Post-captaincy performers

In his first series after giving up the Australian captaincy, Ricky Ponting scored 118 in three ODI innings against Bangladesh and averaged 59. His uninhibited approach was an encouraging first step in the final phase of his career, ahead of tougher opponents in Sri Lanka and South Africa. As captain, Ponting averaged 51.51 in Tests and 43.30 in ODIs so he has high standards to maintain as he returns to the ranks. This week we've looked at how players have fared in their post-captaincy careers compared to their performance when at the helm.

Gerry Alexander, the former West Indies captain who died on April 16, was captain in 18 of his 25 Tests. He led the team during a period of change - he was the Caribbean's last white captain - and had to deal with difficult situations such as the one involving Roy Gilchrist, whom Alexander sent home from the 1958-59 tour of India for bowling several beamers too many. Alexander had the reputation of an attacking batsman but during his captaincy he made only 466 runs in 24 innings at an average of 22. He played only one series after being succeeded by Frank Worrell but it was his best as a batsman. On the 1960-61 tour of Australia - the tied-Test series - Alexander made at least a half-century in each match and finished with 484 runs in 10 innings at an average of 60.50. The difference of 38 between his batting average as captain and after giving up the captaincy is the greatest for any player.

Few captaincy stints have been more disastrous in terms of results, both for team and individual, than Ian Botham's. No riposte after giving up the leadership has been more jaw dropping. Botham was captain for 12 Tests - nine against West Indies and three against Australia - in 1980-81 and England won none of them. His form with the ball in those games - an average of 33 - wasn't horrendous but his stats with the bat were - 276 runs at an average of 13. He quit two Tests into the Ashes - Australia were up 1-0 - and then scripted England cricket's finest hours. Bothan's batting averaged soared to 52 in the four remaining Tests, his bowling average plummeted to 20 and England won the Ashes.

Difference in batting average as captain and batting average after captaincy - Tests (5 Tests as captain, 10 innings after, excluding multi-country teams)

Player	Span	Mat	Runs	Ave	HS	100		Captain	Mat	Runs	Ave		Diff
FCM Alexander (WI)	1960-1961	5	484	60.50	108	1		1958-1960	18	466	22.19		38.30
IT Botham (Eng)	1981-1992	65	3588	35.52	208	8		1980-1981	12	276	13.14		22.38
A Flower (Zim)	2000-2002	20	1952	67.31	232*	5		1993-2000	20	1380	49.28		18.02
PA de Silva (SL)	1999-2002	17	1131	43.50	206	3		1991-1999	6	260	26.00		17.50
S Chanderpaul (WI)	2006-2010	35	2833	61.58	166	8		2005-2006	14	1038	47.18		14.40
GN Yallop (Aus)	1979-1984	24	1691	42.27	268	5		1978-1979	7	424	30.28		11.98
Wasim Bari (Pak)	1978-1984	39	618	16.26	85	0		1977-1978	6	45	6.42		9.83
Wasim Akram (Pak)	2000-2002	13	474	33.85	100	1		1993-1999	25	894	24.16		9.69
DI Gower (Eng)	1990-1992	11	848	53.00	157*	3		1982-1989	32	2267	43.59		9.40
PR Umrigar (India)	1958-1962	25	1609	41.25	172*	6		1955-1958	8	394	32.83		8.42
AC Gilchrist (Aus)	2004-2008	37	1898	41.26	162	6		2000-2004	6	305	33.88		7.37
SC Ganguly (India)	2005-2008	29	2146	44.70	239	4		2000-2005	49	2561	37.66		7.04
SR Tendulkar (India)	2000-2011	101	8656	58.09	248*	29		1996-2000	25	2054	51.35		6.74
SP Fleming (NZ)	2007-2008	7	552	46.00	87	0		1997-2006	80	5156	40.59		5.40
Saeed Anwar (Pak)	2000-2001	9	469	39.08	123	2		1996-2000	7	414	34.50		4.58
N Hussain (Eng)	2003-2004	12	837	39.85	116	2		1999-2003	45	2487	36.04		3.81
SM Gavaskar (India)	1985-1987	19	1468	54.37	176	4		1976-1985	47	3449	50.72		3.64
SV Carlisle (Zim)	2003-2005	10	486	28.58	118	2		2001-2002	6	319	26.58		2.00
A Shrewsbury (Eng)	1888-1893	6	359	35.90	106	1		1884-1887	7	347	34.70		1.20
ST Jayasuriya (SL)	2003-2007	34	2184	37.65	253	4		1999-2002	38	2177	36.89		0.75
A Ranatunga (SL)	1999-2000	10	444	37.00	88	0		1989-1999	56	3118	36.25		0.74
AJ Stewart (Eng)	2001-2003	23	1277	39.90	123	1		1993-2001	15	1059	39.22		0.68

