What makes a great cricket captain? | Cricket coaching, fitness and tips

What makes a great cricket captain?

Filed in:

skipper.jpgEveryone knows a good captain, but not everyone knows how they became one. That's the mystery of leadership. However, many have studied the phenomenon of great leaders and we as cricketers can tap that knowledge.

In short, understanding the principles behind leadership will help you to become a better captain or coach.

What is leadership?

Despite the idea of leadership being accepted as a vital part of life, business and sport research on the subject is very subjective. There are many definitions. Most revolve around:

  • Influence. Leaders influence the behaviour of other people.
  • Groups. Leadership is examined in group (or team) settings.
  • Goals. The leader coordinates movement towards a group goal or goals.

You can see how the definitions fit closely with the job of a captain: Influencing team members towards the attainment of victory. It's also possible to see here how a good side is often referred to as as 'team of captains'. It's quite possible to be a leader without being captain or coach. You just need to exert influence.

Which leads me on nicely to the other differences between tactical captaincy and leading.

To adapt the ideas of Bennis & Nanus (1985), leadership is about people whereas the nuts and bolts of captaincy (setting the field, changing the bowling) is about producing consistency and control through tactical awareness. It's comparing doing things right with doing the right thing.

The flash of brilliance that leads to against the odds success is often the result of people focused leadership (perhaps not even from the captain). You don't see many great captains who are not great influencers of people. However there are plenty of captains with lots of tactical knowledge who don't get success.

Being a leader, then, is vital to being a great cricket captain. But how do you do it?

What makes a leader?

Early research examined the traits that made a leader assuming that leadership was an innate ability you were born with. Or not. Despite these efforts, no common factor could be found in leaders. They were different ages, sexes, levels of education and intelligence. They had different personalities and confidence levels.

What was found was that leaders focussed on either relationships or tasks. In cricket terms the best example is the captain who tries to give everyone a game verses the skipper who tries to win at all costs. It's nothing to do with traits and all to do with style.

Adapting to situations

captain.jpgThe work of Hersey and Blanchard (1988) developed this idea. They argued that the best leaders can adapt their style dependent on the situation. A nervous young bowler would need a very different approach to the senior pro for example. This might seem obvious, but many captains treat all players and situations in very similar ways.

A captain needs to consider not only the tactical situation at any time, but also the players within that situation. John Adair (1982) sees the relationship between these three (task, individuals and leader) as a complicated one. It's the job of the leader to understand and balance the needs of players, team and results.

Although the work of Adair is about business, I see it as just as relevant to club captaincy.

Players choose turn up every week for a number of reasons. A captain who can't see the individual needs of his players and meet them while still keeping them together as a team will soon not have any players to chose from as they drift away from the team. If would take a group of highly self motivated player to keep playing for a captain who is just focussed on winning the game.

Master this delicate juggling act and adjust to the situation and you can be a better captain.

© Copyright miSport Holdings Ltd 2008

Broadcast Your Cricket Matches!

Ever wanted your skills to be shown to the world? PV/MATCH is the revolutionary product for cricket clubs and schools to stream matches, upload HD highlights instantly to Twitter and Facebook and make you a hero!

PV/MATCH let's you score the game, record video of each ball, share it and use the outcomes to take to training and improve you further.

Click here for details.

Comments

i am team captain of mine team. but i never suceeded to be succesful captain.i got some tips from this website and it is helping me and my team.

I do my best to help friend.

I lead a debut side in Church Cricket
We are improving despite our current results
The info has helped me stay focussed and I continue to nurture and keep a positive atmosphere amongst players.
Overall I have alot of talent around me , I wish we had as much self belief.
I know in time we will be a force

Never give up!

I'm putting myself up for 2nd team captain this season and came across your website. I'm checking out and noting your tips along with other websites. I'm also buying Mike Brerelys book, 'The Arts of Captaincy' which is mentionee in many scripts on the website and in apeprs etc as the bible of cricket captaincy.

