There are a lot of people who think what happens in the dressing room ought to stay in the dressing room. In most cases, I would agree with the same but the strange case of the captain who resigned when at the top suggests to me that it might be better to change the rules a bit here.

For my point to be valid we have to assume the correctness of the following statement: Rahul Dravid's comment about resigning the captaincy to concentrate on his batting is rubbish. It might be partially true because definitely in the Test series against South Africa and England, his scores were far from his usual high standards. However, it cannot be the complete reason because otherwise, we would have to think of Dravid as a fickle-minded wimp, which to me seems far off from the mark.

Dravid has seen the top job from close quarters, being deputy to Ganguly for a long time and couldn't have been totally unaware of the pressures that come with the job. He saw Ganguly turn from 'God of the off side' to someone who wouldn't even have selected himself in the playing eleven if his life depended on the result; I for one attribute that to his considering the captaincy to be his main job rather than batting.

When Rahul Dravid took up the job, he knew the pitfalls that come with the job and yet, he took it willingly. I have always assumed Dravid to be a sincere, hard working and organised person and the thought that he would have taken the job at a whim or fancy is ridiculous. No, that was definitely a well thought out decision!

And yet, two years later he doesn't enjoy the job and wants to concentrate on his batting! Definitely Dravid batting with full concentration and poise against Australia and Pakistan would be a plus, but to link his good performance with the bat with resigning as captain would be an injustice to his abilities. More batting practice can be done without resigning captaincy; Ricky Ponting does a decent job of mixing batting practice with his captaincy related duties and going by the performance. So does Mahela Jayawardhane. Whether Dravid was a good captain or not is a different matter; he seemed capable of handling both jobs when he took over, and today he thinks differently; India should know why!

India should know why because Dravid will not be the last captain of this team, and Dravid's failure (and what else could it be called) should lead to learning of lessons and changing of mindsets in Indian cricket.

If Dravid really considers the reasons to be his own personal weakness to handle situations, then silence might be forgiven. However, if the reasons are such that would affect the new captain and the one who succeeds him, he must speak.

The reasons could be many; The famous 'seniors' could have undermined his authority in ways a decent man could not retaliate against leaving resignation to be the only honorable way out; The BCCI could have been non-cooperative; The selectors could have ignored his needs; The media might have been piling it on and one day it all became too much.

It could be any of the following or it might be something else; India needs to know because in India, public opinion plays heavily on how the BCCI functions and what players get selected etc. If there are trouble-makers, they will continue to brew trouble unless they are kicked out and public opinion could make that happen; Of course, the BCCI won't kick itself on the backside if Dravid's problem is the BCCI itself but making his feelings public would at least lead to a BCCI who would be wary of a public backlash. Hey, if it is the media, who everyone loves to blame, then let it come as a solemn reminder for the fourth estate that they are playing with a nation's hopes here. Let more people switch off their NDTVs and CNN-IBN Live's; That would be a lesson but for that the people need to know.

Why should Dravid kill himself over this? He will probably play for a couple more years and then we could read his auto-biography to learn the juicy details. Also, why should we rub the BCCI the wrong way by possibly saying something they won't like?

I get reminded of a dialogue that people I know in the software field often have; It might be the same for other disciplines but will not commit to that. The dialogue generally happens when an employee resigns. After days / months / years of grumbling over this, that and the other, finally the golden day comes when he resigns his position and gets to meet the all important HR. At that opportune moment, to the question of why he wants to resign, the person would sagely say "I want to be closer to my parents in Coimbatore" or "The new job offers me greater responsibility". He doesn't say the reason he has been muttering for the past year to all and sundry at the coffee corner "I am leaving because my manager is an ass" or "I am leaving because your salary stinks."

Leave that person but with his sorry ex-colleagues who must still wait for their golden day left muttering "Kuch bolta to shayad apne ko kuch faayda hota" (if you had said the reason, maybe we who are still here, would have benefited in some small way).

Whatever happens in the dressing room stays in the dressing room; Except when what happens is treachery and low handed trickery. Then he who lets it be in the dressing room lets down the dressing room.

Rahul Dravid will not lose anything by not mentioning his problems. He will probably have a great series in Pakistan and Australia and be acclaimed by one and all. But if he speaks, "shaayad naye kaptaan ko kuch faayda hota" (maybe the new captain would benefit). As for the BCCI giving him problems for shooting off his mouth, is he really dependent on the BCCI for his living? Not at this stage of his career definitely! He could retire tomorrow and still lead a very comfortable life with a great job in the electronic media. It is just about whether he really wants to; whether he considers it his responsibility!