Former India batsman Ajay Jadeja spoke strongly and with deep emotions about the changing landscape in the authority of a captain and coaches – along with the huge backroom staff – in modern-day cricket.
A huge advocate of traditional methods of the game, Ajay Jadeja feels the captains are not allowed to grow on their own these days, and instead are being fed too much information from people sitting outside the field.
Be it in international cricket or franchise tournaments, most of the teams now have multiple assistant coaches, mentors (official and unofficial), and data analysts to dissect every part of the game and every player.
Ajay Jadeja, who featured in 15 Tests and 196 ODIs for India from 1992 to 2000, reckons the role of the captain is decreasing in modern-day cricket.
Speaking at the Jaipur Literature Festival, Ajay Jadeja said, “I think it’s unfortunate. Because when we grew up the captain was the one who led the side and he was responsible, he was the guide, he was the one who thought how you are going to play, how you will approach the game. Unfortunately now it’s not the boys, it’s us – the administrators who are running the game at the moment.”
We want our players to be perfect: Ajay Jadeja
Jadeja, who was part of the Afghanistan staff during the World Cup 2023, believes that the demands of perfectionism from players and captains right from a young age hinder their progress, which he says is the saddest part of cricket.
He added, “Unfortunately now we don’t accept mistakes. We want our players to be perfect. So the same boy gets to go through all this and has five coaches all along and seven-eight years into his cricketing life he is now say captain of India, would have always been assisted by somebody. So how does he ever grow up and make decisions on his own? So you are losing out on individuality, which I feel is the saddest part of the sport.”
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