It is not that hard to drop the seniors ... err, make that 'Drop Dravid'

Oct 27th, 2007

Sriram Ranganathan

Comments (18)

Listed under:

India, Domestic Cricket, ODI, Players, Test Cricket

I knew that when it came down to it, showing Dravid the door would be a hundred times easier than doing it to either of the other two golden oldies, Tendulkar and Ganguly. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and Dravid is out at least for the first two ODIs against Pakistan. While the experts in the media and the ex-players will portray their shock at "the treatment meted out to such a great player" and comments will appear everywhere about "giving respect to our heroes", this time neither will there be mass hysteria in the public nor will parliament face a disruption.

In one way, I like the decision to drop Dravid, not because I think he suddenly sucks, but because someone who is not in form has to go to domestic cricket and get back his form, not wait endlessly in international cricket to do it. That is true for all players but only for some is it practically possible to implement. If one were to ask SRT, for example, to get back his form in domestic cricket, the self professed savior of Indian cricket SMG, for one, would have a fit, and the other ex-greats and all our fellow countrymen would be no far behind. For some reason, everyone considers being sent back to domestic cricket, even if briefly, to be the biggest insult ever faced by a sportsman; no one seems to look at it as a chance for a player to iron out the chinks; to even consider that the player had a chink in the first place is an insult in India.

Maybe this feeling reflects the opinion everyone has to our domestic cricket system; maybe it is the status symbolism we in India associate with anything and everything. Domestic cricket is low level; international cricket is high level; once you have crossed the level, to play domestic cricket again would be degrading. After all, among all the players firmly established in the Indian team, how many of them would even bother to turn up for their domestic side, and I don't mean for a one-off show, even if the BCCI schedule permitted it?

Dravid has definitely been below standard in the past few games, and it is not long back in England that he played a blinder of an innings of 90 odd runs. He is by no means finished, but this break might help him focus better. In the past couple of months, while he has not had too much of active cricket, on the mental side, he probably would have gone through much more than many of the other players in the side. His decision to give up the captaincy, in my opinion backing away from a scrap, would weigh on him and whatever were his reasons to give up the captaincy, won't just disappear the day he announces the decision. Human nature is not like that. Reflecting on things, wondering if he did right, thinking about what could have been done differently, feelings of bitterness, all of this would be in good measure among his thoughts and even if Rahul Dravid did not have an average of 10 in his last few innings, I would still think a break would do him good.

If only we could reflect this kind of action, that of actually dropping the superstars, to all members of the team! My readers would probably be wondering if this is an indirect attack on SRT and Ganguly but really, it isn't. As long as the players make runs and India wins, they can play till they become 65 years old, for all I care; it is just the knowledge that the ease with which Dravid has been eased out cannot be duplicated with the other superstars even if they perform terribly, and that is sad.

The funny part is that for Dravid, or any other big name player for that matter, to make a comeback into the team, they don't even have to play a game or lift a bat to show that they are in touch. If India loses the next ODI or two, there will be cries all over the cricketing circles to bring back the seniors "to lead stability to the team". It is not about whether the dropped player is getting back in touch; it is about whether the team without the dropped player wins the next match. As an example, Sehwag is back in the team but if you look at the records, he really hasn't done anything to justify a recall since he went out. You are never going to go too far with that kind of thinking.

Anyways, with Akhtar and Asif leading the Pakistan attack, the Indian bats will have their hands full, and may luck be with them.

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Reader Comments

1. The omission of Dravid and Ganguly is going to create a great lose of the indian side in this series, Selectors not only insulted Dravid and ganguly, also they let India in to trouble with all in experienced players.

I think selectors forgot that Ganguly was the man of the series in recent series against Pak, there is no way the selectors can justify the omission of the two top heroes of Indian cricket.

Indian team is going to be smashed heavily with high experienced Aussies and Lankan players in this series