The article is great though at the end it looks like it was written more with the end in mind (the idea of V V S Laxman as captain).

While various obvious options were considered, some not so obvious options like Dinesh Karthick as Test captain or Zaheer Khan or even Anil Kumble as Test captain were not considered.

And if we really talk about repaying for services rendered do we have anybody else who has single-handedly won more tests for India than many other stalwarts put together.

The good thing is that the T20 championship win would at least encourage our selectors to take a step ahead.

Most important is for India public to realise that this is a young team and temper their expectations accordingly.

Only expectation should be what Dhoni promised in Mumbai "100% effort" both physically and mentally.

I thought that was a very astute article, and the appointment of Laxman has many things going for it. The biggest mark in the credit column being the security for the player in the test side. It's a crying shame that Ganguly is played in that form of the game above the gifted VVS.

The spirit with which the T20 champs played has to be maintained, but it's hard to re-create with the world weary "elders" that rightly comprise the test side.

It's an interesting time for Indian cricket, but with lots of talent coming to the fore in both departments, there is reason to be confident that strong leadership that enables players to express their talent will help the team secure many more sought after victories.

It must come as quite a shock to Mukul that the new Indian captain, Dhoni's first love is football and that he idolises Zidane. Kesavan and his ilk believe footballers are beneath his standard. Dhoni joins a long list of cricketers whose first love was football - Botham, Richards, Lara, etc

An interesting article I should say when Laxman's name is mentioned as a choice. Everyone would be busy thinking about Dhoni or Tendulkar as the first choice but the mention of Laxman springs a surprise in the tale. If Laxman is in the race, then it's only fair that even Anil Kumble and Zaheer Khan be considered for the job. But since Kapil Dev was the last bowler to have led India, it seems unlikely that either of them will be given a look in.

I think end of the day practically we're down to only two choices: Tendulkar and Dhoni with the latter after pocketing the twenty20 world cup is the favorite man for the job.

What utter non-sense. Rahul Dravid was a bad captain period. Tactics don't compensate for lack of leadership skills. Rahul dravid is not the leader of the men and how it showed. I anticipated all this long before it happened.

Making Kumble the Test Captain is also a very temting option.He is a fine tactician.The only time he captained India(Chepauk,'02)..you could see it.He made good attacking bowling changes.But yes completely agree on one thing,spare MSD for some time.

It's surprising how arm chair cricketers like Hema Adhikari were able to anticipate that Dravid would fail as a captain. I wonder how many people consider 17 continuous one day victories and two back to back overseas test victories as a failure. Also keep in mind that he lead India in one of the most tumultuous periods.

Kaushik's analysis is superb.
Give VVS a GO as they say here in Australia.
No Aussie can understand how a peron like VVS can't find a place in the Indian team consistently.

I have seen some of the best knocks of VVS. They have been sublime. The best of VVS is better than the best of Sachin's. That too against the best in the world, Australia.

Obviously this proves that VVS is a captain material.

Kaushik's analysis is good.I agree that vvs be given a chance as he has the required experience.As pointed out by Dnyanesh,Kumble is equally good as he has led karnataka in ranjitrophy.Dinesh karthik can be groomed to take over the mantle as he has been praised by even Chappel as a captaincy material.Never ever bring back, even as a stop gap either sachin or ganguly.

Writing on captaincy can be likened to presenting a whitepaper! So many variables to consider. A captain fit for one team may not be fit for another, e.g. Imran was perfect for Pakistan, but would he have been perfect for a democratic set up like say India? One doesn't know.
Then captaincy also evolves with time. The way captaincy was done in the pre-war times or in the 50's-60's is different from the way it is done now.
Teams also do evolve and therefore require differet styles of captaincy at different periods of time to suit them, e.g. Mike Brearley may be considered highly but most of the matches he led was against second rate Packer-ravaged teams and the only two first rate teams he came against was Australia in 79-80 where England was hammered, and then in Botham's Ashes where England did a Houdini act. He is lauded probably for the latter but it was all because of one man!
Tactically too, it can differ from team to team. e.g. The Indian team of the 60's to late 80's hardly ever hoped to win on a consistent basis. Either they had no fast bowlers to back up the spin trio or they had a Kapil Dev without any back up for the rest of the match. Does one seriously think that clive Lloyd would have been so successful with the current crop of West Indians?

