At their best, captains represent the best of their team, embodying their team’s ambitions, direction, attitude, and health. The very best are icons for their sports and advertisements for how their respective games should be both played and approached.
If you want to reflect on how the role should be done, think of Roy Keane’s militant commitment to the Manchester United cause, or of Andy Flower’s bravery in using his nationally revered position as Zimbabwe cricket captain to speak out against Robert Mugabe’s regime, risking his life in the process.
The poor appointments, however, inflict a damage on their teams which endures far long than their usually short-lived reigns. At the helm of the South African cricket team, Hansje Cronje’s corruption brought a shame on the sport from which the South African side have only recently recovered, and it is not too much of an overstatement to say that he set the cricket corruption mobile in motion. The same can be said of Pakistan’s plethora of captains of recent years, whose unreliability is emblematic of deeply-rooted disarray with the sport in Pakistan.
In the last week, two captains at the top of their respective games have unwittingly combined to bring all the issues thrown up by national captaincy to a collective head. Both John Terry of English football and Ricky Ponting of Australian cricket have had their positions questioned recently, and quite rightly so.
For Terry, there are the obvious off-field complexities overshadowing his reinstatement as England captain. No matter how strong the public shows of support may be, it is hard to imagine that he will ever have the full trust of his squad.
There is no need to reignite the debate nearly one year on from the revelation of his affair with the girlfriend of former England and Chelsea team-mate Wayne Bridge; it’s all been said at this stage. For the statesmanship of the position of England captain, the reappointment is of course a disaster and there are some who will, privately or otherwise, scathe Fabio Capello’s public decision to return the armband to a man they deem immoral, a liar, and unworthy of the trust of a football-mad nation.
But right now, England need on-pitch leadership not off-pitch politics, and that is exactly what Terry offers in abundance. Those who support Capello’s decision do not support his actions or propagate adultery – they simply recognise that a meek, incoherent national team needs the leadership Terry provides and the consistency that Rio Ferdinand cannot. In footballing terms, this is the right decision.
That in itself raises further questions about the role of Fabio Capello and just how in control of affairs he really is. While we can affirm his most recent decision, if this is the right decision in footballing terms then it was also the wrong decision to depose him before last year’s World Cup on non-footballing grounds. Why he felt the need to hum and haw over his decision in public is anybody’s guess.
This publicly-ruminated U-turn is yet another entry in an ever-growing catalogue of gaffes on the part of the veteran Italian and the furore surrounding Terry’s return to office is symbolic of the discord in the former Real Madrid manager’s camp.
In the aftermath of Steve McClaren’s failure to qualify for Euro 2008, the Football Association sought to bring assurance and experience to the role and thought they had done so with the significant capture of Capello’s signature. In hindsight, however, it is hard to imagine that a man with such vast and diverse experience and so many titles to his name could look so hopelessly and utterly clueless.
Whether your particular favourite was his retirement of David Beckham (which, by the way, he also did at Real Madrid) via the national media, the disastrous summer in South Africa, his calling up Wes Brown and Paul Robinson without contacting them and the ensuing rejection,the infamous ‘Capello Index’ or letting Paul Scholes’ international return slip by not bothering to contact the Manchester United midfielder himself, the number of high-profile cock-ups seen in the last year has made a mockery of the office of England manager and embarrassed the FA. Capello now seems intent on defaming the position of captain as well.
As for Ponting – things are just as messy Down Under, and Punter’s form since before the 2010/11 Ashes series has led to critics across the proud cricketing nation calling for his head on a barbie.
Five or six years ago, dropping a player of Ponting’s quality would not have been a problem for Australia, gifted with what was the most talented collection of cricket players ever to don whites for the cause of one nation.
But now, in these nightmarish days for Australian cricket, dropping Ponting has further-reaching consequences than it perhaps ever had. Whether he’s making 0 or 100, Ponting is the last remaining relic of the golden age for Australian cricket and the only truly great player left in the country. If anyone is going to take this faltering side by the scruff of the neck and make them win it is Ponting, and dropping him or removing him form the captaincy would effectively end his international career and leave the side devoid of experience and the albeit waning assurance that they are in the presence of one of the game’s greats.
So Ponting should be captain? If you only viewed the above side of the proverbial coin, you would be right in saying so. But, as they all do, the situation runs deeper. Ponting, as he has proved more and more recently, is not a great captain.
He has the standout stature within the team and hardened experience to fill the role, but he has been left wanting in terms of decision-making and conduct on many occasions. Hark back to his confrontation with Steve Jones during the 2005 Ashes series and of putting England in to bat on perfect surfaces on more than one occasion, and you will see my point. In a sport in which mannerly conduct and strategy are valued more than in any other, Ponting is distinctly lacking in the major departments.
Perhaps the support for Ponting would be more vocal had his lull in form not coincided with two of three Ashes defeats and the end of an unstoppable World Cup run. Then again, does that not point to his absolute importance and thus validate his claims to the captaincy?
‘Complicated’ doesn’t even begin to describe it. All in all, Terry and Ponting’s well-publicised struggles have made us all look at the once glorious role of the captain a little bit more sympathetically. Personally, I’m just confused; it’s a very complex business.
