Is MSD the greatest limited overs captain ever?

We all know pictures say a lot more than words. So, sample the following

Year 2007

Year 2009

Year 2010

Year 2011

Year 2011

Year 2013

Now, having seen the achievements by this leader, let us also see what ODI statistics say about this captain? Where does he stand among the great captains of all-time?

The table above shows the list of captains and their records. Clearly, Dhoni is not high on the pecking order but then there is another question that comes to mind. What made these captains ranked higher than Dhoni win more? Let us look at this list more closely (applying a filter of 75 matches to analyse in detail) - the ones (higher than Dhoni) in the list are the following (in the order of the countries they played for):

1. Clive Lloyd (1975-85) - One would say that all Lloyd had to do was toss the ball and whoever got it would start opening the bowling - such was the force of the Windies that every team that stood in its way got decimated.
2. Viv Richards (1980-1991) - Viv Richards was the successor and he managed to repeat much of what Lloyd did till the fag end of his career as a captain when his bowlers were not much of a force.
3. Steve Waugh (1997-2002) - Steve Waugh played a long time under Alan Border (who comes just below MSD in this list) and thus inherited an Australian team that would go on to perform great deeds
4. Ricky Ponting (2002-12) - Ponting acquired the mantle from Waugh and took Australian cricket to greater heights. This included multiple World Cup wins as well as Champions Trophy win. No doubt a great captain who led a great side.
5. Hansie Cronje (1994-2000) - Hansie Cronje was the shrewdest captain that South Africa had after their re-introduction to international cricket. Cronje made the Proteans start believing till a match-fixing scandal broke him and his team.
6. Shaun Pollock (2000-2005) - Shaun Pollock picked up the threads left by Cronje's untimely departure and nurtured the team with the help of individual geniuses like Jonty Rhodes, Alan Donald, Gary Kirsten and Jacques Kallis.
7. Greame Smith (2003-2011) - Smith was introduced to captaincy very early by his management. Captaincy was as natural as water to duck but he could not win any major tournament just like Pollock despite having a good team at disposal.

There is no doubt that these players have done well in their captaincy career but they also had the added advantage of a great squad at their disposal. The Windies (1980-2000) and Australians (2000-2010) were the champion sides of the decade - the other teams could only play catch-up with them. The South Africans were good but other than the first version of the Champions Trophy, they could hardly win a title at the international level.

What makes Dhoni different and better (in my humble reasoning) is that he has managed to lead Indian teams that were not so great to title wins in conditions that were adverse (T20 in South Africa as well as Champions Trophy in England). Yes, he did win the 2011 World Cup on familiar conditions with a team comprising the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and co. but that is not an one-off win in his resume. 

Let us look at the teams that he has won the international titles with:

The 2013 Champions Trophy had only three other players who had played the 2011 World Cup while there were three others who had played the 2007 T20 World Cup. A good nucleus for a side that showed how hungry they were on the field as well as demonstrated a brave front to the short and seaming stuff they faced with their bat.

With the T20 World Cup win, came the birth of IPL and Dhoni has shown that he can lead a team of international players and groom them to similar victories. Dhoni has shown that his captaincy can win matches for his team irrespective of conditions, coaches, form, teams, nationalities, personal issues. The Champions Trophy came with Dhoni contributing only 27 runs to the team's cause. Speak to any cricketer who has played under him and he has the same message - the way Dhoni supports him even when he is not in form makes wonders. Let it be Joginder Sharma, Ishant Sharma or even Albie Morkel.

Dont you think it is a valid assumption to take that MS Dhoni is the greatest captain ever in the limited overs format? Do let me know your comments.

All images are courtesy espncricinfo.com

World Cup 2011 - The Spin Gambit

It has become a regular feature to watch some of the teams start with spin during this World Cup. If one notices closely, these are countries who do not have enough firepower with the new ball. Countries like New Zealand whose best bowler is Dan Vettori or West Indies with Suleiman Benn opened their bowling in their matches against Australia and South Africa respectively. The supporting attack is not good enough for either teams to take wickets or contain the runs scored. Thus, the team management decided to slow down the pace of the ball to increase their chances of taking wickets. Even a team like Bangladesh, which has three left-arm spinners, has refused to take the bait of adding more slow bowlers in their team - maybe that is why they struggled to put it across (153 - 138 in Castrol Index).

It came as a surprise then that the South African team also followed the same manner and started the bowling with Johan Botha. In fact, the team had three spinners in their team - a first for a team that prides on pace and speed. It was probably the lack of a good third bowler that made the Proteas think on the lines of having a three-prong spin attack. The Castrol Index of South Africa was 164 against 107 of West Indies - if only the team had a bowler like Ntini (in his prime) or Shaun Pollock, the difference would have been much more - such was the domination of the team. Morkel also does not benefit by the low bounce - a disadvantage for him especially since he thrives on the bounce his height can generate.

Australia has no such worries - their fast bowling trio of Lee, Tait and Mitch have been gunning past their opponents after the initial hiccups in the warm-up matches. Notice the domination in their match against the Kiwis (182 to 83 in Castrol Index) - Vettori had no answers to the might of the Oz even though his team was high on determination after the earthquake back home. The return of Bollinger will be a dampener though. Vettori might have had thoughts of early breakthroughs after seeing the Australian batsmen struggle against spin in the early matches but this one was different - there was no help to the trundlers on the Nagpur pitch negating the opening gambit.

Pakistan's attack looks balanced with bowlers like Shoaib, Razzaq and Umar Gul at the beginning, followed by Afridi and Ajmal. They have followed the traditional strategies teams have followed over years and that was good enough to result in a performance against the Kenyans that was dominating, to say the least (227-83).

Starting with spin might be good against teams that are relatively weak against spin but against the home teams  it is a recipe for disaster. Hence, the team management would do well to take the horses-for-courses approach in future matches.

Related articles

• World Cup 2011 - India thump Bangladesh (myhistoryisinteresting.blogspot.com)