'It has to be one leader always' - Arthur

Mickey Arthur: "If you have more than one guy as leader, you don't know whom to turn to." © Getty Images Enlarge

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Mickey Arthur, the South Africa coach, has questioned John Buchanan's idea of having multiple captains for a Twenty20 team and said such a move would only confuse issues within the squad. Arthur said effective communication among all the team members and the coach is mandatory for any such experiment to succeed.

"It has to be one leader always," Arthur told Cricinfo. "I favour the one-captain situation because everybody in the team is clear about who is in charge at all times."

Buchanan, the former Australia coach who is now in charge of the Kolkata Knight Riders, has unveiled a new concept of multiple captains which he says would change the whole approach to captaincy and leadership in cricket.

But Arthur said that if a team has more than one captain, players will be left confused and disoriented, especially in the midst of a match situation. "If you have more than one guy as leader, you don't know whom to turn to," he said.

Arthur said he would like to speak to Buchanan in detail about the new concept to know what exactly what it was all about. "I really don't know what he is aiming at," Arthur said. "But I know from experience that communication within a team is fundamental to its success, and that could be a problem when you actually implement this idea on the ground. The players need to know clearly who is in charge."

Ray Jennings, the former South Africa coach, said that Buchanan's idea is interesting and might just work. "He is a very experienced coach and he obviously has his own game plans," Jennings, the Royal Challengers Bangalore coach and Buchanan's IPL rival, told Cricinfo. "I respect him for that. It is an interesting idea and it is an idea that can work."

(With inputs from Nagraj Gollapudi)