November 11, 2009

A third rate captain.

I have watched Mohammad Yousuf closely, last time round in Delhi, he fielded under my nose. At third man. Third man is MoYo’s favourite place in the whole world. It is here that he’s one with himself, far from the madding crowds of team bonhomie, backslapping, hair ruffling, feelings, feeling.

When a wicket fell, no less than an Indian wicket that, after the mercurial Shoaib Akhtar ran a mile to bowl, MoYo didn’t budge an inch, forget drag his heals a few metres to the middle.

Instead he turned on his heal, turned his back to the boys, got lost in some future ICL thoughts.

Now MoYo is to be captain for a full test series. Never mind he says – I will captain from third man. This way, I don’t need to hurl annoying instructions that captains…he stops mid sentence, sensing an effort .

From third man there will be no such problems. Bowlers will bowl, appeal, change ends. Yes, that’s another thing, no appealing either. “I will not raise a finger, not in appeal, not at anyone, I want peace”

And what about the change of ends after every over – surely MoYo will not walk a few paces to mid on - that would be much too close to his teammates or cross over to the other side again (just to be in his safe house, third man)

MoYo languidly strokes his beard, and replies somewhat sternly, “I cannot afford to remain there and have a long on…I am not a defensive captain...I plan to go off the field every alternate over and give some youngster an opportunity to play for Pakistan”

On Bored: Vettori to captain Pakistan

8 comments:

Som said...

Pakistan need a shadow captain who would once come out of the shadow.

straight point said...

some time back i proposed that they should arrange a draw before toss and whoever's name comes up be made captain for the match if not series... this will be easier and they can concentrate more on playing game...

Wasim said...

If he doesn't attempt to turn Pakistan team into Inzi's Lahore Badshahs, I have no problem with him. But I suspect Inzi himself is coming back as the manager of the team.

Shrawan Raja said...

Well, even without the captain, Pakistani cricketers will play well. If you keep shuffling captains every other series, your players don't really understand what captains are and what captaincy is. When Inzi was the captain, I remember the Pakistani team being more organized.

Gaurav Sethi said...

Som, some tongue twister that

SP, what makes you think they're not doing that?

Gaurav Sethi said...

Wasim, I'd welcome Inzi back, long as he does the post match interviews.

Gaurav Sethi said...

Shrawan, there was some humour about the Pak team with Inzi, more a comedy of errors now.

scorpicity said...

He follows what he did at third man. perhaps he will make their best captain... CHeers.