In regard to your leadership section ad becoming a great captain etc, I find it hard to agree to the part that says you must will never be a great captain is only to win. whislt I agree in part, I feel that whilst its grat to give everyone a bat and a bowl, if you base your tactics around doig this rather than sticking with your best bowlers and having a higher order batting line up of your best batsman etc, or playing your lesser fielders in positions where they're most likely to recieve the ball etc, then you're on a hiding to nothing. The crowd will get on your back for playing people out of position, bowling people who may be arent as good as the person you just took off and batting lesser batsman up the order. I f you do this and lose, then you'll be highly critised by both your team and spectaotrs????

Good site by the way!!

Warren, thanks for dropping by and leaving a great comment. I believe it is the role of a club captain to give all players the maximum chance to get a game. If you let the "stars" dominate you are not only stopping the potential stars shine, you are making sure they don't enjoy the game and are more likely to give it up!

Sure, top professional sport is different (slightly) but it is possible to win and give everyone a game. There are a lot of ways to sneak a player into the game with little negative effect on the outcome. The best captains I have played under both win and make everyone feel part of the team.

be agrresive and never give up................be pshcologcally stronger.

I'm not sure I agree about NEVER giving up. Sometimes you have to know when to cut your losses.

There is a misconception in cricket that teams cannot be successful if the effort is made to give everyone the chance to participate. I think this is an extremely short-term view.

I captain two teams: the office evening XI and a weekend club side. Both play league cricket of some form; without necessarily adding to the player base, both sides have improved over recent seasons for one main reason - everyone feels they have a role to play, and therefore is more inclined to back their team-mates up. Far from comprimising our success, it has engendered a greater team spirit and improved individual players' skills...and made my job much easier!

I loathe playing in those matches where three or four players are entrusted with all the work - 40-over matches where the first 20 overs are bowled by two people, regardless of the conditions or game situation. You only have to look at the body language of fielders (particularly younger players) to see the damage such limited thinking causes. The damage is compounded when the same bowlers walk out to bat in the prime middle-order spots and everyone else is made to bat around them.

Get players involved and they will respond - net result is a team performance that is greater than the sum of its parts.

A few cliches in there, but they serve to demonstrate my feelings on the subject!

Ben, those are my feelings exactly. Your words are backed by the research. People who know their roles and feel important outperform those who are confused and bored.

great comment.

I was captain of our 2nd x1 for about 6 years and managed to gain two promotions within those years. I have joined a new team and what with my first year playing in the first eleven and what was quite a successfull year personally was asked to captain the first eleven this year and have successfully excepted and taken on the role do you have any tips that i can take into my new teams dressing room this coming season.

Mark it sounds like you have a good idea yourself with your 2 years of success. Have a browse through the archives here: http://www.pitchvision.com/category/captaincy/

Let me know if you have any specific questions.

I continue to learn from this fantastic site. I only found it last week and it already paid dividends on Saturday as my team gained a good win.

My dilemma is this: as a captain I do not want to be seen as just giving myself a good game and I want to involve as many people as possible, while remaining competitive. However, I think it is a fair assessment for me to say I am our team's first choice opening bowler on most weekends, and since becoming captain I have found it irresistible to bat 6 or 7 so I can marshall the tail more effectively. In addition to this I trust my own fielding more than that of the rest of my team. Theirs is not bad, it's just that I back myself more (and also I can trust myself to stay on the exact spot I put myself when setting up the batsman on a particular out shot).

Do you have any tips on how I might overcome the trust issues and have others as my 'go to' men rather than myself?

Another thing I have found while playing (and especially so as captain) is that it sometimes feels like some other team members just don't seem to care as much as they could. Admittedly I have been a member of the club for over half my life, I have other committee roles and it's where I grew up so I am emotionally very bought in to the club, but to me each ball is personal and I don't understand people making half-baked attempts at catches and so on. Is this normal?
I actually feel that commitment is so important that I have preferentially picked players with more commitment over those with more skill, as these are the guys who will still chase down every ball in a lost cause.

