5 Indian cricket captains whose captaincy tenures had abrupt endings
MS Dhoni has arguably been India’s most successful captain across all the formats of cricket. Be it the T20 World Cup, 50 Over World Cup or the ICC Champions Trophy; under his captaincy India has won all the major ICC tournaments. It was under him that India also became the number one Test side in the world.Despite these achievements, off late he has been at the receiving end of both fans and former cricketers. The reason behind this outrage against him is India’s poor overseas performance. The recent loss in the ODI series in Australia has just added fuel to this captaincy debate.A Dhoni fan would feel that such criticism for a captain who has given us so much to cheer about is uncalled for. But if we look at the history of Indian cricket, Dhoni isn’t the first nor will be the last one to face this unwanted music. India has rarely had a captain who has quit on his own terms without facing any media or fan backlash. After all it is not without any reason that an Indian crickets captain’s job is considered the toughest job in the country after that of the Prime Minister.Now only time will tell if Dhoni continues as the captain of the T20 and ODI team. Here we take a look at 5 former captains whose tenure came to an abrupt end due to various reasons ranging from poor form, board politics and match-fixing charges among others. While some of these players continued to play for the country without the burden of captaincy.
#5 Kapil Dev
The first half of the 1980s saw a tussle of captaincy between Sunil Gavaskar & Kapil Dev. Kapil Dev sealed his supremacy as captain by winning the 1983 Prudential World Cup. The impact of this victory was enormous and it led to a cricket revolution in the country. His team became famous as Kapil’s devils.
However, he could not repeat the heroics of 1983 and in the 1987 Reliance World Cup at home, India lost in the semi-final to England. Kapil Dev faced the blame of this loss and was removed as the captain. Even his 1987 World Cup campaign was marred with controversies. In their first match against Australia, India lost by one run chasing 271.
Australia’s original score was 268 and it was increased to 270 after Kapil Dev agreed with the umpires that the score should be increased to 270 as one boundary during the innings had been mistakenly signaled as a four instead of a six.
Although he continued to play for India till as late as 1994, he never led the team again. Interestingly though he was the vice-captain for India’s tour to Pakistan in 1989.