Indian trinity at the crossroads

Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman may have failed in Australia, but that's no reason to scoff at the legends, writes Suresh Menon in the weekly magazine Outlook.

Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman have an influence well beyond runs made and victories achieved.

For one, it is entirely possible that Indian cricket itself might have taken a long time to recover from the match-fixing allegations a decade ago. Skipper Mohammed Azharuddin confessed to having manipulated results and without the obvious integrity of men like Dravid and Laxman, and those who have retired like Ganguly, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad, the game might have been destroyed.

Significantly, these batsmen brought to the game an Indianness, the inherited technique and uniqueness of a nation that is sometimes reduced to the cliche, ‘oriental magic’.