...my last post was getting a bit long...

Another thing I have learned as captain is that it's even more important that you are able to detach yourself from your own performance.

If you have a bad one and let it get you down, the whole team is coming with you. You need to be able to step back and acknowledge it's not your day, and fully support the rest of the team the best you can - there's no hiding yourself at 3rd man for a sulk.

Even if you are putting in a great performance, you still need to be able to be objective - for example, if you pick up 4 wickets in your first 6 overs, you don't just keep bowling till you get your 5fer. You need to know that if you don't get it in the next 3 or 4 overs that you are going to be too tired to bowl, even though you want to keep running in. The chase for that one wicket for yourself might cost your other bowlers and the team another 3 or 4 wickets.

It's a fine balancing act, keeping yourself and the team passionate in a positive way but still being able to keep a cool cricket head on.

im a captain for my team n no abit about the fielding positions but im a guy hu never ever gives up.this is my story on monday 9th june.
im 12 and i play for u13 we needed 99 0f 15 overs.
im a opening batsmen i play for wightwick and finchfield cc.i made 54 of 39 balls not out n my other opening batsmen made 0 but thn the 3 batsmen came in and helpedd me he made 35n the rest were wides n we won the game no we won that game i got alot of confidence of winning games.
And by reading this its made me more confidence

hello, great website.
i’m not skipper, but i am vice skipper.
i feel i have to give alot of voice to my team as most of the players are unsure about their roles.
i think your views on this are spot on, and think it’s encouraging to the whole team, if they know what they have to be doing!
i also think it’s good policy to have set fielding places for each person (obviously allowing for match conditions!), this suggests a professional image to them, and boosts morale.
it’s not very good for the game if you don’t know where to stand.
a captain should be encouraging, but also ruthless, if his bowlers are not performing.
trying to get across the message that ‘line & length’ prevails over pace is very difficult to get in some players minds. and we have lost many games because of in-accurate bowling that was too fast!!

I was just perusing through the site and found some great comments made. Let me give you an example of how opportunity pays in the long run. The school I worked for had an under 13 cricket side which was on a losing streak. I managed to get hold of them and started coaching them. I was shocked to find that the team performance revolved around a few players, that is opening the batting and the bowling. I got the team together and started to look at the potential of each player. soon enough I was trialling various bowlers and changing the lineup. It got each of the team members onto a different level all together. Every player felt wanted and there was always a buzz on the ground. They lost some close matches but towards the end of the season gained confidence and won a few games. The following year they crowned themselves champions losing just one game. I think it is very important to have all players contribute to a team performance.

What an inspiring story Dominic. It almost sounds like the plot of a new movie! Well done to your team.

Been taking on board advice from this site in my first ever season as Captain and we're doing really well and I think nearly all the players want to play for me. I have tried to include everyone from the start and give all a game rather than just pick players to make the numbers up. I try not to harp on about WIN WIN WIN all the time, but drop into conversations that we're only a few points off second place etc. Up to now it seems to be working anyway!!! hopefully it'll continue!! Jus twish the 1st XI wouldn't keep nicking my best players!!! Lol!!! Which brings me onto another topic......... how do you stop a 1st team / 2nd team divide as it appears many of the 2nd team players don't want to be selected for the 1st and would rather just not play at all if selected for the 1sts. I wonder if it because the 2nd's are in with a chance of promotion, whereas the 1st are having a mediocre season?? I'm guessing this is a problem with a lot of clubs?? Other reasons I think cause it are an attitude of, 'here come the second teamer, thinking he's great' attitude from firs teamers, or simply a familiarisation with the 2's???
What are your views??

Warren

Good question, I'll mull over the answer. I suspect it's somethign to do with stopping cliques forming.

Good point Warren. It has long been a issue / problem in not only clubs but schools as well. In schools you would normally have your top two teams practising as a squad, and the teams 1st's / 2nd's are selected from the squad. We have that at our club in Cape Town, where all the senior players from the 1st's through to the 4th's practise on the same days, and use the same nets. Bowlers / Batters are rotated between ALL of the nets. This enables everyone to get a look at everyone else, stimulate competition for team positions, but at the same time build a club / squad / team spirit amonst ALL the players.
Neil.

