Champions League Twenty 20 Championships to be played between 10th September to 26th September in South Africa features three IPL teams ledby Sachin Tendulkar, Mahedra Singh Dhoni and Anil Kumble. While it is not knownhow well they will lead their teams in Champions League all the three captains had contrasting experiences in their run up to the captaincy of Indian team and their domestic teams.

Sachin Tendulkar:- He was destined to be a leader and he proved to be a leader but in a different way.  If you look at Sachin Tendulkar's exploits as a batsman on the cricket field he is a clear leader, very well ahead of the rest of the pack.  Sachin is a leader in his own era and he is still the leader even if you go to any era as a player.  Very early in his career Sachin Tendulkar was projected to be a future leader and given the reins of vice captaincy very early in his career but sadly he could not extend his batting talents to captaincy.  The fact that that the mild mannered Sachin was the junior most player in a team which comprised of many seniors did not help his cause as he could not force them to give his best.  However Sachin Tendulkar proved a point to everybody in first and third editions of the Indian Premier League with his brilliance as captain.  Even though M S Dhonis team won the last edition of IPL one can cleary say that Sachin Tendulkar was the captain of the tournament.  Sachin Tendulkar gets another chance to prove his credentials as a captain in this years of Champions League.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni:- While Sachin was marked to be a leader nobody gave Dhoni a chance of even making it to the Indian team leave along being the skipper of the team as M S Dhoni was literally heard of and once Dhoni made it to the Indian team the rest has become history.  Not long back Sourav Ganguly had the reputation of being the best captain of India and was praised for leading form the front but Dhonis extraordinary consistency as a captain and player has overshadowed Ganguly'sdeeds as a skipper.  M S Dhoni has the dinstinction of leading a literally unprepared Indian team in the inaugral edition of T20 World Cup and historic tri series in Australia.  What has surprised many is the fact that M S Dhoni has consistently lead Indian teams in all the three formats of the game and that is not easy in a country like India where expectations are very high.

Anil Kumble:- One must say that Anil Kumble was unlucky as his consistent performances were notsufficiently highlighted as even under performers like Iran Pathan, Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan and Balaji were more talked about than him.  However at the end of the day Anil Kumble would not have any regrets because he has been more than lucky as a skipper.  In the first place Anil Kumble was never in the race as skipper at any point of time during his playing career though he was made vice captain very early in his career.  Once Rahul Dravid decided to quit down as captain after the tour of England in 2007 Sachin Tendulkar was the automatic choice. However not to the surprise of many Sachin Tendulkar declined the offer considering his earlier two stints which were unsuccessful and once Sachin declined the offer Dhoni was the automatic choice having lead India to victory in the inaugural edition of T20 World Cup.  However to the surprise of many Dhoni indicated his reluctance to lead India in the longer version of the game and once Kumble who hinted to a news channel of his willingness to lead India if offered the chance was handed over the captaincy and one must say that Kumble has done a reasonable job before calling it quits both as a player and a captain.

One must Kumble was doubly lucky because it was Rahul Dravid who was made the captain in the first edition of India and Pietersen was given the mantle when Rahul Dravid failed to deliver.  Anil Kumble had a stroke of luck as Pietersen's injury gave him a chance to lead Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kumble grabbed it with both hands leading RCB to finals of the second edition which they eventually lost ot Deccan Chargers.  

While M S Dhoni has the best success rate in terms of results for India, Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble have proved themselves very well of late especially for their IPL teams.  Let us hope one of them gets to hold on to the Champions Trophy.