Champion batsmen such as Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting and evergreen Sachin Tendulkar have not just made runs; they have MADE RUNS ON ALL SURFACES AND IN ALL SORTS OF PITCHES. Sachin’s superb century in Perth or Lara’s magical 200 against the Aussies in Sydney or Ponting’s magical double century in Melbourne are case in point.

Now, where do the Sangakkaras and the Jayawardenes come? Well, not in the same breadth actually. Statistics may show Sanga having scored 7652 runs in 89 Tests but out of his 24 Test tons, 16 have come at home against all attacks that lack teeth on sub-standard conditions. He has led Lanka well in all formats of the game since he got the captaincy from Mahela but greatness is something which will take time for Sanga to pick in.

Another lion that roars only on Lankan soil is Jayawardene who has time and again set batting records, sadly on his home soil. The man has scored at an impressive average of 66.12 at home in 63 Tests but the average drops down to a modest 43.10 away with nine centuries compared to 20 at home. He is yet to score a century in South Africa and has hit only a single fifty in Tests on testing conditions.

Now, for the man who just reached his 800^th wicket in Tests and retiring on a high—Muttiah Muralitharan. He may be called a chucker by Bishen Singh Bedi but he has more wickets than anyone else in the world. The good Samaritan has often been on the wrong door of critics who have time and again questioned his action, though the governing body got it sorted out years ago.

He has been quite ordinary in Australia, picking wickets at an awful average of 75 plus and has had a stupendous track at home. Out of the 800 wickets he has taken, 493 have arrived in Sri Lankan shores while the rest outside.

While there may be many who would interpret statistics in a different mindset, I have tried to evaluate these three as they have played many Tests. The likes of Mendis, Paranavitana, Dilshan, Samaraweera will be thoroughly tested when they play in Australia. No surprisingly, Sri Lanka has never won a Test in Australia and South Africa, a record that will stand in good stead for some more years.

The Kolkata Test was yet another testimony to the existence of Test cricket amongst the ranks in an eon where the shorter formats of the game are fighting for survival.

However, an important observation to be made was the drastic difference in the crowd capacity witnessed in the first two Tests. While the first Test at Nagpur saw schoolchildren, not to mention the BCCI entourage making the rounds of the stadium on all four-days of game.

The Eden Gardens is an experience altogether and needs to be seen to be believed. Any player who has been butchered and battered by the media monickers can trust the crowd to be his 12th ma. The crowd will get behind you, appeal to the umpire along with you and when you bag a wicket, they will celebrate you as though they are one happy family cheering aloud. Ask Harbhajan Singh who literally revived his fast-floundering career at the Gardens.

What a crowd can do was aptly demonstrated by the Eden Gardens. The Indian team’s wheels were off in the first game but the partisan crowd ensured a smooth ride for the hosts against the mighty Proteas.

The Eden Gardens crowd reminded the BCCI of the importance of their presence in any part of the game. How many were witness to Sachin Tendulkar crossing Brian Lara’s magical score to become the highest run-getter in Tests in the Mohali Test against Australia in 2008 — a handful.

But the crowd has given a great reception in venues such as Bengaluru, Chennai, Kanpur, New Delhi and at the Eden Gardens. They have backed the faith of the administration that Test cricket is alive and how.

Other venues such as Nagpur, Ahmedabad have just been sorry exhibitions of Tests which literally empty stands and the games hardly any exciting either. The ball is now in BCCI’s court to give more number of Tests to venues that bring in the crowds and spice up the longest and oldest format of the game, taking it to dizzying heights.

Resuming at 17 not out here at Edgbaston, the Tasmanian required just eight more runs Friday and an uncertain clip off his legs for three off fast bowler Andrew Flintoff saw him reach the record in 22 fewer matches than the 156 that Border had taken. Paying a tribute for Ponting’s feat, Border released a statement which read, “Clearly, I am a great admirer, having been involved in Ricky’s selection in many great Australian sides, and having enjoyed watching him closely on more occasions than I can remember as a cricket media commentator as well. It is not just the number of runs he has made, it is how he has made them as a dominant force, leading from the front and scoring at a rate previous champions would have regarded as unthinkable.”

