Rahul Done-it

Yes, he done it. He stepped down. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. Except in this case, Humpty Dumpty was ‘the wall’ and of course, he didn’t fall. He stepped down.

I don’t watch cricket. I have little knowledge about the game which is a religion in the country. But I have an opinion, a pretty strong one in that, about the leadership issue. In my opinion, to begin with, Rahul Dravid wasn’t the suitable captain. I think it’s because of the kind of person that he is. He looks like the nice-boy-topper-in-class year after year, who does that ‘one’ thing predicably well – studies, batting and the like. You could argue that for the longest time he kept the wickets as well as batted and did both well. But then, that’s just two (not that it’s easy). Captaincy, however, is a different ball game altogether. It requires multi-tasking. Stress got the better of Dravid. He tried his best while he was at it but couldn’t take it anymore. Dravid also looks like the kind of person who needs to be right all the time and having a good image is very important to him. Such people take criticism personally. Captaincy, however, is a different ball game altogether:) You can’t let criticism get to you. Of late, the criticisms started coming Dravid's way. Especially the declaration decision at the test match last month. Things started getting difficult for him.

Dravid’s problem was that he played too safe, kept a distance from the team, didn’t bring a distinct ‘Dravid’ personality to the team. He finally ended up quitting. There’s no shame in that. To be fair to him, he was responsible for quite a few wins for Team India.

It is not easy being the skipper of a cricket team. Much harder being the skipper of a South Asian cricket team. Compound that for the Indian cricket team. There’s the BCCI, the team politics, the coach-captain relationship, the camps to contend with. The most difficult part however, is the mega expectations of the one-billion-one-hundred-twenty-nine-million-eight- hundred-sixty-six-thousand-one- hundred-and-fifty- four people with no other sport (except in the movies lately) taking even a fraction of the responsibility. Imagine the pressure! As if all this wasn’t enough, there’s the media .

Now, we have no captain. We also don’t have a coach. We may soon have no cricket. It’s like the 3 C’s of the game (Damn, the mba classes are getting to me!). I like Sourav Ganguly for captain. He has the most important quality required to be the Indian Cricket Team Captain. A super thick skin. He also has the resilience. He fell down, brushed off the dust, let the wound heal and got right back into action. He was very successful in his stint as captain. He led India in 49 Test Matches, winning 21 of those, including 12 of them outside India. All three figures are records for Indian Test captains. Despite the dip in his batting performance, he still has an average to be proud of (his average never dipped below 40 runs per innings for his entire Test career) and a number of centuries to his credit. He is an aggressive player. Get him back. In any case, there’s no one else. Sachin is no captain material, Dhoni too inexperienced, besides, it may damage his game, Yuvraj, I don’t know, Sehwag’s not predicable. I say once again, bring Sourav on. Expect him to lead well. Don’t expect him to play very well – that responsibility can be given to Sachin, Dravid, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Uttappa. The only problem is that, this cannot be a long-term plan. So what!