Marcus Trescothick captained England in only two Tests - against New Zealand at Lord's in 2004, and at Multan in 2005 - and he holds the record for the highest score in a final match as captain. Standing in for Michael Vaughan, whose knees were shot, Trescothick made 193 against Pakistan, a match the hosts won by 22 runs. Vaughan returned for the next Test, and Trescothick never led England again.

Trevor Goddard, the South Africa allrounder, played 41 Tests and led his country in 13 of them. In those Tests Goddard took only 24 wickets in 23 innings, bowling left-arm medium-pace, at an average of 36, which was far too high for a quality allrounder in the 1960s. After his term ended, Goddard played eight more Tests, under Peter van der Merwe and Ali Bacher - all against Australia - and his returns were much improved: 35 wickets in eight Tests at 18 apiece. Goddard's 8 for 92 in Johannesburg in 1966 helped South Africa beat Australia for the first time at home. The difference of 18 between Goddard's bowling average as captain and after captaincy is the highest for a bowler.

The best bowling figures in a final Test as captain belong to West Indian allrounder Denis Atkinson, who took 7 for 53 in Auckland in 1956. New Zealand won that match, though, by 190 runs and ended a 26-year wait for a maiden Test win. Atkinson played only three more Tests for West Indies and ended his career under the captaincy of Alexander.

Difference in bowling average as captain and bowling average after captaincy - Tests (5 Tests as captain, 1000 balls afterwards, excluding multi-country teams)

Player	Span	Mat	Wkts	Ave	BBI	5		Captain	Mat	Wkts	Ave		Diff
TL Goddard (SA)	1966-1970	8	35	17.85	6/53	1		1963-1965	13	24	36.33		-18.47
Intikhab Alam (Pak)	1976-1977	4	17	25.23	4/35	0		1969-1975	17	54	31.74		-6.50
S Venkataraghavan (India)	1979-1983	10	17	58.70	3/77	0		1974-1979	5	7	64.57		-5.86
GS Sobers (WI)	1973-1974	7	20	29.50	3/27	0		1965-1972	39	117	34.00		-4.50
CA Walsh (WI)	1998-2001	36	166	21.59	6/61	7		1994-1997	22	85	25.71		-4.12
IT Botham (Eng)	1981-1992	65	209	34.18	8/103	13		1980-1981	12	35	33.08		1.10
A Flintoff (Eng)	2008-2009	12	29	38.00	5/92	1		2006-2007	11	34	34.44		3.55
N Kapil Dev (India)	1987-1994	43	123	30.26	6/84	4		1983-1987	34	111	26.35		3.90
SM Pollock (SA)	2003-2008	40	143	27.79	6/39	2		2000-2003	26	103	21.36		6.42
Wasim Akram (Pak)	2000-2002	13	31	30.00	6/61	3		1993-1999	25	107	23.35		6.64
ST Jayasuriya (SL)	2003-2007	34	29	38.20	5/34	1		1999-2002	38	44	25.29		12.91
BS Bedi (India)	1978-1979	6	14	40.92	3/98	0		1976-1978	22	106	24.82		16.10
BE Congdon (NZ)	1976-1978	11	8	51.87	5/65	1		1972-1975	17	33	35.75		16.11
SR Tendulkar (India)	2000-2011	101	28	65.07	3/31	0		1996-2000	25	4	38.00		27.07
R Benaud (Aus)	1964-1964	3	7	53.85	4/118	0		1958-1963	28	138	25.78		28.06
Fazal Mahmood (Pak)	1962-1962	3	5	86.00	3/130	0		1959-1961	10	41	19.14		66.85
DS Atkinson (WI)	1957-1958	3	3	109.33	1/30	0		1955-1956	7	25	23.00		86.33