Hi Neil,

Thanks for your comments.

Our net sessions are also for all players of both 1st team, 2nd team and U17s, but there still seems to be the 1st / 2nd divide!!

Since my original post, I've tried to look into things a little and I think I've realised that one of the senior players in the 2's, has a total disliking of the 1st team captain and has been preaching the word to players that they shouldn't play 1's as it's a bad atmosphere, the 1st teamers are all a bit snooty, etc, etc. I think some believe him and I'm sure that how it has escalated.

As he's one of my best bowlers, I can't really drop him as a lesson!! Guess I'll just have tackle the prob at its source and have a quiet word with him!

Hi all.

Ive just found this site and i think its going to be visited by myself quite often in the near future!

I play for a police veterans side and when I turned up yesterday for a match, I was pulled aside by our captain and told that I was the captain for this match!

Shocked and nervous and honoured all at the same time.

The team hadnt won for a good few weeks and thankfully we won yesterday!!!

Maybe it was luck or maybe I did choose my batting order correctly and my bowlers wisely? Im not sure.

Anyway, apparently I was chosen as "I am the future" the excisting captain informed me after the match. I am honoured but now so many quaestions and worries enter my head.

How do I keep everyone happy? Will they trust me as captain? How do i make such bold decisions to take a bowler off or put a batsman in lower down the order?

The future might be bright but Im already feeling the pressure! HELP

You are in the right place Mark. Step 1: Don't panic!

I only foud out i am captain of my team yesterday!Anyone have pointers on fielding tactics?

Have a look at "the complete guide to winning the league" in the sidebar. Also check out the captaincy category also on the right. Good luck1

great site!! I captain for Motorola hyderabad..I got success of 80% with my captaincy..

How do you measure that rate Rash?

Great site! I help out with my son's training. He's come on leaps and bounds since his coach did a SAQ diploma course, using his team for log book tasks. Do a search for them on google. They've got the best training stuff I've seen

Hi David.. That's very simple.. If i have captained for 10 Matches and in that 10 if I won 8 then the success rate will be 80%.. am I right??

Thank you,
Rash

Yes simple enough Rash. Is it down to your brilliant skills as captain or do you have an excellent team too?

Actually its both the way David..I have a team of 17-18 players from which I never drop 6-7 players. rest 4-5 players I keep on experimenting..So every time I get to know the new talent and I have very high hopes from my team, which leads me to win maximum matches. Smiling

take down my personal ID and lets chat sometime later.

just4u_rash@yahoo.co.in

Thank you,
Rashid

hi, im francisco.
im from argentina and im 13 years old.
im the captain of the 3º division of belgrano athletic club cricket and i want to ask you how can i be more respected because im the new captain and the next year im going to pass to the 2º divicion but this year i have to be whit childs between 8 and 12 years and the youngs not play very well and they are frustated because nowody help they.
how can i help they?
thanks francisco

What help do they need?

i know that mi inglish its no good sorry.
tje point is that mi team is very new and they are not good.
what i have to do to help they?
if you want my e-mail is
fran_f.mendy@hotmail.com

thanks

francisco

Always remember never give up

Hey guys great site.
Iv just become the captain of my clubs first team which should be challenging for the league title and promotion this coming season. I am only 19 years old and was wondering if you had any tips on how to make sure the older more experienced players still listen and trust me but still feel they can help me out at times.
Also how do you feel the batting line up should be set-up in terms of the places of the best batters, openers, less talented batsman? I feel all players should be involved and will probably put the lesser batsman who does not bowl 7 or 8 ahead of the main bowlers.