Ponting’s stay at the crease was cut short when Graham Onions had him dismissed for 38. Ponting, speaking before this match, had made it clear that, with Australia 1-0 down in the Ashes with three to play, his focus was on team success not individual glory. “Look hopefully it comes. It would be nice to get it out of the way in the first innings of this game and put that behind us. Twenty-five runs is not what I am after in this game, I am after a big score.”

Leading Test match run-scorers (player, country, career dates, matches, innings, not outs, runs, highest score, average, 100s, 50s):

 Sachin Tendulkar (IND) 1989- 159 261 27 12,773 248no 54.58 42 53

Brian Lara (WI) 1990-2006 131 232 6 11,953 400no 52.88 34 48

Ricky Ponting (AUS) 1995- 134 225 26 11,188 257 56.22 38 46

Allan Border (AUS) 1978-1994 156 265 44 11,174 205 50.56 27 63

Steve Waugh (AUS) 1985-2004 168 260 46 10,927 200 51.06 32 50

It could not have been more one-sided than this. In a show of great strength and character, Australia pummeled their way to secure a 239-run lead on the fourth day and with it set the tone for the rest of the Ashes. Centuries from Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting, Simon Katich, Marcus North and Brad Haddin have ensured that this Test will only have one winner. Your guess is as good as mine!

Ashes 2009
The Ashes series got a very lukewarm coverage from the media the world-over and much of it goes to the energy of the media being spent covering the Twenty20 Carnival that just happened at the same country and to host Ashes within a few weeks was ask.
However, cricket pundits have spoken different things on the series thus far. The most important moment of the Test was Ponting scaling the 11000-run mark in Tests, passed by legends such as Brian Lara, Allan Border and our home boy Sachin Tendulkar.

England cricket and Ashes legend Sir Ian Botham made a remark on it. “If you look at the guy he’s closing in on, Allan Border, those two could be two peas out of the same pod. The way they play, their doggedness, they’re tough, they  get stuck in and once they’re in you, need dynamite to remove  them. Ricky Ponting is a fantastic player. He’s one of those guys you really enjoy watching. He can play all the shots, but you know he’s not going to give anything away. He was in total control,” he was quoted by the Daily Mail.

Did England Miss (read Mess) a trick?
Hell Yes! Where was the gentle giant named Steve Harmison???? This question was raised by former fast bowler from Yorkshire Darren Gough. In an interview to Daily Mail, he said, “Where is Steve Harmison? We keep saying ‘he doesn’t like touring, he doesn’t like this, he doesn’t like that’. He should be playing. He’s a wicket taker. He bowls aggressively and, on this sort of pitch, you can’t have bowlers bowling little swingers to try to get Australia out. You need someone with raw pace who might get wickets on this sort of pitch.”
He went on to make some interesting and glaring errors in this Test. “I’m sorry, but no way. Andrew Flintoff was bowling at 93 mph and the keeper was about four yards back. When Broad was bowling, the speed cameras must have been turned up because there’s no way he was bowling at 94 mph. Flintoff was, Broad wasn’t.”
Well, one can surely say that the Poms have missed more than just one trick or two and Kevin Pietersen’s remark that spin will win them the Test may have to be eaten up by the tall-Englishman.
What is even more interesting is the fact that England had more variety in their attack and were allegedly spoken in high regard. But neither did the combination of Broad, Anderson and Flintoff brought them the purchase nor did their tweakers Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann.

With Australia giving a solid batting display in the first Test, the onus will be on their bowlers to make it count. Will they?

Sachin was first made the captain during the Titan Cup in 1996 and he won his very first series and beat the much-favoured South Africans in the final held at Wankhede Stadium. Javagal Srinath’s best bowling figures won the Indian team a win against the Proteas in Ahmedabad and India won the series at the Eden Park in Kanpur.
But Tendulkar completely lost the plot when India toured South Africa and barring the chanceless 169 in Capetown in the company of the sublime Mohammad Azharuddin, Indian batting had nothing much to say. Dravid made his mark felt with his debut hundred at the Wanderers. The rest faltered.
Captaincy from time immemorial has been about not just leading good men but ensuring that the team performed at the right
time.
Every cricket afficionado can point a good captain, but not many know how to become one. One of the critical issues is the presence of superstars in a side. The records of Allan Border, Clive Lloyd, Steve Waugh, Mark Taylor and Ricky Ponting is a case in point. Lloyd had the services of Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes, Best, Richards, Gomes, Logie, Dujon and had Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner to fill the bowling shoes.
Similarly, Waugh or Border too had the best in the business when they were at the helm. The issue never whom to play but whom to drop. The Australians in the last 15 years have been spoilt for choice and when players such as Damien Martyn, Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden, Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne retired, Ponting suddenly appeared to be leading a bunch of amateurs who were not capable of winning in the same manner in which their predecessors were. There were a generation of players such as Adam Gilchrist who were not used to losing at all.
So, to put together mere mortals to function as a champion unit took time and Ponting’s next test will be at the upcoming Ashes.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, another example of having the right men for the job has Sachin, Sehwag, Raina, Yuvraj, Gambhir, Harbhajan, Zaheer, Ojha, Dhoni (himself), Praveen Kumar, Laxman, Ganguly, Kumble for company and the unit won matches with aplomb.

