The inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League, which was ultimately won by the Rajasthan Royals, inter alia, highlighted the importance of captaincy and how a captain builds the character of the team.

If you look at the two teams that qualified for the finals, both had exceptional leaders. Shane Warne, often referred to as the captain Australia never had, proved exactly why he is brilliant at what he does. Not only did he take his own responsibility to perform on the field, he lifted a young side, written off by critics, and led them to the Championship. He made each and every individual in the side realize their potential and instill in them the belief that they could win any game irrespective of situation or opposition.

Warne was also burdened with the job of a coach and yet, every time he came out with a strategy it worked in their favour. He employed intelligent strategies, such as, bowling slow to Sehwag and the other Delhi batsmen within the Powerplay overs and restricting them in their home game against the Daredevils. He had a plan for every batsman and every team and of course had a bit of luck on his side too.

Further, if we look at the Chennai Super Kings, the character and discipline of their side flowed from the skipper. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, as always, was captain cool, no matter the situation and the team huddle even after losing the last-ball final displayed the epitome of his calm and composed leadership. Dhoni, both as a captain and player has always remained unruffled and it was probably this factor that helped the Super Kings keep their nerves over Team Mohali in the semifinal. It is also pertinent to note that it was Dhoni’s team which won the Kingfisher Team Fair Play award.

Contrastingly, we have the Kolkata Knight Riders, led by Saurav "Dada" Ganguly. It was the team that received the maximum number of penalties for slow over rates. The captain got fined on disciplinary grounds when he acted unsportsmanlike asking the umpire to refer the decision to the third umpire.

The influence a captain has on his team can be clearly seen by Saurav’s conduct. Even the local players like Ashoke Dinda and Laxmi Ratan Shukla regularly abused without cause and fast bowler Ishant Sharma was fined for kicking down the stumps.

While others have learned, Dada has remained ever so arrogant. Even while he was captain of Team India, he was banned for slow-over rates and would often display emotions on the field. It is in the time of desperation and defeat when the team looks towards the captain and Ganguly is most uninspiring, tension often overridden on his face. It is the duty of every captain to remain calm irrespective of the situation and as much as Kolkata would rally for their favourite son, cool is the exact opposite of what Ganguly is.

Moving on to other captains: initially, one thought that Yuvraj Singh might not have the  temperament to lead a side, but with the constant support of experienced players like Mahela Jaywardene and Kumar Sangakkara, Yuvraj learnt quickly and the team finished second in the points table. However, the nerves dominated in the semi-final and hopefully, with time, Yuvraj will learn from his mistakes.

Another captain, Virender Sehwag, though remains cool in crunch situations is not a thinker of the game. Like his batting he relies more on ability than strategy. Certain decisions, such as, to bowl himself against the Kings XI Punjab (in the rain affected game), while there were other regular bowlers or sitting Amit Mishra out for the first-half of the tournament, cost Delhi victory on more more than one occassion. He also changed his strategies frequently, at one instance declaring his team to be good chasers and then on another opting to bat first the simply because they were successful in the last game doing the same.

Another team, for whom captains were the cause of both defeat and success in the tournament, were the Mumbai Indians. It was a side which saw three leaders. The side suffered losses under Harbhajan Singh, another non-thinker and uninspiring leader, made a comeback under Shaun Pollock, a cool captain and bowler both for his country and league side, and continued their winning streak under Sachin Tendulkar, the man with enough understanding of the game to know the importance of strategy and experience as he often took regular advice from Sanath Jayasuriya and Pollock. Perhaps, it was the two wrong choices of death bowlers against Delhi and Rajasthan that cost them the tournament.

As for the Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers Bangalore, the reason for the losses cannot be solely blamed on the captaincy. Though Rahul Dravid’s myopic view can be help responsible for poor team selection, he redeemed himself on a number of occasions showing a lot of grit and determination when his teammates lacked the same. Often having to do the same while he was leading the Indian side, Rahul fought like an injured lion instead of succumbing under pressure.

We also saw flashes of brilliance of Adam Gilchrist, taking over from the injured VVS Laxman, such as, the use of Venugopal Rao to get the wicket of Jaysuriya, however, he lacked luck and support from the rest of his team throughout the tournament.

The importance of captaincy increases when you have to lead a side in which there is a mix of players, as was the case in IPL. To be unbiased and uninfluenced by names and numbers is important along with developing strategy, discipline and motivation. It is this light that Stephen Fleming, former captain of New Zealand, is referred one of the most intelligent captains of all time.