Thanks
Jack

You have to look at the personality of each player and adapt your approach to them. the quiet introverted type might appreciate you asking quietly for advice in situations they are experienced in. Others might want lots of praise showered on them publicly. You can probably work this out yourself as time goes on.

hey guys . I am de captian 4 my team n my team has abt 20 players in its squad de only problem is i can't decide who 2 take or not cause 7 players r excelent in battin n bowlin . But we don't hv a pro keeper as my keeper is in mrf pace n was a sub . But now he has becum a player so he is not available 4 my team . Guys wat do i do n de rest f my players r equally gud

dude u got to take 5 batsmen , 1 wicketkeeper batsman and 4 bowlers.
take 1 specialist spinner as spinner win matches

As Captain of a little village team, I would like some advice on how to win more matches without making it 'win, win, win' all the time. We should have a regular XI this year of lads who enjoy playing if not able to play with the highest level of skill.

Essentially:
a) what field would people set for a bowler who appears to have little consitency in line & length -I know this sounds like planning for the impossible but I need to unburden! Please bear in mind that any plan has a few fielders of limited 'manouverability' and 'speed of reaction'(except in the bar!)
b) we have a good opener who scores consistently & even 1 or 2 hundreds a season. The only other volunteer to open hit 21 runs from 40 overs last season in one game...do we keep them together and save inconsitent big hitters for 3/4/5 given a rather long tail?

I hold no ideas of grandeur about turning us into the next Australia of the 90's but it would be far more enjoyable to win a few games against 'club sides' with 3 or 4 teams - david & goliath if you will

PS First time out on the roller tonight ready for the game Sunday - always a rather enjoyable experience in the evening sunshine surrounded by Gloucestershire woodland!

Paul, welcome to the site and thanks for posting your question. I think this deserves a longer answer, but for now let me give you the basics and I'll go into more depth in a proper article next week.

a. The first question is: what is he trying to do? The field for a slow left armer trying to get wickets is very different from a medium pacers trying to stop the runs. So it's very context dependant.At low levels of cricket the weakness of the bowler can be somewhat counteracted by the limited range of the batsman. If he can't pull a slow long hop on leg stump is a good ball! I would watch the batsman carefully and as quickly as possible cut off his best shot. Be orthodox for the rest of your time (see the field setting section for tips on that) and hope the bowler gets it right at least some of the time.

b. This one is a bit more tricky. The plodding opener might love to do it, and who are you to rob him of his Sunday afternoon enjoyment? Chat with him and tell him you want him to be the rock of the innings and he needs to stick around for 20-30 overs at least (no doubt he will love that) but also you need him to score more quickly. The way he can do that is by giving as much of the strike to his opening partner as possible. Prime him to try and nick the quick single where he can. Give him a target of getting a 50 but tell him you are happy if it takes all afternoon. It's a matter of finding a compromise you and he can both live with. You know his character better than me so you will have to fill in the gaps as to how you do it (unless you want to tell me a bit more and I can be a bit more specific).

Any help?

Yes thankyou. As much as I love this game it can be so infuriating! If you have ever read the book 'Rain Men' you'll have a pretty good idea of the team we are.

In terms of the bowlers, this is pretty sage advice. I need to have that as my mantra and just keep repeating it under my hat. I think because we play a few teams who like to give their 'ringers' an easy hit on a Sunday cutting off the good shot holds a degree of difficulty....although this is tempered by the great joy of getting one of them out with what my 'spinner' calls a selection of buffet bowling. But I can already think of a number of regular opponents this will work well against.

I agree the second is more tricky & I'm not sure I can be more help. I'm not sure i've ever seen him take a quick single but the youngster at the other end who knows he personally is a good bat & has been known to run him out on several occasions (at least twice on purpose!)

But we have such a great team spirit I'm not sure I want to lose that and have an attitude of win at all costs. I would just like to win say 50% of the games. The great thing about the club is that we laugh & joke through even the most demoralising of afternoons but whether this can continue with another season like the last (2 wins from 23 attempts) I don't know....

