Especially in Test cricket, regardless of how many runs a team makes, that team simply needs bowlers who can get 20 wickets if they are to win. That is not such a requisite in Twenty20 and One Day Internationals.
If one is a genuine all-rounder, as new West Indies ODI captain Dwayne Bravo is, then responsibilities are greater as there are four or five aspects to his game – batting, fielding, bowling; most importantly, thinking and leading.
Ideally, batting and bowling should be equally prioritized, along with excellent fielding, but few all-rounders manage to have that perfect balance. It is really quite tough.
Add the captaincy element to that brew and it becomes as arduous as differential equations.
In Tests and especially ODIs, it is also hard for all-rounder captains to know that special required balance of their own necessary input. Most batsman-bowler captains seldom get the bowling element right.
Being a genuine all-rounder always presents challenges as to which aspect should be the main focus.
Sir Garfield Sobers was unique, brilliant at any aspect of his game for West Indies, except, in some minds, his captaincy. To this day, I am sure that he never understood that, as a cricketer, he still has no parallel.
Brian Lara was the first to highlight that Dwayne Bravo is a better batsman than most think, and is more a batting all-rounder than bowling all-rounder. Lara was also correct to suggest he is a good leader too.
Now that older Bravo has been handed formal captaincy of West Indies ODI team, starting with the final Champions Trophy competition next month, I am sure that he will cope very well with this added pressure.
Bravo’s fielding is always excellent, but positive production from his bowling and batting, especially in ODIs, have been much too sporadic to be fully convincing, especially for the talent that he obviously has.
In 137 ODIs, Bravo has only 2 311 runs at a meagre average of 23.82. He also has 160 wickets at an average of 30.06 and poor economy rate of 5.32. These are quite underwhelming figures, when isolated.
Overall, though, Bravo’s productions at the crease, added to his ebullience and team spirit, allow that he must always be included, even for overall experiences. Now, this new mantle has been passed to him.
His bowling is easily good enough for T20s. Four overs for “only” 40 runs is very acceptable. But, ten overs for 60 runs is not acceptable in 50-over games. That is the very fine difference in the two.
T20 cricket suits Bravo as perhaps few others in world cricket. His Test captain, Darren Sammy, also comes into that good reckoning too.
Indeed, T20 cricket is a godsend for West Indies cricket, especially. Our team winning the last ICC World T20 only confirmed that this team is at its best in that format.
Champions Trophy 2013 cricket is not T20s.
It runs 50 overs per team, each bowler having no more than ten overs, not that maximum of four, as in T20s. That makes a massive difference to premier bowlers.
What should bowlers prefer in ODIs? 10 overs, no maidens, 60 runs, three wickets; or; ten overs, three maidens, 35 runs, no wickets? Getting wickets do stop runs, but frugality is the name in 50 overs games.
There is a good reason that most great captains have been either batsmen or wicketkeepers, even both. Few outright bowlers have been great captains. There has been some success for bowling all-rounders.
Former England captain Alex Stewart, Australia’s Adam Gilchrist, India’s present captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, come to mind immediately as wicket-keeper-captains. Rodney Marsh, Mark Boucher, Deryck Murray and Wasim Bari were others.
Wicketkeeper-batsmen-captains have the best of all worlds. They see everything possible. Most times, an outright bowling captain is a dangerous thing, but West Indies have been fortunate there.
Courtney Walsh, with his herculean efforts, has been the only real “bowling captain” that West Indies has had in history. We all know what “Cuddy” could have produced at the bowling crease.
Most international bowlers worth their salt have to believe that they are Atlas, but even Walsh suffered from that feeling that he could do everything at once. No bowler can deliver from both ends of the pitch simultaneously.
Pakistan have been more the flavour for bowling all-rounder captains, starting with now politician Imran Khan, then Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis.
They all did relatively well, but often over-bowled themselves, believing that while accepting responsibilities, that they must do more than practical, to win games.
Cricket is still a team sport, probably more so especially now, with even more T20s around too.
Luckily for Bravo, the team he will captain at the Champions Trophy contains several players who have already themselves been captains of West Indies.
Those experiences are invaluable, and mean that, in the true sense of the word, players should themselves be captains of their own individual outputs, while helping the team.
Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Sammy, even vice-captain Denesh Ramdin, have had extensive leadership experiences. With these lieutenants, Bravo will do well.
• Colin Croft is a former West Indies fast bowler.