Coming to Sunder Rajan's post. While it was quite painstakingly analytical, one felt it was written with the end in mind as Dnyanesh rightly commented earlier. I would hate to bring in regional parochialism in this discussion but it was funny to see through that according to the writer, 'Dravid was tactically better than all Indian captains in the past' and that VVS is best suited for the slot at the moment, especially that he wrote this after the T20 triumph.
All captains go through a learning curve,then peak and then get around to the sell-by date. It is ofcourse - as Sunder tries to get across- about winning and losing but a little bit more, because it depends on the opposition. Dravid the batsman is undoubtedly great, but as a captain he ultimately came a cropper and not due to one-day results or the failure to enforce the follow-on at the Oval. The 1-0 victory against West Indies last year which some part of the media had tried to hype should fall flat on its place. It was perhaps one of the worst West Indian teams that anyone faced. Even Bangladesh threatened them 3 years back. A series that should have been won 3-0 was marginally won. Quite plainly Dravid's captaincy in tests left a lot to be desired. However, if one recalls, this was the same Dravid who captained brilliantly in that 'mumbai massacre' of the Australians in 2004 on a treacherous pitch but defending a 100 runs. His tactical brilliance was par-excellence. Unfortunately, we never got a glimpse of that again (yes, despite x no. of one-day games won chasing down). Possibly that time he was filling in for a rapidly-going-down-hill Ganguly and wasn't a full-time captain. We and all Dravid supporters will have to end up accepting one day that the great batsman who was brilliant vice-captain wasn't cut out for permanent captaincy. Apart from the myth about his tactical acument, he never could bring out the best out of youngsters and other team members (read man management) and his often tumultous media-meeting walk outs just showed the pressure was getting to him.
And about VVS, while he has played some great knocks between 2001 and 2004, it is too late for him to be considered as captaincy material. And as i was mentioning the 'times' when captains come around, he would probably have made a good captain in the 90s but his personality doesn't suit the modern Indian team. He is himself 'lost in transformation' and doesn't command a permanent place in the team. Infact his batting in the last 2 years have hardly borne the silken smooth fluency of the early part of the decade. How then, does one see him bring in the authority to his captaincy?
To cut the long story short - the way forward is Dhoni, though for how long he can carry on being a capable keeper, dependable batsman and an authoratative captain one has to see. But as long as he is there, we must back him to the hilt and keep out the excesses please. Gifting him a house one day and stoning it on another!

Tendulkar was 24 when he was captain in a team half filled with match-fixers, with no coach or manager, and a hostile and corrupt...selection committee dictating the batting order, among other things.

Nice analysis. For those who say it was written with the end in mind, how else would you write. I mean, you don't go about writing something without having an idea about what you want to write about. Yes, you can do a nice con job by re-arranging some sentences and paragraphs and make it look like you threw up a lot of ideas and the end result came up by itself.

Anyway, I agree that Laxman should be given a chance and also that he would make a good captain. We can also make use of the next 2-3 years of his captaincy to groom a future captain - say, by making Dhoni the VC. I personally believe that if there are 2 different captains in Test and One days, then the Test captain should not be a part of the one day team. It can only create friction between the two. And this plays out well in Laxman's case as he is not part of the one day team.

A very well reasoned article. I too agree that Laxman will make an excellent captain. However, there are absolutely zero chances of his getting the top job. It wouldn't even surprise me if he didn't get a single test on the Australian tour. India has treated him rather badly, and unfortunately I don't see that changing unless Laxman makes an effort to pile up huge scores against some cricketing minnows - or Dravid retires, since both he and Laxman, along with Ponting, are the best no.3s in the world.

Yes, this is a good article. The only place where I would disagree would be that Yuvraj's place in the playing 11 would be at the expense of Laxman. Unfortunately, the writer may be true to the extent that that is what the past form of the selectors would lead us to believe. My perspective is - why is that so?

Why Laxman .... as against Ganguly?? After all Laxman has been scoring runs - hell he scored in South Africa before being dropped for Bangladesh, and he scored runs now in England (and YES so did Ganguly).

So again, why should Laxman get the axe and not Ganguly?? IS it because Ganguly himself has always had the country believing that he has been the saviour of Indian Cricket. Is it because he would shout his achievements from the rooftop, though often his facts were skewed and inaccurate. Curiously enough under Ganguly, we LOST in the WI, LOST in SL, Drew in Australia, Drew in England, even DREW a series in Zimbabwe. If we judge it purely on those facts - then hey how wonderful was Ganguly as a Captain .... (Here's where Ganguly steps in and tells us that he won us 21 Tests as Captain, though he won't tell us that 9 of those Tests were against Bangladesh or Zimbabwe)??