Have fun and dont worry about the winning as the more fun and enjoyment is had the better performances become

It does depend a lot on his personality. Some players relish the challenge of doing the job you ask of them. If your plodder is that type then if he scores 50 not out as instructed he will feel he has done a good job. Others will think "stuff you, this is the way I play" and ignore your instructions and you will have to tease it out with him a bit more.

Also a side not about quick singles. They don't have to be "quick" at all. I see many many easy singles lost because the batsman is just not thinking about it. For example, you push the ball weakly to extra cover's left hand. He has set himself a bit deep and is right handed. If you go for a run you make it no problem every time. But if you are not looking for it you think "oh that's gone to cover I'm sticking here ta" and miss an easy "quick" single. Just ask him to be a bit more alert to the opportunity. Of course the way you approach it depends on his personality.

i am a team captain!! we have played two finals and won one of them!!! this year i have included some new players,due to this the older ones are not so happy!! what to do?? sometimes i get confused what to do while defending a total??? confusion also occurs while selecting the batting order!!! when should i send my best batsman on no. 3 or i should ask him to open,well for your information he is not an aggresive batsman!! if i rank my all batsmen like rank 1, rank 2..........then what should be the batting order!!!!!!

Quite a few question there Terrence. For batting order advice click here. For answers to all your questions, including how to defend a total refer to the greatest captain ever; Mike Brearley

i have this website last year since that day i have performed both as a captain and a spin bowler. thanks for the one who published this page.

I play under 15 cricket in the local B league and am a year older than all of my teammates. I am new to the club and because of my age I have been made vice-captain, since I read this page I have been able to help my captain and have effectively become the off the field skipper. Thankyou very much for the website because it has turned us round from a bottom of the table side to a team with a decent shout of winning the league. Thankyou very much!

Well done Ollie, keep up the great work!

I have been declared the captain of "The Fighters Mansehra", a local club in KPK-Pakistan. I have lead my team in 6 matches and won only 2. I am having problems to lead the team and utilize the talent, I have around. I need few tips which can help me to make my team perform the best.

I'm the vice-captain of my local under 13 cricket team and found this very helpful. Thanks for posting it Smiling

Im captain of my club and ts my 3rd season in charge and on the verge of gaining promotion n hav gaind promotion once b4, we having an excellent seas0n so far having won 10 of our 11 games, but hav a problem with my opening bowler he bowls gr8 bt refuses to listern to me wen i wana take hm of and the coach makes it worse az he loves the bowler. The coach gets on my nerve a bit az he wants to gv me advice all the time and doesnt want to let me xpres myself iv got to the stage where i ignore hm and lead the boys n the boys r iritatd by hs coachng style or lack thereof at 23 i thnk the coach shouldnt hold my hand hw do i go abt gettng my fast bowlerz respect if the coach wont let me lead?

Im captain of my club and ts my 3rd season in charge and on the verge of gaining promotion n hav gaind promotion once b4, we having an excellent seas0n so far having won 10 of our 11 games, but hav a problem with my opening bowler he bowls gr8 bt refuses to listern to me wen i wana take hm of and the coach makes it worse az he loves the bowler. The coach gets on my nerve a bit az he wants to gv me advice all the time and doesnt want to let me xpres myself iv got to the stage where i ignore hm and lead the boys n the boys r iritatd by hs coachng style or lack thereof at 23 i thnk the coach shouldnt hold my hand hw do i go abt gettng my fast bowlerz respect if the coach wont let me lead?

Im captain of my club and ts my 3rd season in charge and on the verge of gaining promotion n hav gaind promotion once b4, we having an excellent seas0n so far having won 10 of our 11 games, but hav a problem with my opening bowler he bowls gr8 bt refuses to listern to me wen i wana take hm of and the coach makes it worse az he loves the bowler. The coach gets on my nerve a bit az he wants to gv me advice all the time and doesnt want to let me xpres myself iv got to the stage where i ignore hm and lead the boys n the boys r iritatd by hs coachng style or lack thereof at 23 i thnk the coach shouldnt hold my hand hw do i go abt gettng my fast bowlerz respect if the coach wont let me lead?

