A Change of guard

Its official, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (or Mahi as he is well known) was appointed the captain of the Indian Cricket ODI team this week. This after the previous captain, Rahul Dravid, quit citing reasons that were unheard of earlier. Rahul claimed that the Indian captaincy has a shelf life and that life was fast decreasing. Going be his comments and the timing of his resignation it would seem that the shelf life is close to 2 years. I read an interesting article from one of modern eras best captains, Steve Waugh, where he expressed concern at this fact. His point was that if indeed the shelf life is so small it does not augur well for Indian cricket. I agree with him. A captain needs at least 6 months to a year to settle in (depending upon his seniority in the team). Also, a captain needs time to shape the team and guide it in the direction in which he wants. This requires continuously interacting with the core of the team and instilling ethics and values into the players. This does not happen overnight and specially not in a unit like the Indian cricket team. Two years in my opinion in too short a time to do all these things and then start seeing results. Now, that said, Dhoni does have some favorable things on his side :

• He is part of a team that has 3 previous captains in Sachin, Saurav and Rahul. He could make use of their immense experience and knowledge of the game to not only learn quickly but also make effective decisions. The key here is that he should be able to make these decisions independently without being influenced by one individual.
• He is taking over a team that has been a pretty cohesive unit under Rahul for the better part of the year (after the Chappel fiasco).
• The seniors in the team are a helpful bunch with little or no ego issues. I'm sure that they will support him a 110%. This is very important because if the ex-captains turn on the new captain, it can ruin the team (look at the Pak team)
• He is a cool headed individual. This quality will be tested to the LIMIT in his new role. Specially with the expectations of the people for the Australia and more importantly the Pak series.
• He is the best new comer in the Indian team who can hold his place in both the ODIs and Test sides. This stops the other "youngsters" (Yuvi and Viru) from thinking that they deserved the role more than him.

The key here is that he has been appointed for the first 12 ODIs only. This means that he absolutely has to win the 2 series if he wants to keep his position and for that he has to hit the ground running.Dravid was comfortable from the get-go because he had been the vice captain for 4 1/2 years before that. It remains to be seen how long Dhoni takes before he can start becoming comfortable with his new role. Dhoni has already been given the captaincy of the Indian Twenty20 side for the world cup, but the real test is when he has to face Aus and Pak in the ODI series in India. I hope after these series, the shelf life does not reduce further !!