The Art of Captaincy

In what is widely considered the definitive work on the subject, The Art Of Captaincy, Mike Brearley, a psychoanalyst by trade these days--but most famously the England cricket captain behind that dramatic 1981 Ashes victory--delivers his thesis on what makes a leader, on and off the pitch. In his five-year Test career Brearley, a long-standing county captain but never much better than a relatively modestly talented cricketer himself, led England 31 times--winning 18, drawing 9, losing only 4--and explores the key elements of his theories via candid reflections on those experiences.

Willis, who was to bowl the next over, was indignant with Botham. His main concern was that I shouldn't let him bowl anymore ... When I arrived at slip, Botham was fuming too. Meanwhile Lever was disgruntled at being taken off ... and the umpires were threatening to report me [for allowing bouncers to be bowled at the tail-enders]. And we were in a winning position! To restore some sanity to the proceedings, I told Hendricks to get loose to bowl the next over.

A forthright, unapologetically intelligent analyst of the players he captained, and of his own influence, or lack of it, on those team's successes and failures, Brearley brings top-flight cricket to life in a way that speaks to both the cognoscenti and the novice.

With sections on team selection, the captain's role in the dressing room and on tour, as well as detailed consideration of tactics, Brearley's scope is impressively broad, but it is his ability to dissect that great intangible of sport--the personality of the individual--that stamps his theorising with the hallmark of greatness. He is particularly fascinating on the future England captains he led in 1981--Ian Botham ("powerful, inventive, sound...he became highly sensitive to criticism"), Bob Willis ("blinkered as a captain and had an abstracted air") and David Gower ("like Willis, he appeared to be bulldozed by Botham").

Out of print for far too long, the 1985 text has been constructively updated for the 2001 Ashes Series--including new photographs and Brearley's typically adept study of current England captain Nasser Hussain. This is a classic work: engrossing, informative, and as entertaining as it is intelligent. --Alex Hankin

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View books by Mike Brearley.

Cricket fans only - Rated
I purchased this on the basis of many reviews which assert that it is useful for gaining insight into general leadership/man-management skills in all areas of life. Well let me assure you that this is simply not the case. This is definitely a book for cricket fans only and has no value outside that sphere. Even within cricket, which I'm not well up on, this seems a very outdated work with one foot, if not both, firmly planted in the gentleman amateur era. Remember that Brearley was playing in the sixties, seventies and very early eighties. Sportsmen have subsequently discovered some new-fangled thing called "sports psychology"...

Simply the best. - Rated
This seminal work on captaincy has never been matched. Brearley's ideas on cricket captaincy show a huge understanding of the game and of the human mind.
Overall a must for any cricketer old enough to read with a desire to captain a cricket side at whatever level.

Excellent insight into the personal qualities of captaincy - Rated
When the Art of Captaincy first came out in 1985, memories of the swashbuckling capture of the Ashes in 1981 were still vivid in many people's minds. Although this is no longer the case, Brearley's work is equally applicable to the drive for success in any field and the man-management skills required of any successful leader.

Nonetheless cricket is its prime focus, and the characters of Brearley's age such as Botham, Willis and Gower still capture the imagination as brilliant competitors and, more importantly for Brearley, as leaders of the England side. Honest in his exposition of his contemporaries' flaws as captains, the author never belittles their integrity as individuals, helping his own objective analysis to be respected on its own merits. Whilst the revised edition pays no more than token regard to the current resurgence under Hussain and Fletcher, Brearley's expert psycho-analytical approach stands the test of time.

With helpful insight into man management of players and selectors alike, as well as a detailed background to the less glamorous administrative and logistical duties of a county captain, Brearley has much to offer to captains and players at all levels of the game.

The lucid and elegant prose makes for an extremely readable and readily digestible work, and the author's beguiling modesty and understated humanity widen its accessibility beyond the ordinary fanatic for our national game.