Good captains are ready to take the blame

"A captain is only as good as his team." It sounds good when a winning captain makes such a statement, but we in India have got used to beleaguered leaders trotting it out as an excuse for failure. Yet, there was a time when captains were ready to stand up and be counted. MAK Pataudi for one did not flinch from taking the blame when things went wrong nor did he overreact to praise, which he received in large measure in his last hurrah as captain.

I believe captains of that era were path breakers. Though I have heard that as early as 1960, Gulabrai Ramchand decided it was time the Indian skipper became a true leader and decision maker, not merely a puppet in the hands of officialdom, the process of self-assertion was really taken forward by Pataudi, followed by Bedi and Gavaskar.

ML Jaisimha, who led Hyderabad for nearly two decades, was one such pioneer around whom there was a churning of ideas among a number of state captains, for instance, V Subramanyam of Karnataka. The close-in fields, so common today for spin bowlers, were fine-tuned if not conceived by Jaisimha, under whom I played and learned by osmosis. It is commonplace today, but the placement of a forward short leg for a left arm spinner bowling to a right hander or a right arm off spinner to a left hand batsman was an example of the original thinking the Pataudi-Jaisimha era fermented.

Jaisimha was as cerebral a captain as they come, quite inspired on occasion, but mostly uncommonly commonsensical. He led by example and rarely told you what to do in so many words. He was brilliant in setting a field and in quickly sizing up an opponent. He was also a superb reader of wickets. When it came to man-management, however, he did not perhaps quite measure up to the ideal of playing "different strokes for different folks."

Another notable captain I played under was Hanumant Singh, who led the State Bank team in all-India tournaments. He too belonged to the Pataudi-Jaisimha school of thought on most matters cricketing. He was accused by some of over-theorising, but I found him an exceptionally caring and perceptive leader of men. I was a beneficiary of his generosity, when he decided to drop me, a complete unknown, for a Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup final, but called me to his room on the eve of the match and explained why he was doing that and how it was no reflection on my ability. He also taught me a trick or two about off spin bowling that helped me all through my career.

How does Sourav Ganguly compare with the great captains of the past? Tactically, I believe he is still at the bottom end of his learning curve, but he has the guts to back his own instincts. He also seems to stand by his men, and in this he reminds me of the best Indian captains of the past. And like Pataudi in his second innings, he has ignored poor personal form and led from the front.