Everyone 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
The 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
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
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