The rapid nature of the Twenty20 format was the primary reason for that. But nearly a month into the IPL, the significance of a pro-active leader cannot be more palpable. A glance at the top four teams after nine league matches — Rajasthan Royals, Kings XI Punjab, Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders — will give a lucent picture.

These four outfits have Shane Warne, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly in that order at the helm. All these four men are down to business and confident cricketers, facts reflected in the fortunes of their respective teams.

On the other hand, teams like Bangalore Royal Challengers, Deccan Chargers (Hyderabad) and Mumbai Indians have resembled drenched cannons. Rahul Dravid's cup of woes is full with franchise-owner Vijay Mallya coming out against him, and a wrist injury has ended VVS Laxman's IPL run.

The Mumbai outfit had problems upfront from the beginning as regular captain Sachin Tendulkar missed the first phase with a groin injury. Stand-in-skipper Harbhajan Singh probably has misunderstood the meaning of aggressive captaincy, and his slap on S Sreesanth has cost him a major part of the IPL season. These troubles at the top have left the three languishing at the bottom of the table, perhaps marveling at Jaipur team's cruise in the event.

Not many could have imagined the Royals to be at the top, but after seven wins from nine matches, few will doubt their credentials. If one man has to be picked for that amazing charge, it has to be Warne. Ian Chappell once rated him as the best captain that Australia never had, and the Royals’ run proves that those words were not just lip-service.

At the outset, Rajasthan Royals do not have any fancied names apart from South African skipper Graeme Smith. But Warne has marshalled his resources extremely well, especially while handling the injury-prone all-rounder Shane Watson, the lynch pin of the team.

When Jaipur signed the colourful leg-spinner, Warne had demanded complete control of his team, asking the franchise owners to appoint him as the captain-cum-coach, and the move has paid handsome dividends.

"Shane is very supportive of his team-mates, and has approached his job with all seriousness. He has a clear brain that ticks continuously on the field, and he is never short of any ideas," one of the players said.

Yuvraj does not exactly fall into the category of Warne as skipper. He was made captain by virtue of his icon status and like his Aussie counterpart, he too is an outgoing, casual character, but the southpaw has not allowed it to affect his job. The Punjab captain has showed a willingness to learn from his mistakes, and exploit the shrewd cricketing brains of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara.

Other two men in the fray, Ganguly and Dhoni have proven track records as skippers. Their hallmark as leaders is their ability to motivate players around, prompting them to play well above themselves. With the departure of their foreign recruits Matthew Hayden, Mike Hussey and Jacob Oram, Chennai have lost a bit of patina, slipping to some defeats.

But Dhoni has galvanised local players like Palani Amarnath, S Badrinath and Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan into a winning unit. Ganguly has a similar story to tell, as the Kolkatan too has managed to eke out the best from players like Wriddhiman Saha and Laxmi Ratan Shukla. Ganguly has also chipped in with bat and ball at crucial junctures, as he did against Deccan Chargers a few days ago, slamming 91 and taking two wickets.

"Captaincy in this format is vastly different from Tests and one-dayers. In Tests and ODIs, you have a bit of time to regroup and re-device your strategies. But in T20 things come a lot quicker at you and it demands a lot of on-the-feet thinking. I needed a bit of time to adjust to that sort of rush," Ganguly told Deccan Herald.

That explains the plight of Dravid and Laxman. If a canny captain like Ganguly needs time to come to terms with T20, the other two cannot be blamed for taking their time to get used to this format. The T20 has placed new challenges on captains, and if the IPL matches can be taken as a trend, those with a pencant to experiment have a better chance to succeed.

G Unnikrishnan