'Indians should have been captains' - Anjum Chopra disappointed with franchise's choices

Former Indian cricketer Anjum Chopra expressed disappointment over the choice of foreign players as captains in WPL 2023. As many as three of the five teams in the marquee league named non-Indian captains, all of whom are Australians. WPL's most expensive franchise Gujarat Giants named Beth Mooney as their captain, whereas Alyssa Healy was bestowed with the coveted role by UP Warriorz. On the other hand, Delhi Capitals decided to go with the obvious choice of Meg Lanning, who recently led Australia to their sixth T20 World Cup victory.

Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore are the only teams that have named Indian players in leadership roles. While Mumbai went with the experience of the India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, RCB zeroed in on star opener Smriti Mandhana. Notably, RCB has at least three foreign players in their squad who, at any point in their career, have captained their national teams. While Sophie Devine has been the permanent captain of New Zealand since 2020, Dane Van Niekerk and Heather Knight, too, have led the South African and the English cricket team, respectively, with considerable success. Despite the availability of tested options within their ranks, RCB decided to go with a rather novice captain in Smriti Mandhana.

Commenting on this, Chopra said that since the league was taking place in India, therefore Indian players would be more accustomed to the playing conditions and would have thus been better captaincy choices.

"I didn't like that most of the teams have opted for foreign players as captains because it's an Indian league and will be played in Indian conditions, so Indian players should have been captains if they have capabilities," she said in a virtual interaction.

The former captain seemed particularly disappointed with Deepti Sharma being overlooked by her franchise for the captaincy role. She said that with the backing of leadership experience in last year's Women's T20 Challenge, Deepti should have been given the reins of the UP team for the upcoming tournament.

"I thought Deepti Sharma should have been made the captain as she led in the last Women's T20 Challenge," she said.

Deepti Sharma, however, was named Healy's deputy by UP Warriorz.

Australian players are World Champions and they have leadership experience: Chopra

Anjum Chopra, however, didn't attempt to take anything away from the Australians and acknowledged their leadership abilities.  Citing their recent success in the T20 World Cup, Chopra said that the Australians are 'world champions' and have leadership experience in their quiver. She also admitted that someone as young as Jemimah Rodrigues can, therefore, never overtake Australia's successful captain Meg Lanning to be named the skipper when playing for the same team.

"I completely agree with their (Australian players) experience (at the international stage), and so Jemimah Rodrigues can't become a captain ahead of Meg Lanning in the same team (Delhi Capitals). If I look at the big picture, the Indian players don't have much captaincy potential like Australian players," she said.