COACHING
Great Leaders - Wadekar and Gavaskar
If Tiger Pataudi and Chandu Borde were the prominent leaders in the 1960s, my fellow Mumbaiites (and neighbours) Ajit Wadekar and Sunil Gavaskar were the talk of the country for their captaincy skills in the 1970s. I had the privilege to play under both for India, West Zone and Mumbai. Ajit, a superb left-handed batsman and magnificent fielder, is one of India's most successful captains of all time. His feat of winning two successive Test series on foreign soil in 1971 is yet to be equalled, let alone surpassed, by an Indian captain. India, under him, first beat the West Indies and later England on their own pitches.
Ajit Wadekar
Several people have called Ajit a 'lucky' captain.
Lucky, he certainly was, but then, fortune is known
to favour the brave. He possessed tremendous
cricketing acumen, and was a good reader of the
game. Unlike Tiger who sometimes made things
happen, Ajit kept his opponents on a tight leash
and then let things take their own course. Although
he rarely gave the impression of wanting to seize
the initiative, he always had his grip on the pulse
of the game, and was adept at tightening the
screws.
He was cool, calm and assured, and passed on all
these qualities to his teammates. He handled the
players well and very professionally. I suppose his
work experience as a Bank Manager helped him in
this regard. He got the best out of his players on
the field and his subordinates off it!
I was a member of the 'teams' that won those two
series in 1971. I say 'teams' because although the
core was the same, there were a couple of changes
between the tours. Never the demonstrative type,
Ajit kept his feelings to himself on the field and
utilized his resources to the optimum. We did not
have any pace bowlers worth the name, yet we won
two consecutive series overseas. Now how many times
has this been done in Test history? We did it
because Ajit used the four class spin bowlers in
the team quite brilliantly.
Ajit was in charge when a certain S.M. Gavaskar
made his Test debut in 1971. And what a debut it
was! 774 runs in his first four Tests, inclusive of
three hundreds and a double hundred, established
him as a great player and prospective India
captain.
Sunil Gavaskar
Gavaskar was a very good captain for his state, zone and country. He was criticized often for being too defensive, but it has to be remembered that Kapil Dev apart, the bowling attack that he had at his disposal was not very impressive. The great spinners had left the scene, or were on the decline by the time he acquired the captaincy. You need to take twenty wickets to win a Test, and Sunil was severely hampered in this aspect. So he opted to do the next best thing and concentrated on 'not losing'. He would go for a win only after negating the remotest possibility of defeat. One of Sunil's drawbacks, if one could call it that, was that he was a 'performing' captain. He was the premier batsman in the side and hence the onus was always on him to help the team reach a good score. After doing all the hard work with the bat, he had little energy to strategise and scheme. However, he did his best.
Sunil's ambition and quest for perfection sometimes
got the better of him. He was prone to losing his
cool on the field. Although I don't endorse this
trait in a captain, it worked for Sunil in that it
helped him release his pent-up feelings and
concentrate on the proceedings afresh. He did not
talk much to the opposition, but he had deployed a
couple of men to do the needful. These guys would
stand at silly-point or forward short-leg and
mutter the odd comment. Sunil was also a great one
for 'punchlines', nothing abusive, but subtle
'observations' that would invariably hit bull's
eye! So 'well-constructed' were they that there was
no way the batting side could complain about being
called something nasty. And yet they would feel the
pinch!
Like Ajit, Sunil was meticulous, shrewd, and used
his resources well. He was an excellent
communicator and motivator. I suppose it would be
easy for all those who played with him to say after
all these years that he could have been a better
captain had he been a little less hungry for
records. But then, it is very easy to express
oneself with the benefit of hindsight.