Friday, September 14, 2007

Take this job and shove it

So Rahul Dravid has resigned as Indian captain. For what its worth, I have mixed feelings about this decision. Dravid was not a spectacular captain but he was well-liked and respected in the team (says someone who has no idea what goes on in the dressing room!), and could be considered a reasonable talent at bridging the inevitable differences within any Indian team. He also presented a cultured, articulate face of Indian cricket to the rest of the world (which still has not recovered from the in-your-face attitude of Sourav Ganguly; when the history of this phase of world cricket will be written, psychological tracts detailing the hysterical response of the cricketing world to Ganguly should take pride of place). But clearly, Dravid the batsman was not doing so well. The hero of Adelaide, Headingley, Rawalpindi was struggling to put together long innings, and it was pretty clear he was not enjoying the attendant grief of having to answer to a billion dufuses like me. So, the search for a new Indian captain begins. It would give me great pleasure to see Ganguly back as captain against Pakistan and Australia (could there be a pair of teams that would be more riled up by Ganguly? I doubt it). But one must realistically acknowledge that there is very little chance of this happening (snowballs in hell come to mind). Having said that, its not clear who is ready to become Indian captain. I would suspect it would be Anil Kumble, who will almost certainly be in the team for both tours, is the most experienced, and possesses a good cricketing brain. There is little danger he will overbowl himself (indeed, he might give himself a little break!). I'm a little worried though, about the tongue-lashings he will hand out in public to the team-members for failing to cut off boundaries; I'm also worried about the effect this might have on his batting (er, thats a joke).

5 Comments:

Blogger Soulberry said...

It was a well thought out decision of Rahul's. He has looked ahead and taken a team-man-like decision. This is the time to groom the next captain while the big boys are around for a yer or so.

He'll never be forgotten as the captain who won overseas for us, and neither will he ever be forgotten for his deeds as a player.

8:36 AM  
Blogger Jrod said...

Dravid is probably the most technically correct batsmen I have ever watched. But the dude just doesnt like captaining. Its not his thing. Ganguly is the sort of guy who loves it, and while he is not a particualry good captain, at least he's good at pissing off the Australians.

It just isnt it Dravid's nature to lead. His nature is to bat, and he does it damn well.

3:03 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This it the right time to groom Dhoni and Yuvraj, and other youngsters like Karthik to see if anybody will fit the post. Better do this 'experiment' of making Dhoni as captian for sometime and the other players, when we have the experiance of Sachin, Sourav and Rahul to guide the youndsters in this department.
after the old horses leave for retirement, indian team should have a captain to rely upon.

3:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dravid has shocked the country by his decision. He was at the peak of his captaincy when he decided to call it quits.

The choice for new captain is tricky. I have 2 favourites for it -- Ganguly and Sehwag. Ganguly would make a great choice, no doubt, but if he s being made a skipper sounds rare.

Sehwag, being out of the team for a while seems a difficult choice, but he s been impressive in his short stints.

1:53 AM  
Blogger Samir Chopra said...

I think Dravid did what he had to do - in the ultimate analysis, Dravid as a batsman capable of batting four sessions is of more value to the Indian team than as a reluctant captain. (So, I agree with J Rod as well in this regard - I'm not sure Dravid was happy as captain, and I don't think he'd piss off the Australians as much!).

I don't know about making either Dhoni or Sehwag captain - Dhoni seems a bit too raw, and Sehwag needs to get back into the side first. I'm glad that someone (Vasu over at CI) has finally mentioned Kumble as an option - he seems the most logical choice to me. I can't see SRT or Ganguly becoming captain, but the selectors could still surprise me!

10:26 PM  

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