RAHUL DRAVID: batsman not a captain

What was most intriguing about Rahul Dravid’s decision to make himself unavailable for the India captaincy was not just the decision itself, but the timing of it.
It has come on the eve of what is possibly India’s toughest ever season of cricket - up ahead are series against Australia, Pakistan and South Africa. It can’t get tougher than this. Then again, it has come at a time when the Indian team finally seemed to have thrown off the bad memories of the Greg Chappell era and the shadow of the World Cup debacle. The one-day series in England had been lost but was a closely fought, enthralling contest; the Test series had seen a historic victory. Perhaps a combination of these two points resulted in the decision.

Who next? The run-up to the announcement of a new captain on September 18 will saw a fresh, frenzied debate. Sources said that if Tendulkar wants the job, he will get it. There is reason to believe that this time, if offered, he will accept. If he doesn’t, given the tough season ahead, India might look to the experience of Ganguly, ahead of a rookie skipper like Dhoni.

Dravid had been appointed skipper till the end of the England series and would have - as selection committee Chairman Dilip Vengsarkar said - “definitely continued if he hadn’t made this decision.” Possibly, he wanted to walk away on his own terms.
Now that the team has been brought together after being a house divided, and at a time when his invaluable services as a batsman adversely affected by captaincy - would be most needed, Dravid deemed it fit to step down.

He apparently told the BCCI brass that he couldn’t keep playing “two roles”, that of batsman and captain, successfully unless he did justice to and enjoyed both. Something he was finding increasingly difficult. .
Dravid had discussed this with board president Sharad Pawar once in England and then conveyed it to him formally here on Thursday.

The BCCI seems to have decided to accept Dravid’s decision; there is some talk of asking him to reconsider but for the most, there is a belief that it is a “personal choice that we respect.” India’s most prolific batsman of the last decade has cut a rather lonely, tense figure over the past two years, increasingly isolated by his natural reserve, the burdens of captaincy and perhaps an inability to properly communicate with his more flamboyant team-mates on several issues.

With T-20 cup in his hands, is Dhoni a right choice? For next few weeks, the hangover of South Africa might keep him there, on the top of it with Yuvraj and the history he made and the upcoming Australia’s tour of India will show whose decision was right?