Now Dravid was not a great Captain, but nor did he ever resort to blowing his own trumpet. Unlike his predecessor he was a thorough team man and a professional. And under him we won in the West Indies and in England. The point I am making is that if the selectors look towards drooping Laxman with the ease with which they do, they should be looking equally hard at Ganguly. Left to me, I know who would be in my team .... and perhaps for the moment Laxman's place in the side is safe enough, after all we are playing Australia soon enough. But when it's time to play Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, we all know who'll be made to sit out on some pretext or the other, and we all know who'll be doing his darndest to score some goodwill runs to stay in the side.

The practices applied at times in Indian cricket are those which one normally associates at school level and no more. Unfortunately our system seems inherently to encourage a method of self-preservation and selfishness and therein lies the problem with Indian cricket. Players like Ganguly will meanwhile continue to pass under the radar when it comes to the chopping block, while team players with impeccable work ethics like Laxman will always be under the scanner.

For the record - I do not think Laxman would make a GREAT Captain, but I think he would certainly be a good one - one practicing an honest work ethic and dedication to the job.

I'm not sure about Laxman as Captain, but for someone who has always been overlooked at times such as these, I think it would be fitting if a TEAM PLAYER such as Laxman got a go at Captaincy.

A study of the majority of entrepreneurs who failed reveals the lack of a strong business plan and an effective back-office process. Anybody can be successful in a seller's market, but to survive and be profitable in a buyer's market, it is imperative to have a committed team, a strong business plan and most importantly an efficient back-office strategy to keep overheads down.

The first step is to have a strong business plan - to understand the market, identify the strengths and weaknesses of the product and finance in hand, formulate an effective marketing and operational strategy based on the product and finance and develop a team that complements the strategy. Reduced overheads is the key to success in the modern business world. Comparing the captain to an entrepreneur, make no mistake, Dravid had all of this in place, except the support from his Human Resources Department (selectors) to provide him the right personnel that fit his business plan. Politics and petty squabble is part and parcel of any business, and compromising between all this and coming up with a design strategy takes some creativity and man-management skills. That Dravid managed to keep all this together is testimony that he was willing to alter his business plan to match his circumstantial realities. He had the tactical acumen to build an effective team with the resources in hand. Unfortunately, the back-office strategy suffered and caused an increased overhead. In tight games, this high overhead cost him the success.

Sachin may have had a plan, but his team was awful. He did not have qualified personnel and the lack of quality in the product showed the strength of his team. Ganguly enjoyed the most support from all quarters – he got the team he wanted, his team backed him to the hilt, he had a wonderful deputy and a coach to take care of the technical and operational aspects of his team, and it showed. The back-office strategy was not to reduce overheads but to get the best personnel in each spot. Again, in tight situations, the high overheads cost the game.

Whoever is the next captain, has to carry the baton from Dravid and build on the processes and business plan he had in place. Hopefully, there will be better support from the HR team and the playing team. Reducing overheads is the key. Having a board of coaches and executives heading each department is a step in the right direction. Let captain run the show and have the coaches and other personnel build on his vision statement. Please hire a media manager and more support personnel to assist the captain, and please, no more vision plans from coaches, it must be the prerogative of the captain. CEO’s come up with the business plan, Vice Presidents are the executives of the plan. Let the structure of the support team reflect the captain’s vision and strategy.

And the person who must be the next captain must be someone who has the best vision plan for the next 5 years and the personality and technical competence to pull it off.

Unless Inida loses badly to the Aussies in the ODI's, MSD will most likely be appointed as the captain. Whether he should be, is a different question. Looks like he can take pressure, but its different when you are leading a team of youngsters, when no one expects you to do well. You can afford to play "fearless" cricket. Not be afraid to take risks and back your hunches. Now is the real test. Playing at home against the Aussies, when everyone thinks that you will/should win evey single match. If he can keep his head above water, it will go a long way to make him a really good leader. Otherwise, India has a problem. Laxman/Kumble seem to be the only other options, but I dont think either of them would be given the chance, which is too bad, because I believe they would make good captains.

If Dhoni is made the captain, could they please have someone else to keep wickets. Keeping wickets, batting and captaining a side over five days is not likely to be very good for Dhoni's mental and physical well being. Plus, I don't know of any w/k captains that have been very successful at the test level.