Many scholars have researched the growth of captains over the years and they have concluded that the main principle behind captaincy will help a youngster become a better leader.
The idea of captaincy or leadership is being accepted as a key ingredient to the existence of the game. However, research on this part of the game is quite subjective. One of the main elements is the ability of a captain to influence the thinking of the game and the players under him.
Captaincy is often judged in a team settings and achievement of goals (in this case a win or a series victory).

If a Benaud or Tony Greig referred to the Australian side of late 90’s as a ‘team of skippers’, it had a valid reason. The thought processes of Steve Waugh dripped down to the lower ranked players such as Justin Langer, Mark Waugh, Matthew Hayden, Shane Warne, McGrath and others in the side. The result was ruthless victories against all and sundry.

The quest to become the best in the business always involves on: doing things right with doing the right thing. The combination of the can be lethal.
The best captains are those who make a mediocre player perform to the best of his potential and over a period of time help him become a match-winner. Sadly, in this particular point, leaders such as Steve Waugh, Mark Taylor had little to do as McGrath or Warne were individual superstars and did not have to be told what their roles in the team was.
Dhoni inherited the experience of demigods such as Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Kumble and the enthusiasm of youngsters such as Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and Pragyan Ojha in the side.

Being a captain, is it crucial to being a great skipper? If yes, then how does one go about it?
Researches have proved that a smart cricketing brain is a trait one is born it and there are quite a few (mind you, very few!) who actually go on to learn this trait on the job. Others, just do not have it. An interesting factor also was the presence of no common factor to judge the captains. Some had good vice-captains (as in the case of Mark Taylor), some was too talented and the rest of the team just obeyed his orders (Allan Border and Clive Lloyd) and successful skippers were all different personalities and displayed different confidence levels at different stages of their captaincy.

An interesting observations of all researches was that the leaders played primarily on tasks at hand or their relationships with a particular player.

Another important trait was noticed that the best leaders were those who could adapt themselves on a situation given to them and had the uncanny knack of selecting the ‘best team’ than going in for the ‘best players’. Now this is slightly tricky because going by records (best player tag)— Rahul Dravid should be in the Indian team and that would have been a blind choice. The reality is far different and the Bengaluru boy is yet to play a ODI in the last 2 years. Sourav Ganguly is another case in point. His records speak of the southpaw but he had to retire when the Bengali himself admitted to have atleast a couple of more years left in service.

Maintaining equilibrium is another important aspect of a good leader. By equilibrium, I mean maintaining the right balance within the team and ensuring that the motivation levels are always looking positive and not otherwise.

This is one clear aspect where Dhoni seems to have failed in the World Cup and has looked clueless as to how he needs to go about it.

Cricket Australia had for the first time brought forth the concept of different captains for different formats of the game, something which definitely did not go well Tugga (Steve Waugh) at that point of time, but it worked. Soon other nations and India in particular followed the same theory and suddenly many players who were earlier featuring in all formats of the game were sidelined and labelled as Test players and ODI stars. The likes of VVS Laxman, Dravid were brought in only for the longest version of the game and overlooked for the shorter format.

Lastly, the ability to quickly juggle between different formats of the game is the modern mantra for success. That’s the bottomline and the quicker the captains across the world realise it, the better it is for their teams.

What makes a better captain?

It is ultimately the team that makes a captain and not otherwise. When one says, the captain is as good as his team, he is dead right. Dhoni can’t individually change the tide of the team but needs the fellow Men-in-Blue to maneuver the ship to the shore or else……