Steve Smith is facing a challenge that will define his leadership, writes Ian Chappell
IF Steve Smith wants to turn Australia’s fortunes around quickly he needs to forget about offending anyone and take control, writes Ian Chappell.
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STEVE Smith must feel at times he’s fighting a lone hand; that certainly would’ve been the over-riding emotion at Bellerive as his team collapsed timidly while the captain fought valiantly.
Smith is facing a challenge that will define his leadership and determine his length of tenure. If he fails to right the listing ship he’ll return to being merely a player; succeed and he’ll be lauded as a top-class Australian captain.
However, Smith has an extra burden most Australian captains haven’t had to endure.
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When I attended the Argus review in 2011, I said I didn’t think the system allowed you to captain Australia properly, as there were too many people to tell to get stuffed. At least when I was skipper you only had to tell the manager to butt out if he wanted to stick his nose into the cricket side of the business.
With that said, the Argus review recommended an additional layer of management and a further impediment to good captaincy. Smith’s job has been made infinitely harder than mine ever was.
The best way for Australian cricket to function successfully is to oversee a system that produces good, competitive young cricketers and a few strong leaders. You let them play and lead and then the selectors choose the best combination. The skipper then runs the team with some help from his vice-captain and senior players.
That system is faltering at the moment and it’s making Smith’s job even more difficult.
In the current helter-skelter world of international cricket, there’s no question a captain needs increased assistance. However, the skipper should never delegate anything that affects winning or losing. As long as the W’s and L’s go against the captain’s name he should control his own destiny.
Smith doesn’t enjoy that luxury.
If Smith wants to turn Australia’s fortunes around quickly he needs to forget about offending anyone [except his teammates] and take control. Unfortunately his brave and skilful defiance at Bellerive set an example that his teammates were unable to follow.
He needs to adopt a similarly belligerent approach in the field and be more pro-active.
In three of the four recent successive losses, Australia has been in a strong, almost impregnable position in the Test but proceeded to concede the upper-hand. In each case a large partnership by the opposition contributed greatly to Australia succumbing to the quicksand.
The more this happens the more the players start to wonder about the captain’s ability to pull the team out of threatening situations. This is when losing can become a habit.
It takes strong leadership to clamber from the bog and this is where the captain, vice-captain and the leading players all have to contribute.
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Smith has an ideal deputy in the ultra-aggressive David Warner. Not only does he intimidate the opposition with his audacious stroke-play but he also inspires his own team with his athletic fielding contributions. He should be a constant source of positive advice, especially when the tide is running against the team.
Two of the leading bowlers, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon, are valuable assets in times of on-field stress. Starc is a wicket-taker and a potential partnership breaker and the captain needs to have him primed when a ‘situation’ looms. He answered the call regularly in Sri Lanka and did it again at Bellerive with an inspirational spell that brought Australia back into the game.
Lyon is the best spinner in Australia and Smith needs to express confidence in the tweaker. The excuse offered for not bowling Lyon during a crucial and eventually wicket-less session at the WACA was “the old ball was swinging”. That may well be true but when the side hasn’t taken a wicket for an extended period, the captain has to hunt victims utilising all his assets.
Lyon needs to be made to feel important and crucial to Australia’s cause, because currently Smith doesn’t have a better option.
Cricket is a team game played by individuals. Currently, many of the Australian players appear to be desperately clinging to the survival raft. This was never more evident than in testing conditions at Bellerive, which the tenacious Vernon Philander exploited brilliantly.
In this situation it can be all for one but not one for all. It’s more a case of “let me see what I can accomplish and then we’ll see about the team needs”.
The beleaguered batting line-up [Smith apart] was unable to buck Australia’s recent downward trend, leaving the South Africans in the box seat. A fifth consecutive loss will increase the tongue wagging but the topic of discussion should be Australia’s inept batting rather than Smith’s captaincy.
Originally published as Steve Smith is facing a challenge that will define his leadership, writes Ian Chappell
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