Did "someone" crack "The Wall"
By Murli

When the Berlin Wall crashed, the world rejoiced. When Indian Cricket’s Wall fell, Bangalore cried. The mourning over local hero, Rahul Dravid’s omission from the Indian team, may not be public. But the hurt is evident enough. Perhaps because Bangalore is not Kolkata or Mumbai. At the time when Ganguly was sacked, Kolkata was up in arms, till “justice” was restored. Mumbai awaits its Apocalypse Day when its favorite son is disowned by the selectors. The reaction, you can be sure, will match Kolkata’s passion.

But in Bangalore, we are like this only, part of ‘swalpa adjust madkoli’ culture. So we suffer in silence, waiting for divine intervention or destiny to do justice. Like Rahul, who’s a well known expert in suffering silently. No email leaks. No media plants. No show of public anger. Just a gentleman. In a gentleman’s game, where there are virtually none.

Why did the Wall crack? Because it showed up a few glitches in the last 8-odd innings. Bad enough. Especially when the queue of wannabe young Turks outside Team India is lengthening, every game. Be that as it may, why did what happened, happened? Like a bolt from the blue, Dravid resigned as the captain, and then, rather mysteriously, the runs dried up. Does it sound suspicious? Yes. But the apparent reason – that he was not being a team player – is too ridiculous, even for his worst enemies to throw at him. The real reason could be something more subtle, more psychological, and complicated. Surely, there is more to his resignation than meets the eye. Selection committee boss Dilip Vengsarkar was openly upset at Dravid’s sudden and inexplicable throwing in the towel. It enraged him that Dravid did not consult him before taking this decision. Maybe he should have worried more about what made Dravid to decide, rather than fret about not taking him into confidence about it.

The day after Dravid resigned, his cricketing life suddenly took a turn for the worse. He seemed listless, disinterested, not wanted, and appeared as if he was going through the motions. This much was apparent to any casual eye watching the matches on TV. The question is: Why did Dravid appear so? A character who has assiduously built up a reputation for being a team player, for whom the team comes first before anything else, looked as if the team did not want him, did not consult him, did not seem interested in him. So where should we be looking for the answers – at Rahul Dravid, or the new Indian team led by Dhoni?

Here is a player of whom Navjot Sidhu once said, that he (Dravid) would if need be, walk on broken glass, if the team needed him to. A player who has never played for averages, for himself. For whom the interests of the team was supreme, above all else. And the moment when he is not captain, this is the treatment meted out to him?

No one knows what crime he has committed – apart from the prolonged slump in form. But the issue here, is not whether it was right or wrong for the selectors to drop Dravid, but why did he seem aloof in the period before he was sacked, and when, precisely, when he was not getting the runs. During this time, he batted almost at a different position in every match. Which other established player is ready to bat as a floater? Especially, when everyone knows that Dravid’s ideally suited for the No. 3 slot. Why was his slot changed?

The present Indian team for ODIs has a lot of slam bang hitters, and so it is true that finding a slot for Dravid is a genuine headache for any captain. Which makes all the more sense for Dravid to be given the slot (No. 3) where he has performed best. Dravid’s style of batting may not be easy on the eye, but the runs he scores more often than not, make the difference between winning and losing.

The irony of it all is, Dravid’s replacement, Virender Sehwag, was the former’s much preferred choice when he was captain. When Sehwag had a prolonged slump of loss, Dravid stuck his neck out for him, backing him to the hilt. And now he has the mortification of seeing his favorite son taking his place, despite not being in the pinkest of form!