Integrity is important quality in a captain: Rodney Marsh

By Our Sports Reporter

BANGALORE, FEB. 21. A captain's frayed brains. Fast bowlers' sweat. Wicket keepers' tattered gloves. And cricket's different layers swung back to the arclights when Messrs Rodney Marsh, T. A. Sekar and Wayne Philips spoke on the concluding day of the all-India coaches seminar at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) premises here on Wednesday.

In an age of bookie-inflicted scars, the day's defining statement came from Rodney Marsh. ``Integrity is the most important quality in a captain,'' he said. ``Captaincy is simple. It can be when you have guys like Lillee and Thommo (Thompson) bowling. And if the rival guys have Roberts, Garner, Holding, Croft, Marshall, just say `go out guys, they are gonna give short-pitched stuff, hook and pull'!'' The legendary keeper was just stressing an old adage `mind over matter' with a dash of Aussie humour.

It was a long day for Marsh as he chaired the afternoon session, speaking at length on wicket-keeping, fielding and captaincy. He initiated wicket-keeping drills with State junior keeper Robin Uthappa and kept the coaches busy with his insights at the indoor nets. ``A wicket-keeper is a captain's faithful servant. He is in the best position. For a keeper, footwork and technique are important and if you drop a catch just analyse why you dropped and correct it,'' he said.

Innovation was a common theme in his tete-a-tete on fielding and captaincy. ``Most retired players say they never miss their warm- ups. Its because warm-ups can be boring so make it interesting. Warm-ups should be fun,'' he said. On Captaincy, Marsh said: ``In cricket at times things drift. A captain has to then grab the game by its throat and innovate. If a team messes up the blame falls on the captain. He is important. You refer to teams like Bill Lawry's men or Steve Waugh's Aussies,'' he said.

The day started with Wayne Philips' batting drills. The former Aussie wicket-keeper and current assistant coach at the Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy at Adelaide, dabbled into strokes - cut, pull and slash - which are handy on the hard bouncy tracks in Australia.

A fast bowler's grit had its share of approbation when T. A. Sekar, National Selector and MRF Pace Foundation coach, spoke. His opening preamble: ``No fast bowler can escape injury'' - pegged the speech on cricket's toughest job. ``A side-on or front-on action is safe while a mixed-action is prone to injuries,'' he said.

A long day signed off with Bishen Singh Bedi lauding the efforts of KSCA and the NCA. ``Its a first and hope we have such seminars even at the Zonal level,'' he said.

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