Widely regarded as one of the best captains in the history of cricket, Mike Brearley was a master in man-mangement, quite literally. For he was famously described by his opponents as having a “degree in people”. In a conversation, the 69-year old talks about MS Dhoni’s captaincy, the Indian team and his disappointment at witnessing this terribly lopsided series.
Are you surprised that it turned out to be a one-sided contest?
This cannot be counted as a series, only one side is playing cricket. It’s been strange, I don’t want to see matches that are one-sided. It is very disappointing.
You were at Lord’s for the first Test. When according to you did it fall apart for India?
The big thing, of course, was Zaheer Khan getting injured. If you have only four bowlers, you are treading a dangerous path. And if there is only one bowler who can get the opposition out, then you are really struggling. Things started falling apart (for India) after Zaheer got injured. They look very underprepared or tired. Or both. Though they had some moments of excellence, at both Trent Bridge and Lord’s, there seemed to be a lack of real conviction that you can actually do something, that you can follow something through.
India landed in England as the World No.1, perhaps with the best team possible. But their aura seems to have disappeared overnight.
Everything declines. This, though, is a very sad decline. Of course they will do better in India, but the prospects don’t look good — the bowling looks so thin and you can’t win matches unless you have bowlers. The batsmen have been fielding for two days everytime, they are chasing 500-600 runs everytime, they are tired and the English bowlers are fresh. So it’s not so much about the batting but the bowling that is worrying.
How do you rate Dhoni as captain, especially on this tour?
The thing I am most disappointed with Dhoni is his wicketkeeping. He can’t catch the ball. What’s going on? I know the ball is wobbling, it is expected to wobble. He’s been here before. I get the feeling that the team he is up against is a very good side, it is as good a side as any I have seen of England. And if you have to win against them, you have to show more aggression and a little bit more action — not just him, the whole team. But it has to come from Dhoni. I think it is difficult to be a captain, then to keep wickets, then to lose your best bowler, then to lose your next best bowler. Things have gone against Dhoni. But then again, he won the toss in the first two Tests, and they were very good tosses to win. If England would have won those two tosses I think India would have been out for very low scores. It can’t just be a matter of bad luck. One makes one’s own luck, largely.
When things are not working for you as a captain, don’t you have to change your style and come up with a different approach?
One of the things about captaincy is, when things are going well for you, you need to facilitate your team and help them get better. When things are going badly, you have to intervene more often. Sometimes more proactively, with more intitiative and energy. When things are going well, you can almost take a backseat and just fine tune the machine. But, you have to change.
To give an example, at Lord’s, Ishant Sharma had that excellent spell. He had taken three of the five wickets before lunch and England were 62 for five. If Ian Botham was doing it, you couldn’t get the ball out of his hands and I wouldn’t let him. You have to seize those moments, they don’t come back. It was ridiculous to start with a part-time spinner. I would have started with Sharma and (Praveen)Kumar.
Did you notice signs of complacency, lack of desire on the Indian team’s part?
I don’t know them that closely, but obviously, the questions are about people’s preparedness. Sehwag has a shoulder operation after the IPL, not before the IPL to play for India in the Test matches. He comes here, plays one knock at Northampton, he doesn’t get much runs, doesn’t get much fielding. Is that good preparation for a Test series? No. Take the case of Zaheer Khan, even though he bowled 13 overs and got two wickets, he didn’t look good, he was not his old self. Zaheer didn’t have as much zip as he had had before. Was he fit or was it bad luck, I can’t say. RP Singh has put on weight, and I am told he hasn’t played first-class cricket since January. Three-fourths of the team comes from the West Indies, the rest come from India having not played at all. It seems the priorities are not right, as a team and as individuals. (It’s) so easy to make a million dollars with the IPL and advertisments. They are in a very nice position, your Indian stars.
What are the qualities you look for in a captain?
You have to make relationships with different people in the team and get them to play the best they can in the interest of the team, in their individual ways. You need the person to get everyone thinking about the team’s task and not just their own individual tasks.
In case you have friends in the team, how do you balance that?
One of the things about captaincy is that it’s a bit like parenting or teaching. You do have favourites, you have people whose style suits you, but you have to behave absolutely fair, you have to have a sense of justice. Some people though will always perceive you have treated them badly.
