Five Indian captains whose captaincy tenure ended unexpectedly

Dec 13, 2017 at 8:22 PM

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Five Indian captains whose captaincy tenure ended unexpectedly

MS Dhoni has been arguably India’s most successful captain across all the formats. Be it T20 World Cup, 50 Over World Cup or the ICC Champions Trophy – under his captaincy India have won all the major ICC tournaments.  It was under his captaincy, India became the number one Test team.

Despite these amazing achievements, Dhoni started to receive severe criticism in the recent past from both the fans and former cricketers. The only reason behind this outrage is simply India’s poor overseas performance.

A Dhoni fan would think such criticism for a captain who has given so much to cheer for this country is not at all appreciable but if we just go through the history of Indian cricket, Dhoni is not the first one to face this unwanted chin music. India rarely had a captain who left captaincy on his own without facing any media or fan backlash. As we all know an Indian cricket captain’s job is regarded as the toughest job in the country after that of the Prime Minister, so it’s inevitable Dhoni has to face the chin music.

Here we look at 5 former captains whose tenure ended abruptly due to various reasons ranging from poor form, board politics and match-fixing charges among others. But some of these players continued their national career without the burden of captaincy.

Kapil Dev

The first half of the 1980s witnessed a cold war over captaincy between Sunil Gavaskar & Kapil Dev. However, Kapil’s supremacy as captain proved quite well by winning the 1983 Prudential World Cup. The impact of this historical victory was enormous and it actually followed a cricket revolution in India. His team became famous as Kapil’s devils.

But he failed to repeat the heroics of 1983 and in the 1987 Reliance World Cup at home, India was defeated by England in the semi-final. Kapil had to face the blame for this loss and was eventually removed as the captain. Not only that, his 1987 World Cup campaign was also marred with controversies. In their first match against Australia, India lost by one run chasing 271.

Although he continued to play for India till as late as 1994, he was never given an opportunity to lead the team again. Interestingly, he was the vice-captain for India’s tour to Pakistan in 1989.

Rahul Dravid

Since his Test debut at Lords in 1996, Rahul Dravid’s performance has more often been overshadowed by some extraordinary performances from other star players. Be it his debut at Lords or the epic Kolkata test against Australia in 2001; Dravid had to be satisfied with the role of a supporting partner.

So it was obvious; when the time came to choose a new captain in 2000 after the match-fixing saga, Sourav Ganguly was the first choice and Dravid rightly became his deputy. But it was 2005, some unfortunate turn of events forced Ganguly’s ouster from Team India and Dravid became the new captain.

Dravid led India in 25 tests and 79 ODIs with some amount of success. But even the calm and dependable Dravid faltered while handling the pressures of the captaincy after a while. Following India’s disastrous performance in the 2007 World Cup, Rahul Dravid had no other choice but to resign from captaincy. In an interview with the BBC in 2007, Dravid admitted “I enjoyed the captaincy, I loved it, but it can get tough after a while and some of the enjoyment can go away, So I thought it was the right time to step aside.”

Dravid, however, continued to play under Anil Kumble and later under MS Dhoni for almost four years. In these later years, he was back to at his best with the bat and averaged 50+ in tests since 2009.

Mohammad Azharuddin

Azharuddin remained captain of the Indian team for most of the 1990s. He even led India in three consecutive World Cups in 1992, 1996 & 1999. Before Sourav Ganguly, Azhar was known as the most successful Indian captain.

To majority of the Indian fans, Azhar looked to be a quiet man and his critics took the opportunity to troll him a lucky captain. But it’s his record as captain which speaks of his calibre and leadership skills. Richie Benaud once said while speaking about a perfect captain, “The hallmark of a great captain is the ability to win the toss, at the right time”. Well, Azhar obviously had the knack of winning the toss. In facts in the 50 over format he had the highest toss win percentage (for players who have captained their teams in more than 100 ODIs); he won 96 tosses in the 174 matches which he led the Indian team.

But due to his poor form and the rise of Sachin Tendulkar ultimately took away the captaincy from him in 1996 but he came back to lead India once again in 1997. However, allegations of match-fixing cut short his dramatic comeback and he was even banned by the BCCI in 2000. BCCI lifted the ban imposed on him in 2006 but it was too late for Azhar to consider thoughts of comeback.

Sachin Tendulkar        

                                                                

You can be ‘God of Cricket’ in your own way, but the system measuring an Indian captain’s performance doesn’t change. This is the ultimate lesson Tendulkar learnt but in the hard way when he was appointed as the captain of the Indian team. Interestingly by the time he became captain, he was already a superstar, and for this, expectations were excessively big from him.

Sachin enjoyed a dream start to his captaincy tenure when he won home Tests against Australia & South Africa. The triangular Titan Cup involving Australia & South Africa his best also witnessed captain Sachin at. But that was it, if you consider his successful run as captain. He had no other option but to resign from captaincy in 1997 and the reigns were passed on to Mohammad Azharuddin.

However, in 1999 Tendulkar came back to captain the side, but after going through another disappointing spell he had to quit captaincy for good in 2000. Sachin since then went on to play international cricket for more than a decade but never dared to try his hands at captaincy again.

Sourav Ganguly

Sourav Ganguly happens to be one of the best captains India has ever produced. It was Sourav who taught Team India to fight and win tests overseas. But at the same time, he has also been one of the most controversial captains.

His confrontation with once being called ‘good friend’ Greg Chappell is now part of the folklores of Indian cricket. Ironically Ganguly was instrumental in getting Chappell as the coach of the Indian cricket team ultimately turned out to be his nemesis. In 2005, when his form left Dada; he was not only stripped off his captaincy but was also thrown out of the team.

He fought exceptionally hard to regain his form and in 2006 he was back in the Indian team as a player. This was obviously one of the most remarkable comebacks in the history of cricket. He continued to play for another two years before retiring in 2008. Dada was never again made captain of the team he had once nurtured.

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