Though the article was long and well reasoned, I feel it has not come to any dranatic conclusion. We need a captain who is sure of being selected as a player and above all, commands the respect of hs team mates. I am not sure about the so called big three and shall desist from mentioning their names. To my mind the two players who come into consideration are Kumble and Laxman. We need someone to be at the helm for sometime. Maybe 2 years. Kumble is sure of being selected for the Indo Pak series and for all future tests till 2009 barring injury. He like Courtney Walsh, another silent assasin before him could lead his country to major victories all over the world in the time he remains captain. I would want Laxman to be the vice captain under him.

This could be the right time for Sachin to put his hand up and take on the responsibility of captain. With no clear leader in the 11, and potential ego clashes if a younger player becomes captain, Sachin would be the only natural leader. He should acknowledge the position that was once his, and fill the gap to take India forward.

In an ideal world, Sachin Tendulkar would be my best candidate (Disclaimer : I'm from Mumbai and naturally prejudiced), but being from Mumbai, and the establishment also being centred in Mumbai makes him politically a bad candidate. Mumbai-haters in the media outnumber any other category. He will have the media hordes gunning for him all the time, putting the team under pressure. This is where Ganguly had an advantage because although he was from the same state as Dalmia, Bengal is not a traditional power-house. I am not very sure if Laxman and Kumble will be automatic selections for at least an year and a half. If Harbhajan gets his form back, he might be our #1 spinner.

Laxman will be an option, but I think the selectors will go with Dhoni. If Dhoni doesn't look comfortable against Australia, they will make Tendulkar captain for the tour to Australia, though all things considered, Laxman will be the more politically correct choice.

If u talk about the test captain of india i think there is need to look at the previous record of indians cpatains in test matrches and if the captain who enjoy fantastic record not in home but especially out of the country he is still playing in the team and u all his name is saruv ganguli y not he should be named as the captain of the test team , in my view he was a strong captain in the last moment of his captaincy but unfortunately his scandal with chappel was th reason that there was a change of leadership and second impoetant thing was his poor form but now these both reason not exist chappel is not indian coach and gunguli in in form batsman so in my view saruv is best option for india to named as the captain of indian test team.

I have few doubts whether MSD is a ready material for captaincy, specially after watching hom in 1st ODI against aus. But in think selectors don't have any choice as we don't see any special captaincy skills among younger generation of current indian cricketers.

Yes.I absolutely agree with the article.
We should give VVS the captaincy.Common Selectors give a good player his long pending due.

Hail VVS!!!!!

All The Best To You VVS!!!!!

It will be sad indeed if anyone else apart from Dhoni is made the captain. There are several reasons why I feel that nobody else can be the captain. First, he has been successful and has his confidence going. This is the right time to get him into the real stuff which is the Tests. Second, I am not sure that the skills needed to be a successful captain in Tests are so different from those in One Day internationals or T20. Third, I do not beleive that the Indian cricket team will take too well to two different captains. On a long tour like the Australian tour where there will be enough to intimidate the Indians, we need someone at the helm who has an air of indifference to it all. Dhoni alone is capable of doing that - its in his nature. Fourth, we need an aggressive captain now - looking at the way cricket is shaping up and with youth and fitness being the emphasis across the world. A younger captain will set the right standards.And last but not least, Dhoni is the reliable future of Indian cricket and if we carefully analyse it, he apart from Zaheer Khan is the only player who is a surety in all forms of cricket. That is the least expected from a captain

Now coming to the reasons on why VVS is not the right candidate ( I would agree with the points made by Kaushik to not make Sachin, Saurav and Rahul the captains). First, it is quite noticeable from the last three series that Laxman has been part of - that he is very concerned about his place in the side. He is not playing the way he used to. This shows an insecurity which can creep into his capataincy as well and make him defensive. We cant blame him for being insecure - the INdian selectors have been pathetic in their treatment of Laxman, but the point is that he is currently going to be in a defensive mindset and woudl much rather focus on his batting. Second, without the captaincy burden and with a young and enthusiastic captain leading him, VVS hopefully will play the way only he can. Notice that during the two gems that Laxman played against Australia, Ganguly was a captain in a totally different mindset. That is what Indian needs. Third, if captaincy does to Laxman's batting what it did to Sachin, Saurav and Rahul - its the most unfair thing we can do in the twilight of his career.

