The Indian Captaincy appears to have encountered some rough weather in recent years. Winds have always accompanied Indian Captaincy transitions, though it has been calmed down since past few years but are now reviving.

The first captaincy was taken away from Sunil Gavaskar and given to Kapil Dev just before the world cup 1983. Kapil Dev is known for the changing the look of cricket from a sport to a religion, but still he was thrown out of the captaincy after a year of the historic world cup 1983. Captaincy was taken from him and given back to Sunil Gavaskar in the year 1984. To your surprise, this captaincy could last for only six months. It was again transferred to Kapil Dev.

Because of this juggling of captaincy, between the year 1980 to 1992, India had a total of 9 different captains. The search for the appropriate captain was stopped with Mohammad Azharuddin stepping into the captain’s shoes. Losing the World Cup Semi-finals in the year 1996 and followed the humiliated England tour, made Azhar lose his captaincy. Sachin Tendulkar was then made the captain of India in the year 1996. Sachin’s performance as captain was not at all appreciated. He was soon sacked from the captaincy in 1997.

The reason for India’s loss was blamed to his captaincy. A leading newspaper, back then also reported, “It was agreed by all that burdening the man with captaincy was not in the interest of Indian Cricket.” Juggling of this captaincy transitions kept on going again. After Sachin stepped down from captaincy, Azhar was again appointed. He remained the captain until the famous scandal, Azharuddin was convicted of match fixing in 2000, and banned for life by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Yet again, Sachin was the captain. Due to derogatory health conditions, within six months, Sachin voluntarily gave up the captaincy.

The new captain, much to our surprise, has altered the face and future of Indian cricket. He was none other than Saurav Ganguly. The aggressive captain, also known as Dada, structured the team quite well. But then famous Ganguly-Greg controversy happened which  took away his captaincy.