India has produced numerous quality captains and once in a while, as the debate of better batsman between Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli, there is a comparison between different Indian captains.
Former India spinner Maninder Singh feels World Cup-winning captains, MS Dhoni and Kapil Dev are of the same standard as leaders. He also went on to call Dhoni a lucky captain and feels Sourav Ganguly set the base for him to win the World Cup title.
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“Dhoni was lucky that Kapil Dev won us the World Cup in 1983 then Dhoni was lucky that before him it was Sourav Ganguly, who made us believe that we can beat any team and in any conditions, so Dhoni got that,” Maninder told Hindustan Times in an exclusive chat.
Maninder added Kapil would have become a greater captain had India won a World Cup before he took over the role.
“When Kapil Dev was the captain that belief was missing. Otherwise, the positivity, the calmness, the captaincy instincts of these two is the same. For me, Kapil and Dhoni are on the same page. If Kapil had somebody else who had won us the world cup before him, then he could also have been a greater captain,” he said.
The 55-year-old called Ganguly the best Indian captain because of his ability to spot talents. He also gave examples of his moves which paid off for India. “I loved Ganguly’s captaincy. See what all he has given Indian cricket He was a great judge of talent. He pulled out Yuvraj from the dumps, he got back Harbhajan Singh when he was dropped,” he said.
“Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir you name it. He made Rahul Dravid keep wickets. Dravid scored 10 thousand runs in ODI cricket. Sehwag was a middle-order batsman, he told him to open in South Africa. Sehwag in an interview has said ‘what if I don’t get runs, I’m not an opener I don’t how to?’ Ganguly told him ‘I’ll give you these Test matches in South Africa, if you fail, I give you a guarantee that you won’t be dropped, I will play you in the middle order’. This is what a leader is. I might have forgotten names, Sehwag, Harbhajan, Yuvraj, Zaheer Khan.
“I think it was Sourav who told him to play county cricket and after that, we had a different Zaheer Khan. For me, to be honest, Sourav Ganguly was the best,” Maninder added.
According to him, a great leader needs to be both, aggressive and passive. “See, a good leader will always be very patient and by the patient, I don’t mean he won’t be aggressive. He will show patience by backing good talent, he will allow breathing space to young cricketers but at the same time he will show aggressive intent when on the cricket field just to send his message across to the opposition team.”
(WITH HINDUSTAN TIMES INPUTS)
