Mid Day

• Karnataka coach Bharadwaj believes ex-India skipper will prove his point to Vengsarkar and Co in season’s first Ranji game against the defending champions at the Wankhede Stadium starting this Saturday

Bangalore, Oct 30: Looking at it from the Mumbai Ranji Trophy team’s perspective, dropping Rahul Dravid may not be such a good idea.

Amol Muzumdar and Co can be excused to think that they will be made to pay for the decision of their vice-president Dilip Vengsarkar-led national selection committee.

Dravid will be smarting from the humiliation of being dropped and what better place to make a statement than the home turf of the chairman of the selection committee.

As luck would have it, Dravid’s first match after his unceremonious sacking will be against Mumbai at the Wankhede Stadium from November 3.

Not justified

Karnataka Ranji team coach Vijay Bharadwaj feels Dravid has been wronged and he will prove it on the ground.

“The chairman (of selection committee) might be there (for the match), but I don’t think Dravid will care for it much,” said the 32-year-old Bharadwaj.

Bharadwaj is not convinced about the judgment in Dravid’s decision. “That there is no communication from the officials to Dravid shows that something is wrong.”

Few players know Dravid as well as Bharadwaj who played three Test and 10 ODIs for India. They go back a long way; their association dates back to the time when they started cricket together in the under-15 Karnataka team before graduating to the senior state team.

“We played together for 17-18 years. He’s handling it (the setback) well. He has accepted it as a part of life, a temporary thing. He says ‘accept what it is and get on with it… come back in such a way that nobody will be able to ignore you’,” said Bharadwaj, who is in regular touch with Dravid.

“He was worried a bit two days back, but he has gotten over it. He practiced with us today and looked good. His state of mind is improving now,” he added.

Overcome the dejection

The observation about his state of mind is important. His former Ranji teammate said: “Once he gets his state of mind right, there is no stopping him.

He knows how to handle pressure, he’s been in this kind of a situation before. When he will bat (vs Mumbai) he won’t be thinking about anything about the distractions of selections.”

As an example Bharadwaj reminded about Dravid’s comeback when he was dropped from the one-day side in 1997-98. “His detractors were questioning his one-day record then and when he got one chance, he showed them.

He knew his limitations, but he was not ready to give up, that is what I like about him — his perseverance. He took his consistence level to on par with the world’s best batsmen and improved his strike rate.”

“There is no replacement for Dravid, there is lot of cricket left in him and he will prove it.”

Ironically, the Mumbai game is Bharadwaj’s first-class debut game as coach too.

“When players like Rahul and Anil Kumble are playing, there’s nothing like it. It makes the job easier for me.”

Amre ready

Mumbai Ranji coach Praveen Amre chose to look at the challenge positively. “It’s good for domestic cricket to have players like Dravid and Anil Kumble playing, it will be a good experience for the youngsters.

Dravid’s will be the prized wicket for sure but we don’t look at the names in the opposition line-up, we always think about taking all 20 wickets.”

The Politics of Selection in Indian Cricket
 
By Anand Philar / Sify

October 30, 2007 
 
The case of Rahul Dravid is getting curiouser by the day. Indeed, his being“rested” (an euphemism for dropped and a word that is found only in BCCI dictionary) has triggered an outrage in the cricketing circles, but being the sort of man he is, such protest will never snowball into a roaring controversy like we saw in the case of Sourav Ganguly two seasons ago. After all, nice guys are always expendable and easy option when you want to make an example of somebody.

It is no secret that the genesis of Dravid’s unceremonious ouster lie in the differences between the former captain and chairman of national selection committee , Dilip Vengsarkar, who prefers to air his views on selection matters publicly rather than convey his feelings to players directly.

His outburst when asked whether Dravid was shown the courtesy of being informed of his exclusion (“Why should I call him when he didn’t inform me of his decision to quit captaincy?”) only smacks of vindictiveness and a deep-rooted personality clash between the two.

Vengsarkar, being in authority, should not have resorted to petty “tit-for-tat”. Rather, we expect certain grace, style and decorum from chairman of the selectors. By descending to such levels, Vengsarkar has only cut the nose to spite the face.

It is obvious then ,as it has always been, that politics rule Indian cricket and not always “form, fitness, fielding and merit” as Vengsarkar likes us to believe. Having said that, Dravid, perhaps, has paid dearly for being compliant to Greg Chappell who literally gunned down Ganguly two seasons ago. The “Prince of Kolkatta” was first “rested” for a couple of games and then promptly thrown to the wolves.

It was said that Dravid did not so much as lift a little finger to support Ganguly, unlike when he openly campaigned for retention of Sehwag immediately after. And now, Dravid himself finds himself out in the cold and none even daring to provide him any shelter. He might yet be brought back during the forthcoming Pakistan series, but the damage has been done and we can now see the daggers out in the open.

I have known Dravid since he was a schoolboy cricketer visiting my erstwhile office in Bangalore along with his father with the scoresheets. Over the years, he has grown into a mature person, suave, dignified and upright. However, as a captain, I am not sure whether he could be considered as a “leader” if one were to go by the odd snippet that emanated from the dressing room. Some saw him as a pliable captain during Chappell’s turbulent days as a coach when the Aussie went after Ganguly, leaking so-called confidential reports and even text messaging select journalists.

During those dark days, Dravid did not once openly canvass for Ganguly’s return. When Dada did come back into the Indian team and also began to perform, one could well imagine the scenario in the dressing room. There have been divisions in the team along personality lines. However vehement the denials may be, I refuse to believe otherwise. Back in the 1980s, I was a witness to the off-the-field battles between Gavaskar and Kapil Dev. The team then was divided. Go back in history, and you will find plenty of instances of divided teams when personality rather than cricketing merit dictated selection. It is much the same now.

As for Dravid, he might not have been the best of captains India has produced, but surely, he is the last word on commitment to team. After all, he carried the bag for Ganguly a few seasons ago when he opened the innings in both Tests and ODIs, besides keeping wickets. There was no murmur of dissent from the Bangalorean as he repeatedly stated that team interest was the over-riding factor rather than self. Earlier this summer, he was hailed for his Test series win in England and a match-winning 92 not out in the Bristol ODI. Dravid appeared to be at the peak of his prowess.

Yet, he decided to step down. His explanation of wanting to “concentrate” on his batting, the “shelf life” of Indian captain, etc., was just a smokescreen. For somebody who has scored so heavily in both forms of the game, the talk about “concentrating” on batting was only a cover for a deeper issue that involved Vengsarkar. But then, Indian cricket being what it is, we will never get to know the reasons unless one of them or both decide to talk about it.

Nevertheless, barring Dravid’s sacking, the team for the two ODIs against Pakistan contains no surprise, though it is a mystery as to why succession of selection committee want to announce the team even before a tournament, ostensibly a trial for the National team, concludes. In the present instance, the team was announced midway through the Challenger tournament. Had they waited for another 48 hours, I am sure, Dinesh Karthik would have been selected ahead of Sehwag who has done precious little to warrant selection.

It is to be hoped that sanity would return to the selection committee and that the senior players are treated with more respect instead of as expendable objects or victimised for reasons other than cricket. However, that would be wishful thinking, considering the track record of Indian cricket.