The Wall – build or break?

As India looks forward to (at least the next 4 matches) Rahul Dravid’s captaincy, is he the right man for India’s captaincy? We will look from the batsmen end (Anna Pavilion End) and the non strikers end (V Pattabhiraman Gate End).


Offense:

For all his good looks and smartness Rahul Dravid is not exactly a teenager or a youngster as he would like us to believe. He is past 30 & pushing towards 40..okay okay….he is 32…what the heck…he is still pushing towards 40! ;-) At 32, how many years of active, good cricket does he have in him before he becomes a baggage and is kicked out? 2, 3, 4…max 5? For the sake of argument let us assume 4 years. So, in the best case scenario (Dravid plays well, India keeps winning, no one throws stone at Dravid’s house) we are looking at maximum 4 years of Dravid’s captaincy. Is that enough? Do we just plan for the next 4 years and go through this whole exercise after 4 years or after we have failed to reach the world cup final (whichever comes first)? (logic: if we don’t reach the world cup final, the blame is always on the captain, every tom, dick & tifoc will analyze every move of the captain & blame it on the captain)

But is age the only constraint against Dravid. Heck No. He is India’s current BEST batsmen. No arguments required. Does he need this additional pressure? Thank God, we have Dhoni now…but what happens if Dhoni runs into a lean patch & we have to play 7 batsmen, then Dravid also has to keep the wickets. So we have to rely on Dravid’s batting, keeping & captaincy to help India win. When did cricket become an Individual sport? ;-)

Arguments that Dravid is the most natural choice reminds me of how we appoint judges and army chiefs. After the old judge/chief retires, this is how the news about his successor always looks.

Mr Rathinder Thakur is 59 years and 7 months old. He will serve as the army chief/chief justice till he retries.

WHAT..is my maths correct, did I hear ir right? who are they trying to fool…this guy will retire in 5 months..why the hell should I (tax payer) pay money for this ceremony every 5 months? At 59.58 what can he do..? The argument is that he is most senior most person available..spent 35 years in the army has done this..that..okay all that’s fine. Mr Thakur did not work for free all these years that we need to do this for him. He did his duty, we paid him back. The position has great respect and we respected/will honor him.

The question is NOT what he has done. It is not an honorary post. What will he do now? Unfortunately we always think about the past glory & fairness to the individual rather than the main objective of the team/organization. In this case, had we selected an army chief/chief justice of 45-55, he/we would have achieved far more. Hare yaar…but then how will Thakur and his beloved family enjoy all the benefits that is awarded to the retired army chief/chief justice? :(

Have we been blind-sided in doing fairness to Rahul Dravid that we forgot the main objective (‘Indian WIN’)?

Do we need Dravid as a batsmen or a captain?

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a quick single taken...

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Defense:


Will appear tomorrow