AMRIT MATHUR HUR
I once asked Tiger Pataudi how tough was it to captain India. He thought for a moment, then replied with a mischievous smile: Depends on how much you wanted to complicate it. That was typical of Tiger, someone who believed in keeping things simple.
When I posed the same question to Raj Singh Dungarpur, another stalwart, his response was completely different. Captaining the Indian cricket team, he said with dramatic exaggeration, is very difficult -- it is the second toughest job i n India.
That is a bit of a stretch but captaining India is challenging. The job extends beyond cricket, there is relentless scrutiny and every move of the captain is played out in full public glare. As the ‘face’ of Indian cricket, the skipper must take on heavy workload to meet the expectations of passionate fans.
Captain Virat Kohli, like his worthy predecessors and all Test captains, is responsible for delivering on-field results but unlike Jason Holder or Hamilton Masakadza (Zimbabwe), he is regularly dragged into other activities.
Virat takes a call on yo-yo tests (yardstick for fitness), decides team culture, works on a long-term vision for Indian cricket and pushes for better wages.