In the­atre, KP Ap­pan, the renowned crit­ic, drew an in­ter­est­ing com­par­i­son be­tween the hero of the­atre and the hero of cin­e­ma and be­tween the di­rec­tors of the­atre and cin­e­ma. He opined that the hero of the­atre is the make-or-break fac­tor of a play, since their live per­for­mance and de­ci­sions dic­tate the ex­pe­ri­ence for the au­di­ence. In cin­e­ma, the di­rec­tor is the force be­hind the suc­cess of a film, shap­ing the sto­ry, vi­su­als, and over­all ex­pe­ri­ence be­hind the cam­era.

Draw­ing in­spi­ra­tion from this com­par­i­son, I ob­serve re­mark­able sim­i­lar­i­ties in the sport­ing world, with the crick­et cap­tain be­ing the hero of the­atre and the foot­ball coach be­ing the cin­e­ma di­rec­tor. Let us find out why.

Like the the­atre hero, the crick­et cap­tain is the cen­ter of at­ten­tion whose choic­es and com­mand de­ter­mine the match. On the field, the cap­tain makes de­ci­sions in the mo­ment—field place­ment, bowler choice, and de­clar­ing an in­nings. These are mo­men­tary de­ci­sions but vi­tal ones, like a the­atre hero re­act­ing to the tim­ing of a live play.

In­stances of MS Dhoni’s cau­tious choice to pro­mote him­self in the In­dia bat­ting or­der in the 2011 World Cup fi­nal or Eoin Mor­gan’s ag­gres­sive lead­er­ship in Eng­land’s 2019 tri­umph demon­strate how a cap­tain’s de­ci­sions can turn a game around. The crick­et cap­tain faces im­mense pres­sure, with mil­lions of spec­ta­tors re­view­ing every move. Like a the­atre hero, how­ev­er, they de­liv­er un­der pres­sure, cre­at­ing per­for­mances that in­spire their team and thrill the au­di­ence.

In con­trast, the foot­ball cap­tain’s role dur­ing a match is not as im­pact­ful as the crick­et cap­tain’s, much like the hero in cin­e­ma, who, while im­por­tant, is not the sole de­cid­ing fac­tor of a film’s suc­cess. In foot­ball, the cap­tain’s pri­ma­ry role is to mo­ti­vate the team and com­mu­ni­cate with the ref­er­ee. Still, the tac­ti­cal de­ci­sions are large­ly pre-de­ter­mined by the coach. Un­like the crick­et cap­tain, who con­stant­ly ad­justs strate­gies based on the game’s flow, the foot­ball cap­tain has lim­it­ed in­flu­ence over the match’s out­come once the whis­tle blows. For ex­am­ple, while a foot­ball cap­tain like Li­onel Mes­si or Cris­tiano Ronal­do can in­spire their team with their per­for­mance, the coach con­trols the over­all strat­e­gy and sub­sti­tu­tions.

This makes the foot­ball cap­tain more akin to a sup­port­ing ac­tor in cin­e­ma, whose role, while sig­nif­i­cant, is shaped by the di­rec­tor’s vi­sion. Con­verse­ly, the foot­ball coach is the film di­rec­tor, the team’s strat­e­gy and suc­cess mas­ter­mind. Like a film di­rec­tor, the coach or­ches­trates the sto­ry dur­ing prac­tice ses­sions, de­ter­min­ing for­ma­tions, tac­tics, and play­er po­si­tions. Their vi­sion de­ter­mines the team’s iden­ti­ty, sim­i­lar to a di­rec­tor de­ter­min­ing a film’s sto­ry and vi­su­als.

Pep Guardi­o­la’s rev­o­lu­tion­ary tac­tics at Man­ches­ter City and Mikel Arte­ta’s high-press­ing ap­proach at Ar­se­nal are the best ex­am­ples of how a coach’s strate­gic bril­liance can make a team play bet­ter. While the coach’s im­pact dur­ing a match is re­strict­ed to sub­sti­tu­tions and half­time speech­es, their prepa­ra­tion is es­sen­tial, sim­i­lar to a di­rec­tor’s ef­forts dur­ing film pro­duc­tion. The foot­ball coach al­so ex­pe­ri­ences tremen­dous pres­sure, with fans and man­age­ment ex­pect­ing re­sults. How­ev­er, sim­i­lar to film di­rec­tors, their abil­i­ty to adapt and mo­ti­vate guar­an­tees the team’s suc­cess.

Sim­i­lar­ly, the crick­et coach on the field is less au­thor­i­ta­tive than the foot­ball coach, just like the di­rec­tor of dra­ma, whose au­thor­i­ty ends at the be­gin­ning of the per­for­mance. The role of the crick­et coach is to pre­pare the team and pre­pare strate­gies be­fore the match. While the game is be­ing played, the cap­tain can make in-game de­ci­sions that guide the game. Where­as the crick­et coach pro­vides valu­able ad­vice be­tween games, his au­thor­i­ty is less than that of the foot­ball coach, who can im­ple­ment changes in strat­e­gy on the play­ing field. This places the crick­et coach on a lev­el with the dra­ma di­rec­tor, who pre­pares the stage but leaves the game to the per­form­ers.

Some sim­i­lar­i­ties are ap­par­ent when com­par­ing the crick­et cap­tain and the foot­ball coach. Both the crick­et cap­tain and the foot­ball coach must work un­der im­mense pres­sure, with their de­ci­sions and strate­gies di­rect­ly im­pact­ing the game. The crick­et cap­tain’s role is, how­ev­er, more overt and di­rect, akin to that of the hero in dra­ma. In con­trast, the foot­ball coach’s role is more covert and be­hind-the-scenes, akin to that of the di­rec­tor in film. The crick­et cap­tain likes re­al-time de­ci­sion-mak­ing and lead­er­ship. In con­trast, the foot­ball coach likes strate­gic plan­ning and long-term vi­sion.

So why must we look up to the crick­et cap­tain like the the­atre hero and the foot­ball coach like the cin­e­ma di­rec­tor? The on-field per­for­mance of the crick­et cap­tain and the abil­i­ty to make cru­cial, game-chang­ing de­ci­sions un­der pres­sure makes them the ac­tu­al game hero. His lead­er­ship mo­ti­vates his team and the crowd as much as the on-stage per­for­mance of a the­atre hero. On the oth­er hand, the foot­ball coach’s bril­liance off the field and game plan­ning are the things that dri­ve a team to suc­cess. His abil­i­ty to cre­ate a win­ning per­for­mance, as much as a cin­e­ma di­rec­tor, must be equal­ly looked up to.

In short, just as KP Ap­pan brought to the fore the dis­tinc­tive yet equal­ly im­por­tant roles of the hero on stage and the di­rec­tor on screen, we can ob­serve how the crick­et cap­tain and foot­ball coach play these roles in their re­spec­tive sports. Whether the hero­ism of the crick­et cap­tain on the field or the mas­ter­minds of the foot­ball coach off the field, both of them are as vi­tal to the suc­cess of their re­spec­tive teams. Let us hail these sports’ be­hind-the-scenes he­roes, whose sto­ries are worth hear­ing and re­mem­ber­ing. Af­ter all, in the grand play of sports, every play­er—be it the crick­et cap­tain, the foot­ball coach, or even the foot­ball cap­tain and crick­et coach—is part of the mag­ic we all love.

Ajith Gopi, PhD, is an As­sis­tant Pro­fes­sor in Phys­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion at Don Bosco Col­lege, Pan­jim- Goa, In­dia. Email: ajith­gopi@don­bosco­goa.ac.in