Im captain of my club and ts my 3rd season in charge and on the verge of gaining promotion n hav gaind promotion once b4, we having an excellent seas0n so far having won 10 of our 11 games, but hav a problem with my opening bowler he bowls gr8 bt refuses to listern to me wen i wana take hm of and the coach makes it worse az he loves the bowler. The coach gets on my nerve a bit az he wants to gv me advice all the time and doesnt want to let me xpres myself iv got to the stage where i ignore hm and lead the boys n the boys r iritatd by hs coachng style or lack thereof at 23 i thnk the coach shouldnt hold my hand hw do i go abt gettng my fast bowlerz respect if the coach wont let me lead?

First of all i just want to say how useful this site is. Just this week, Ive been fortunate to be made captain for my school 2nd XI, however in this same week I've made the decision to quit the village club I play for. Alot of things on here I can relate to.

When playing for both its hard to juggle which fixtures to attend. A schools priority is always that their fixtures should take priority and so I ended up playing mostly in the Sunday league games for the club. Because of training and matches at school it also meant that I couldnt turn up and train for the village to show my skills and hopefully get given more of a role to play. I can bowl and bat but in my time at the club got very little chance at either. An earlier post had said that for the first 20 overs of a 40-45 over game there would just be two bowlers bowling the whole time. At this point im standing in the position where i can do the most running because im the youngest, but im also thinking 'here I am again most likely going to get to bowl four overs max if that and will probably bat 9-11 and wont actually get in because we will either win comfortably or we'll loose because the real old players havent been able to hit the runs but have been able to bat out the overs'.

I mean no disrespect to the older players because as a young player i acknowledge that theyve enjoyed playing and being a part of the club for years and so theyve got experience and patience. But i feel they need to see things from our point of view a bit more because in the end theres always a demand to blood a side and get more people coming to the club. Im 19 and I joined a club mainly I love cricket and want to improve (but also I didnt want to be travelling to magaluf for my post exam smash up and would rather be having a pint with cricketers at the end of the day). But at this age committment to a club is short term because we have school committments and unless your driving theres issues with transport. So if they want to encourage youngsters and identify captains for the future you just have to GET THEM MORE INVOLVED; Why not take the risk of giving this guy 7-10overs or putting him at the top. Sure he/she might go for a bit more or only get 10-25 runs but he/she feels more a part of something and will want to turn up more and show skills and glimpses leadership

Anyway so Im now captain of the school 2nd XI and im so excited at the prospect of leading a side with big season, pre season games, T20 and weekly games against rival schools in the midlands.

These tips on here, even this early in the season, are very useful and will prepare me for the season but also keep me in check as i might feel tempted to bowl myself out all the time. Now ill remember to always consider the situation and conditions of the match

I am a captain. my team's name is "GAME CHANGERS". we played 2 games in league and we won both! we already qualified for our knockout rounds but there is always a fear in heart that if my team will lose at this stage, i will be blamed! i was just looking for tips to kill that feeling but i guess its just my mind! all i need to do is TRY MY BEST AND TAKE BEST DECISIONS!

i am new in the position as captain any good tips

Hey dude, well i have been leading my club from back 2 years now in both t20 and One Day format and things i have learned is:

1) Use your best players wisely. Dont use ur top 2 batsmen as opener, or best 2 bowlers for opening spell. Use every player with his strength.
2) Dont ever be feared about ur opposition. Even if uu defending 50 runs in t20, get on the field with the hope that uu will get opponents out in 49. Don't ever demoralize ur team players.
3) Always take recommendations from other team members but take decisions that you feel are the best.
4) Never blame one player, its a game and losing and winning is just a part of it. if the team wins, the whole team wins and if a team loses the whole team loses, never to have hard feelings towards a player and give one player enough chances to prove himself.
5) Always keep the goal in mind and remember victory is what you are playing for but never to sledge or cheat unless the opponents starts to do so.
6) Team is main. First play for the team, than for the team mates, coaches and supporters and lastly for yourself.