulations were amended so you could only park the spare helmet behind the wicketkeeper.

 

[kingkallis]

I never saw Simpson playing or captaining but my father thinks so high of Bob the skipper.

 

[tooextracool]

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.

Will always remember him for this game:

10th Match: Australia v New Zealand at Melbourne, Jan 29, 2002 | Cricket Scorecard | Cricinfo.com

Out of character, came down the track, smacked Warne for 4 and promptly gesticulated to the umpire that he actually had 3 players behind the circle violating the 15 over regulations. Was called a no-ball, Fleming clearly had seen it before the ball was bowled.

 

[joels344]

Cricinfo piece today about Jardine.

'What Jardine did encapsulates Test cricket' | Cricket videos, MP3, podcasts, cricket audio at Cricinfo.com

Excellent segment on Jardine.

 

[wpdavid]

Any chance of some stories about Benaud? I'm quite prepared to believe that he was a superb skipper, but some anecdotes would be welcome.

As for Brearley, there's probably enough evidence that he was a pretty smart cookie, but I've always maintained that he was a lucky bugger with the England captaincy.