During the last tour to Aussies, Adam Gilchrist mentioned that VVS is one among the best players he has seen and he also commented he wondered why VVS was left out of the team so often.. well, the four letter controlling body of Indian cricket knows (or is supp to know) the reasons. For sometime atleast, lets not over-burden MSD or any other youngster for that matter with such a role where more of tactics are needed to field the camera flash and board-remarks. MSD's doing a fantastic role in the ODI side and am sure many of us would look forward to have him at the helm till atleast 2011 - as for the test side, VVS would be the excellent (read as only) choice till such time anyone shows some care to groom up the junior brigade.
Good luck to whoever the new test captain is - atleast you dont have to face Mr. Chappell there!

Laxman is the best choice, but Dhoni for future

I am die hard fan of laxman and have been closely following his career from many years. I keep watching videos of his innings against australia and oh boy, they are the best displays of classic batting and grit. Considering his experience in domestic cricket as a captain, I believe he will be the shrewdest captain among all the choices available, if he is made one.

As mentioned by many others, he has been subjected to the worst treatment by selectors and BCCI for years and years. Inspite of being uncertain about his place in the side, he has fought hard to become one of the best batsmen in the world. He fought really hard to break into the one day side too, but he was forced to give up that dream. Not acknowledged by many people in India, but he is one the reason for India to be rated as one of the best Test playing nations in the world today.

During all these years, somewhere he has reached his peak and is probably on the other side now. I believe same is the case with dravid, sachin and ganguly today. Their flamboyance has been replaced with experience. Test cricket needs tonnes of experience, These are still one of the best of this world and I think best way to use them is to let them play without any burdens or pressures. I believe they will really revel without additional pressures. I would like to see pressure less batting from these people against the worlds best side, australia. Assuring a place and allowing him to bat freely will be the best payback indian cricket can give to laxman.

Captaincy should be given to someone who has things going for him now, and has every chance to better them in the future. Looking forward for the future, I think dhoni should be given captaincy on the test scenario too. Make yuvraj the vice captain of the side, give him some responsibility and Most importantly start playing him regularly in the side along with other mid-senior people like sehwag,zaheer,pathan,RP etc who are likely going to be the core of test side in the future. Dhoni/yuvi will make some mistakes, but they will learn. They have the advantage of experienced people around.

Honestly I don't have much to say about what if dhoni fails ?? I'll let other guys comment on that.

Looking forward to future of Indian test cricket.

I could'nt bear to read the long winded article due to lack of free time, but the gist (VVS captain) is utter nonsense. I think he is one of the most overrated players who has built a career around 2-3 innings. While most journalists end up glorifying his image, his career stats speak otherwise. If you can't secure a place in the side after a 12-year career, you are what Geoffery Boycott calls a "nearly man". He was nearly good enough but that's about it. Had VVS been an Australian, he probably would've played shield cricket all his life - that to me is the difference between Aussie cricket and Indian cricket, and is also the biggest problem with our system. The problem with Laxman is that he is not good enough. The solution is not to make him captain. The answer we are looking for is to launch him into a new career as television commentator and build a team for the future.

Excellent. Even Ian Chappell batted for VVS Laxman. Who knows VVS better then Australian. Laxman is a cool guy and thoughtful player and would be good choice for test captaincy. I am surprised why India think only about Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly and not Laxman. He is a great batsman like Gundappa Viawanath, who always played under the shadow of some other players. I think this is the right time to salute his greatness. I hope Vengsarkar and his team will think positive.

There should be no argument as to the Indian captaincy - if Ganguly plays then he is the natural captain. If not, then Dhoni should be given a chance and not judged on the one-dayers. I think Laxman has enough to do with his batting and he lacks the drive and authority to motivate the Indian side. Whatever has been said about Sourav in the past, he is definitely a leader of men and a good tactician.

There should be no argument as to the Indian captaincy - if Ganguly plays then he is the natural captain. If not, then Dhoni should be given a chance and not judged on the one-dayers. I think Laxman has enough to do with his batting and he lacks the drive and authority to motivate the Indian side. Whatever has been said about Sourav in the past, he is definitely a leader of men and a good tactician.

Sad State of Affairs: India's press and BCCI would/could never be able to evaluate the prowess of this 6 footer Laxman. Strange to find him treated with utmost respect in Australia and as nothing in India. It takes an Australian to come up with the acronym Very Very Special, but not from India. This is indeed Very Very Sad. I always think things would change, but these are remaining to stay like this for ever.