The captaincy of the national cricket team is in many ways akin to the Mughal throne in the latter half of its lifespan. The desperation of the contenders aside, the only thing certain about the kingship in those troubled times was a short and totally uncertain tenure for Zill-e-Illahi. In the merry-go-round of national captains, what Misbahul Haq has achieved as captain, therefore, is unconventional. And, lest it be mistaken, this is supposed to be a rank understatement.
In the wake of the ICC mace received by Pakistan recently for being the numero uno Test side, the captaincy of Misbah has been under discussion across media, both mainstream and social. It is fitting, therefore, to take a view through cold statistics to see how fickle the world of national captaincy is.
There have been 30 captains over 399 Tests across the 64 years of our status as a Test-playing nation. The average tenure of a captain stands at 13.3 matches. If one takes the top three Pakistanis off the list — Imran Khan, 48, Misbah, 46, and Javed Miandad, 34 — the figure comes down to 10 Tests per captain.
In terms of time span, a captain has not, on average, lasted beyond 2.1 years. Again, if you put the top three aside — six years for Misbah and 13 years for Imran and Miandad combined — the span shrinks to 1.6 years per captain.
In the first half of Pakistan’s journey as a Test nation, the country had 12 captains. In the second half, there have been 18. But that is only half the story!
Just to give the data a bit of context, Australia has had 45 captains over 139 years since 1877 during which it has taken the field 791 times. Simply put, a captain’s tenure has lasted on an average three years and 17.5 Tests.
And when you talk of Pakistan cricket, it is hard to avoid comparisons with India. Indeed, the love is absolutely mutual. Anyway, there have been 32 Indian captains in 500 Tests over 84 years; the average span being 15.6 Tests and 2.6 years.
Post-Imran, who left the scene somewhat unceremoniously in 1992, Pakistan needed nine captains to fill out the remaining eight years of the decade. The luminaries included Miandad, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Saleem Malik, Ramiz Raja, Saeed Anwar, Amir Sohail, Rashid Latif and Moin Khan.
When Inzamamul Haq left under a well-crafted deal in 2007, Pakistan needed five captains over the next three years to see out the decade. The honours were done by Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi and Salman Butt. Come to think of it, the Mughals were not this bad. Really.
The story is not over yet. The period of 64 years happens to be neatly divided into two entities. In the first 32 years, there were 12 captains — 2.66 years per captain — while in the next as many years there were 18 — 1.77 years per captain.
Amazingly, the three longest-serving captains, whose tenures together account for 19 years, belong to the latter half of our cricketing history. The remaining 13 years of the modern era, starting 1982, have seen as many as 15 captains — 0.86 years per individual. They will surely have reason to grumble should the Mughals resent such parallels being drawn with them!
It is here that the administrators lost the plot and picked captains who could not even make it to the team on merit?
When Misbah took over — or rather, was handed — the reigns of the national side in November 2010, a couple of months after the much-too-well-known-to-need-a-mention fiasco, he had only played 19 Tests and he was already well past 36 years of age and was hurtling towards 37. In his 10-year career till that point, he had scored just about a thousand runs with two centuries at an average of 33.60. His lone claim to fame — and infamy — at the time was the 2007 T20 World Cup where he almost singlehandedly took the team to within a shot of victory, but then completely singlehandedly gave it away with a shot that was not needed.
Misbah must have been getting ready to wrap up his career and walk into the sunset in 2010 when suddenly it was all about sunshine. Since then he has captained 46 of Pakistan’s 47 Tests; the lone one being the 2012 Test against Sri Lanka at Galle where Mohammad Hafeez acted as the stand-in captain and lost the game. Misbah in the last six years has scored more than 3,500 runs with eight centuries at an average of just a shade under 55.
It is to Misbah’s eternal credit that he has led the side well enough to be ranked and talked about alongside Pakistani greats without getting redundant as a player. Since the 1992 World Cup victory, Pakistan had 17 captains in 18 years up to 2010 — 0.9 year per captain. His tenure that has now lasted six years needs to be seen against that beleaguered backdrop. Add to it the age factor — he is 42 going 43 — and you see the man and his commitment in their true colours.
The jury is still out if he is actually the country’s greatest captain ever, but such debates never end with any definite conclusion, do they? We might pick up the thread here again, but right now, it is as much about his captaincy as it is about the player that he is. If Misbah decides to hang up his boots today, Pakistan will be poorer for his absence. Such has been his impact on the team.
Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, October 2nd, 2016
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