Get Off "The Wall"

The Crumbling Wall, The Gaping Hole in the Wall, the Sycophant, Traitor, Toy-Captain, BCCI agent – These are all the names that are being used to describe Rahul Dravid in recent times. You can find these and many more abusive nicknames for Rahul on the Rediff forums where people, especially those hailing from the eastern corner of the country, take it upon themselves to blame Rahul for everything wrong about Indian cricket, and sometimes, about everything wrong about everything in the world.

As an ardent admirer of Rahul Dravid, both for his cricketing talent and his unerring composure and decency, it is appalling to read those abusive comments about our captain. But in a country where each and every one of the one billion plus population thinks he/she is then only authority on Indian cricket, it becomes impossible to please everyone. And just as true is the fact that it is the unhappy lot that makes the most noise, and therefore, it is this abusive section of our cricket fans that make their presence felt everywhere.

It is alleged that Rahul stabbed Saurav in the back by siding with Greg Chappell when Saurav was, not undeservingly, dropped from the team. Our Eastern countrymen very articulately remind the readers that it was Saurav who brought Rahul into the ODI team by making him the wicket-keeper during the 2002-2003 period. In return, they expected Rahul to also have backed Saurav during his time of crisis. When Rahul did not, all hell broke loose. Note that the words “all hell” and “Bengal” can be used interchangeably in this context.

However, these same people seem to forget that Saurav couldn’t have been half as good a skipper if he didn’t have the services of Rahul Dravid. Luckily for Saurav, his captaincy coincided with the best year of some of the stalwarts of the Indian team such as Sachin, Rahul and Laxman. Remember that epic series win over Australia in India, and then the drawn series away to Aussies? Take Rahul’s contribution out, and both those series would have been disastrous. It’s a pity that the same people who revered “The Wall” during Ganguly’s time at the helm have turned so completely against him just because he continued to play well while Saurav lost his form.

Rahul is also solely blamed for the bad performances of the rest of the team, and his ability to motivate players into performing are compared unfavorably to Saurav’s. Frankly, this is Professional International Cricket we are talking about, and not some “gully” cricket that a captain has to motivate and inspire the players to go out there and perform. If Sachin has aged and lost his reflexes, is Dravid to blame?

When Greg Chappell decided to expose Saurav’s “unprofessional behavior” to the BCCI, some people expected Rahul to intervene in Saurav’s support. But Rahul, typical to his character, didn’t. This is where the difference in the personalities of Rahul and Saurav need to be highlighted. Saurav was the proverbial “Maharaja”, a rebel who would make his own rules if he felt the existing ones were not right. Rahul, on the other hand, was the conventional middle-class youth who always played by the rules, and respected authority. Expectedly, Rahul decided not to intervene in the board’s decisions, especially when he knew, just like most non-fanatics, that Saurav’s performances had been abysmal for the past couple of years. Unfortunately, our Bengali brothers do not seem to be able to forgive him for that, and therefore, continue to lambaste Rahul whenever India loses. Interestingly, Rahul gets the blame not only if India plays bad, but also if Saurav plays well. It’s almost a case of “Guilty till proven innocent”.

Personally, I do think Saurav was a better captain than Rahul or Sachin, but his personal form had declined to a point where he was a liability to the team. And it is for this reason that Saurav deserved to be dropped from the team. Now that he is back and also performing decently, there is no reason for anyone to continue harboring ill-feelings towards Rahul for taking over the captaincy from Saurav. The fact remains that the period from 2000 to 2003 was the best period of Indian cricket because all the players were at their peak, and the current team is still some way off that mark. But to blame any one player for that is not just unfair, but plain stupid.

And as a closing shot to all those Ganguly fans who claim that Rahul owes Saurav his career, I think, on the contrary, Saurav owes Rahul all his successes as a captain. And in that same vein, I think it is time now for Saurav to repay the favor by actually starting to help India win some matches under Rahul Dravid.

After all, even “The Wall” could use some reinforcements.