Dravid is at war with himself
Sriram Veera
25-Feb-2013
AFP
"How Rahul Dravid managed to lead and keep his head above water is probably one of the best instances of man management ever exhibited in the history of the game," writes Rajan Bala in the Week.
Before he became captain, I had asked him how badly he wanted it. He told me: "Let it be clear I have not told you. But I want it very badly. Then the kingmaker is in Kolkata." This was a reference to Jagmohan Dalmiya. Now the kingmaker is in Mumbai and that, too, a government bigwig. He wants Tendulkar as captain. And so does the chairman of the selection committee. So Rahul decided he had better go as it would not take much to relieve him of the responsibility. That he had a relatively poor run of scores in England enabled him to trot out the excuse that he needs to concentrate on his batting.
Ask him and he would tell you off the record that he was feeling hemmed in. He was never able to assert himself and would have had a tough time fitting V.V.S. Laxman into the Test playing eleven against the claims of Yuvraj Singh. The fact is Laxman always deserved to bat higher than Ganguly, but that was quite impossible for Rahul to ensure. No specialist batsman likes to regularly partner the tail and thank heavens there was Dhoni at number seven to make it worthwhile.
Sriram Veera is a former staff writer at ESPNcricinfo