Bad luck or bad timing?

In 75 years of playing Test cricket, India has hardly ever had a period of stable captaincy except Sourav Ganguly's stint. Azhar held the post for some time in the 1990s, but, given the nature of later revelations, it is best to forget that period.

The first captain, C K Nayudu, got the job because the maharajah of Vizianagaram, or Vizzy, agreed to step down in his favour. Four years later, his generosity had run out. That 1936 tour to England is one of the worst we have ever undertaken. The team, which had Nayudu, Amar Singh, Mohammad Nissar, Wazir Ali, Lala Amarnath, Syed Mushtaq Ali and Vijay Merchant, won only four of 28 first-class games and lost the three-Test series 0-2.

Vizzy, an abysmal fielder in the best tradition of royalty, returned a Test batting average of 8.25. He offered Mushtaq Ali a gold watch to run out Merchant, awarded Baqa Jilani a Test cap because he insulted C K Nayudu, and sent star all-rounder Lala Amarnath home midway through the tour.

In the 1958-59 home series against West Indies, we fielded four captains in five tests. Three of the four ""Ghulam Ahmed, Vinoo Mankad and Hemu Adhikari "" retired after that series, which we duly lost 3-0.

Merchant, the chairman of selectors in 1971, used his casting vote to make Wadekar the captain, dislodging Pataudi, the youngest captain ever. The decision appeared a masterstroke as Wadekar won back-to-back series overseas, but only until some reversals made him quit.

The 1980s saw Gavaskar and Kapil Dev at the peak of their careers. The two exchanged captaincy a few times until Gavaskar renounced it.

In 1996, Sachin replaced Azhar, but relinquished after a slump in personal and the team's performance. He became captain once again, after the 1999 World Cup, lost 0-3 in Australia and 0-2 at home to South Africa, and resigned. An apocryphal story says Sachin, Sourav and Rahul had decided that whoever was made captain would resign if Azhar came back into the team.

Sourav's long and successful reign ended amid the upheaval caused by Chappell. Rahul, the same age as Sourav, replaced him and suffered a dip in personal form. Now that he wants to quit, there are few candidates given that only a minority can hold their place in both ODIs and Tests.

In contrast, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and England have had stable captains and smooth handovers. Australia has used the one-day arena to blood a new captain before appointing him for Tests as well.

That brings us to the question Umpire's Post can't avoid asking: is this plain bad luck or awfully bad planning?