Mumbai: For all his cricketing achievements, Sachin Tendulkar was not a success as captain, failing mostly in man management. His win record of 16% and loss record 36% in Tests and win record of just 35% in ODIs is way behind Azharddin and Ganguly's win percentages.
Where he failed was in the ability to bring the team to a boil at the right time, which is what good man managers do well.
This newspaper spoke to some of the former players to find out why did Sachin fail as captain.
Read on for their comments...
CLIVE LLOYD: I would have built a team around him; got players that can complement his game. If he is making so many runs, you need somebody to stay at the other end and I would have picked players who could do that with him. That's how you build a team -you have one guy who is the team's tower of strength and the rest who support him.
BISHEN SINGH BEDI: He was shy and withdrawn. His basic middle-class upbringing helped him in his batting but I feel it restricted his leadership qualities. Authoritative guidance was missing from his captaincy Howevre, I am not too surprised as Sir Garry Sobers was also a great player but not a great captain.
BRIAN LARA: If I am judging a leader I don't look at results. I want to know want to know what happened in the dressing room. Is he speaking to younger players? Is he advising them and encouraging them? His success rate might not have been good but his captaincy needs to create an impact on the players. For me, Sachin is a true leader in the team. He has played for 24 years and not one player has anything bad to say about him.
BARRY RICHARDS: I think Sachin doesn't want to be in the front often. He wants to concentrate on his batting a lot. He might have thought that captaincy would affect his batting. Even that seems to be the case with Jacques Kallis.
DILIP VENGSARKAR: As selectors selectors you give weightage to a captain's views and there may have been have been instances where selectors may not have given him what he wanted.
KIRAN MORE: When Sachin became captain, he wanted others to perform at his level. He always felt why others can't do it when he is able to. He may not have got enough support. Also one has to consider the team balance for a captain's success. When Dravid was named captain, I asked Sachin if he wanted to be captain again and he refused point blank.
MIKE HUSSEY: I don't know but a lot of the time a captain is only as successful as the team he has to work with.
