Hardik’s demotion: Vice-captaincy a fancy designation with no perks, power or immunity

Perceptions in Indian cricket change in a matter of weeks. And at times it can have nothing to do with the performance of the players. Hardik Pandya went from being T20 World Cup final’s game-changer, designated vice-captain, captain-in-waiting to a powerless foot-soldier in new commander Suryakumar Yadav’s unit. Shubman Gill, on the other hand, leap-frogged from being a reserve player to being the vice-captain.

So should this be seen as Gill’s promotion and Hardik’s demotion? Not really, would say those familiar with the power equations of the Indian dressing room. On paper, a captain’s deputy is the team’s designated No.2 and also the heir apparent. But that’s a misconception. Vice-captaincy, as the name suggests, doesn’t come with a time-bound captaincy guarantee. Actually, it’s far from that.

Like in the simplest popular board games, the snake that waits for the ladder climbers to reach the late 90s to time their bite, many captaincy contenders have got their final throw of the dice wrong. Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Ajinkya Rahane, Jasprit Bumrah and even Hardik have over the past decade come close to sealing their spot at the top, but failed. They have led Team India in some games or a few odd sessions but they couldn’t win the trust of selectors to be long-term leaders. Will Gill buck the trend and become a true blue leader like Dhoni, Virat or Rohit remains to be seen. If he doesn’t, the curse will continue.

Hardik Pandya impresses us with his fitness (Source: PTI)

Cricket needs to be sensitive to the intriguingly amorphous character of the dressing room – the vice-captain. He has the position but no real privilege. He gets to wear the captain’s armband occasionally but doesn’t have the aura to automatically command respect. Being slightly ahead in the captaincy race by virtue of the official position, he can also be the target of others with leadership ambitions. Many a time he isn’t even the captain’s sounding board since there are former skippers or other seniors in the team. Being a deputy can get lonely.

Vice-captaincy in cricket is just a fancy designation. It has the limited usefulness of a spare car tyre that spends most of its life in the darkness of the bonnet. And even when he takes the place of the captain on the field, he often merely implements the orders given by the captain and the coach from the dressing room. The deputy plays the waiting game, and for most, the wait is endless.

Selectors have a different rationale when they sit to decide the team’s vice-captain. As is the case with Gill, the most popular reason, of course, is the one about grooming a youngster with leadership potential. But there are other reasons too. Sometimes the national selectors have picked the likes of Rahane and Pujara as vice-captains as they didn’t have options or they were not sure about the hierarchy among the youngsters.

Cheteshwar Pujara (L) and Ajinkya Rahane batting together. (FILE)

At this T20 World Cup, Pakistan selectors had faced a similar dilemma. From the team full of super seniors, they had to pick Babur Azam’s deputy. In contention were Babur’s contemporaries Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan and Mohammad Rizwan. There were also the two seniors making a comeback – Mohammad Amir and Imad Wasim. Naming one would mean undermining the leadership acumen of others. So what did they do? They came up with a novel solution, a typical Pakistan jugaad – they did away with the vice-captaincy position.

For years, the profile or the purpose of a vice-captain to the team wasn’t clear. It was arbitrary and ambiguous. In his book Sunny Days, India great Sunil Gavaskar mentions what he calls the “most embarrassing incident of my cricketing career”. It was from a Deodhar Trophy game and it was about the confusion over the vice-captain in the middle of the game.

It all started with West Zone skipper Ajit Wadekar getting injured. Since Gavaskar was Wadekar’s deputy when they played for Bombay, he took charge. And then it happened. “.. I led the side for three overs before the 12th man came in and told me that the senior most player in the side, Ashok Mankad, was to act as captain. Kaka, as we called Ashok, was most apologetic about it but took command.” Gavaskar says to this day he shudders to recall the moment. “For me, however, it was most embarrassing to be told to hand over the charge to another player in full view of more than twenty thousand people who must have seen the change”.

The team selection processes have evolved over the years but still the vice-captains don’t have the perks of an important member of the leadership. They don’t have immunity – one match they could be the stand-in captain, the next they could be carrying drinks. Rahane in his long career had seen it all.

Even the game’s greats have suffered the same fate. Shane Warne’s biography No Spin gives a detailed account of the time when he was Steve Waugh’s deputy and terribly out of form. Waugh wanted to drop Warne but coach Geoff Marsh was not sure. They decided to ask the long-retired Aussie veteran Allan Border, who was in the West Indies with a tour group. AB couldn’t believe what he was being asked. “Jesus Christ, I back Warney every time … we owe him. Think of what he’s done for Australian cricket,” he said. This pitch would have convinced every captain in the world but Waugh. “No, I appreciate your thoughts, AB, but Warney’s not playing.” Warne wouldn’t be the last vice-captain who would have been shown his place.

Hardik can take heart from the Warne story but the national selectors need to answer a question. How did Hardik, after gaining his batting and bowling form, suddenly become a lesser leader? Maybe, the unshielded, powerless vice-captains don’t deserve that courtesy.

Send your feedback to sandydwivedi@gmail.com

Get latest updates on T20 World Cup along with live score updates for all matches.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.