Should Ganguly take over the reigns again?

By Roy
December 20 2006

Following his strong performance in the first Test under pressure to help India win in the midst of a shockingly poor tour, the question being asked is whether Ganguly should be reinstalled as captain.

There are endless debates on whether people are born with leadership qualities or whether it is acquired. There are merits in both arguments. Parental influence, early childhood experiences can all contribute to whether one becomes a good leader or not. Our evolutionary make may destine some people to lead and others to follow.

In the corporate world people will tell you that it is easy to identify transformational leaders from psuedo transformational leaders. People instinctively identify transformational leaders and readily trust them. However the opposite is also true. So what is it that helps people differentiate true leaders from actors? Certainly it cannot be the qualifications or the semantic fluency.

Psychology tells us that our verbal communication form only a fraction of what we actually communicate. There is an underlying subliminal link between people which helps the subject to identify whether the object is trustworthy or not. It is part of our evolutionary make up. This is expressed through body movements and expressions and is processed by our brains without we even recognizing it.

So why in the world should I discuss this now? There is no more challenging position in India than be the captain of the Indian cricket team. Take the case of Rahul Dravid. We are all very proud of him. He has soldiered India to many victories and saved as from defeats. He is one of the greatest Indian batsman and in my book he will right up there among the top three. He has good verbal skills, is always politically correct and comes across as sophisticated and nice. But what does that mean to the team. His body language often betrays him. There is an obvious power distance between him and his team mates.

Saurav Ganguly on the other hand is brash, has got into trouble with authorities and has walked into more controversies than any other public figure in India. But his boys instinctively trusted him. You can call him a born leader or a transformational leader. I do not care about the semantics. He took over the reigns of the team when foreign teams thought Indians could be pushed around. He changed that perception soon enough and Indian cricketers started to earn the respect of the world for their fighting qualities.

He lost his captaincy under dubious circumstances. Now he is back as just another player. But even when he is on the sidelines he is a huge presence. I suspect his mere presence energized the team to the victories at Potchefstrom and J'burg against all odds. Just for records sake, his contributions were crucial in both the matches.

Greg Chappell and his cohorts may wish to take all the credit for the wins but Dilip Vengsarkar needs to be congratulated for the faith he showed in a leader and fighter who refused to say die. So is it time for Dravid and Ganguly to go back to what they do best? - Dravid back to batting for India with Ganguly leading the team.