Shivnarine Chanderpaul led West Indies in 14 Tests and 16 ODIs in 2005-06 and didn't fare too well with the bat in either format in comparison to what came after. His Test mean was 47 and in ODIs it was 30. His performances improved considerably in the years after he was replaced as captain. Between 2006 and now, as a member of the ranks, Chanderpaul has averaged 62 in 35 Tests and 55.52 in 85 ODIs.

With his 104 in the 2011 World Cup quarter-final against India, Ricky Ponting became the sixth batsman to score a century in his final match as ODI captain, the others being Bevan Congdon, Ravi Shastri, Jacques Kallis, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kevin Pietersen, who made 111 in Cuttack in 2008 before the fallout Peter Moores. Dilshan, however, will take himself off that list when he captains Sri Lanka in England.

Difference in batting average as captain and batting average after captaincy - ODIs (10 ODIs as captain, 10 innings after, excluding multi-country teams)

Player	Span	Mat	Runs	Ave	HS	100		Captain	Mat	Runs	Ave		Diff
S Chanderpaul (WI)	2006-2011	85	3387	55.52	149*	8		2005-2006	16	446	29.73		25.79
PA de Silva (SL)	1996-2003	136	4527	39.71	145	8		1992-1996	18	307	18.05		21.65
SM Gavaskar (India)	1985-1987	48	1776	44.40	103*	1		1980-1985	37	702	26.00		18.40
A Flower (Zim)	2000-2003	68	2516	41.93	145	3		1993-2000	52	1207	25.14		16.78
T Duffin (Zim)	2006-2007	10	298	29.80	88	0		2006-2006	13	248	19.07		10.72
SR Tendulkar (India)	2000-2011	216	9342	48.40	200*	24		1996-2000	73	2454	37.75		10.65
SM Pollock (SA)	2005-2008	61	857	29.55	90	0		2000-2005	92	630	19.09		10.46
SK Warne (Aus)	1999-2003	85	504	15.27	36	0		1998-1999	11	32	6.40		8.87
MO Odumbe (Kenya)	2002-2003	20	463	27.23	55	0		1996-2001	20	359	18.89		8.34
DPMD Jayawardene (SL)	2009-2011	42	1381	40.61	123	4		2004-2009	94	2555	32.75		7.86
A Flintoff (Eng)	2007-2009	26	410	24.11	78*	0		2006-2007	14	247	17.64		6.47
Moin Khan (Pak)	2003-2004	29	413	22.94	72*	0		1995-2001	34	401	18.22		4.71
T Taibu (Zim)	2007-2011	52	1591	33.85	107*	2		2004-2005	29	760	29.23		4.62
SC Ganguly (India)	2007-2007	30	1120	43.07	98	0		1999-2005	146	5082	38.79		4.28
Saeed Anwar (Pak)	2000-2003	47	1740	40.46	105*	3		1995-2000	11	363	36.30		4.16
AC Gilchrist (Aus)	2007-2008	17	569	37.93	118	1		2001-2007	17	554	34.62		3.30
PD Collingwood (Eng)	2009-2011	35	1129	38.93	105*	1		2007-2009	25	718	35.90		3.03
Younis Khan (Pak)	2010-2011	24	515	24.52	73	0		2005-2009	21	463	22.04		2.47
Wasim Akram (Pak)	2000-2003	65	683	20.08	49*	0		1993-2000	109	1341	17.64		2.44
K Srikkanth (India)	1990-1992	22	605	28.80	82	0		1989-1989	13	340	28.33		0.47