A different ball game for captains
It is all very well to try and tell yourself captaining your country in an ICC Cricket World Cup is the same as captaining at any other time – but it is not, wrote former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming in the ICC's official website Media Zone on Saturday.
True, there is still the toss of the coin and the decisions to be made about tactics, but there really is a completely different dynamic.
The eyes of the world are on you for starters and you realise that as soon as you step into a media conference before a ball is bowled. There are more journalists, asking more questions, than at any other time. Turn on the television, listen to the radio, surf the Internet or pick up a newspaper and you cannot avoid it. Everyone seems to be talking about cricket and most of them are telling you what to do.
On top of that, venues are full and, in the case of New Zealand at this tournament, expectation levels are rising all the time too, in the face of encouraging form in the lead-up to the action getting underway.
And remember, this is the tournament that comes around just once every four years.
As a captain at an ICC Cricket World Cup, you are not given the luxury of easing into the action in the way you might in a bilateral series. When you are playing the same side over a number of weeks you can formulate your plans and then execute them against the same players match after match. At an ICC Cricket World Cup that opportunity does not exist.
Every match brings with it a new opponent and perhaps an unfamiliar team and unfamiliar players. Suddenly you and your backroom staff have got to change tack – and do it quickly. The video analysts will be working long hours both before and during the tournament to ensure each captain gets all the information he needs on every opponent and that, in turn, will mean plenty of homework away from the public eye for McCullum and the other leaders.
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