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THE resignation of Rahul Dravid as India’s cricket captain comes as no surprise.
The burden of the modern-day captain has increased tremendously with the enormous number of matches which are being played.
Being captain of a cricket-mad country like India is a very difficult proposition.
The spotlight is always on the skipper and the contrasting attitudes towards victories and defeats add to the pressure.
When everything goes well, Indian fans are known to go berserk with joy. Accolades and gifts are showered on the captain and team.
But when the team does badly, the reaction is exactly the opposite. Often not only the captain but his family faces danger. Angry fans usually resort to abuse and stone-throwing at the residences of the players with the captain the obvious target.
An even bigger threat was the Indian media which is now treating cricket as the biggest thing there is. The print and electronic media have pushed other important things to the corner and are concentrating more on cricket.
Cricket has become lead worthy and more often than not unqualified reporters or anchors have been coming up with stuff which would make any cricket lover cringe.
The private lives of players have been laid bare and cricketing abilities rarely highlighted. Sensationalism has become the order of the day.
Dravid faced both these facets recently after the early World Cup exit and the exciting series victory against England.
Dravid has done the sensible thing by quitting while the going was still good. He redeemed himself with the win against England after the World Cup disaster.
By deciding to concentrate on his batting, Dravid will serve India better. His form has plummeted recently and a batsman with an average in the high 50s is struggling with one in the mid-20s.
Though, Dravid will not be remembered as one of the best Indian captains, he will definitely be rated as one of the more efficient ones. More solid than aggressive by nature, Dravid was more sensible in his approach than adventurous.
At times, he did show aggression but it was not easy in the set-up he was given. It is difficult to manage a team which boasts many superstars and one extraordinary player like Sachin Tendulkar.
The Indian team is not known to be united and the underlying tensions are always felt when some of the players think they are above the game.
Dravid also took over at a time when there was acrimony in the Indian camp. He had replaced Saurav Ganguly, who was a hero of sorts for the Indian fans.
Many of the cricketing fraternity and fans were not happy with the unceremonious dumping of Ganguly and this made Dravid’s job even more difficult.
Still, Dravid was one of the great ambassadors for his country and he carried himself with great dignity. He was always respected not only for his records but also for his gentlemanly behaviour.
India will need to groom a younger captain as a long-term option.
Among the younger men, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh are the main contenders. Dhoni is already captaining India in the Twenty20 World Cup and must be the front-runner for the job.
Dhoni is a sensible player who has all the qualities to make a good captain. Yuvraj, unfortunately, cannot find a place in the Test team which is really sad considering the abilities he possesses.
Yuvraj is an aggressive character who is very knowledgeable about the game. If he gets a good run in Test cricket, he could get himself into contention. But he will have to wait till some of the veterans call it quits.
Dhoni, however, will be burdened with the wicketkeeping too which will make his job difficult. He could opt to give up the keeping to Dinesh Karthik if he does become captain.
In the short-term India could split the Test and one-day captaincy by offering Dhoni the latter.
But it would be more sensible to go for one captain for both forms and in the future.
That will not be easy given the underlying politics which grips Indian cricket. Hopefully the big bosses who run the game will think about cricket and not the factors which keep them in their posts.
By Babu Kalyanpur
babu.kallianpur@tradearabia.net
