“Hey man, why did your friend quit?”
I was in the middle of a very intense, day long seminar, cell phone on silent mode - totally shut off from the outside world.
My cell phone read 33 missed calls! Suddenly I felt like I am the most wanted person around! My imagination started running wild, trying to figure, why all the press reporters, were trying to reach me.
I put my curiosity to an end, finally when I decided to answer my phone call during my Bio- Break – I just couldn’t allow one more call to land itself in the missed call list!
This million dollar question was posed to me
The Rahul - I know
Rahul has always been a very intense person. He put his heart and soul to whatever he did and this was very evident, right from when we had just started playing for our state during our under-15 days. He is the best student of the game that I have come across in all my 20 years of playing cricket. He literally eats, sleeps & breathes cricket and is always totally immersed in his thoughts of this game - mostly his batting! He enjoyed his batting the most and it was the only thing that mattered most to him.
Rahul as a Batsman
All my experience with playing with him has been mostly as his Captain, and in the manner in which he handled his batting, right from the practice sessions to the actual game itself, I could tell that he wanted to be the best batsman, in that particular match or in the tournament (if not both) that we were playing in. He once remained with his batting gear on, sitting in the dressing room with both hands on his head even after over 2 hours of him getting out. This was when he was hardly 17 years of age! Such was his passion for his batting!!
Rahul as a Captain
Rahul has proved his leadership abilities in his own quiet way! He was a solid captain – always having planned and prepared in every aspect of the match. He also showed at stages that he can be aggressive, which was generally against his normal way of being. He set a great example of total commitment, discipline and unwavering focus for his entire team to follow — He recently lead his team to a Test Series win against England on their soil, after 21 long years. No mean achievement that!!!
Captaincy Vs Batting
Rahul gave it all that he had, to lead his side to the best of his ability for 2 years now. He didn’t have the luxury of a coach even and that doubled the pressure and responsibility that was already on his shoulder. Like Chappell said “When you do that in a country like ours where there are a billion followers and who believe that they are all qualified to think and feel that they can do a better job, if not as well as he did, it can wear you down mentally sooner than later”
Captaincy did start affecting his batting and his dream was to be the best batsman in the world. No wonder he chose batting over captaincy!
He is a man of great integrity and the minute he realized that he could not do justice to his job or to his satisfaction and in the manner that will serve his country well, he had no two minds in giving it up. In this Cricket crazy nation, it requires a great deal of courage & character to be able to relinquish this most sought after role!
Hats off to you for that, my friend! I agree with Ian Chappell who said “you might not be remembered as the best ever Indian Captain, but you will be recalled as the one who left the job with great dignity.”!!!
I couldnt have agreed to Ian Chappell’s words…Its true for all in whatever profession they are….
Rahul as a Team-man :
“Rahul is a person who will walk on the broken glasses if his team ask him to…”
It is evident that when team required him as a batsman he never let India down (Mr Dependable).When India needed a keeper he did not hasitate. He never thought that it might adversly affect his batting. I as a cricket player know how difficult for a non-regular keeper to mainain international standards in keeping,for full exhaustive 50 overs…
and then come and bat to maintain high standards of the class of player like Rahul dravid.
For me Rahul is a PHENOMENON.
“Rahul is not a person he is cricket……….Personified”
Come on guys we all know d fact that Rahul was not able to match the standards set by DADA as a captain and i cant agree wit d assumption of Mr.Sujith that Rahul was a good Captain. Though i have the utmost respect for Rahul as a Batsman, his decision making and Man Management Skills were not great.
no doubt dada was better than dravid…
but i do miss… THE WALL’s captaincy
He is not struggling mentally… Thats y he quit… and also he wanted to give a chance to our young cricketers
I think the Politics inside the BCCI has forced him to take this decision. According to me this is not going to help neither Indian cricket nor Rahul Dravid.If Rahul does not perform well in onedayers he might loose his place from the team.No doubt he is one of the best batsman India has produced ,and not the worst of the captains either…
No doubt Rahul is a good batsman.As a captain he knows that he is not mentally strong in handling the pressure situation .He wants our indian team to get on the top what ever may be the situation.
so thats y he quit and allows somebody to lead our indian cricket team .
misisin ur captaincy.. but nice 2 c the young lads come home with T20 cup.. dhoni is fittin good in rahul’s shoes!!
rahul is a great batsman that indian cricket has produced…….
his batting is unique …… but he lacks leadership …..
hence his leaving was a good thing ……….
He is a gentleman He felt it was right time to hand over the captaincy to the young rising stars who have the potential to move on the team well…
Rahul Dravid took a very tough but a reasonable decision because the pressure levied upon him as India lost in the world cup to an underrated team was probably too much for him to handle.I think for the betterment of Indian cricket, BCCI shud have given Sourav Ganguly another oppurtunity.
Rahul is a good player. He proved to be a great sportsman, by giving chance to upcoming talents…
hi,
rahul dravid a consistent player bt not a captain with consistency.i feel, he is not a person with a very great leadership skills. though he might hav won the test series in both england and westindies after a long period the world cup debacle tells a lot. i felt his decision making was poor. just imagine how could he give harbajan his full quota of 10 overs vs srilanka in the world cup when he was not able to take even a single wicket. in fact he gave away 51 runs which was not expected. neither was he aggresive like ganguly to get things done. ofcourse he was also never a bad captain nor the better.
Rahul’s captaincy is not worst than any other captains…… The matter is whether the players are playing or not…. But his quitting as a captain will reduce some pressure and he can concentrate in his batting….. That’s the positive thing…
Having played with him, I respect your views.But, as the normal cricket follower sees it,he “quit” when it was required of him to hand hold one of the nominated youngsters.And a selfish reason to boot..”concentrate on batting”…now he is neither here nor there…Unlike Sourav who accepted the reins at the most critical juncture in Indian cricket…the “match-fixing” saga had hit Indian cricket and would have been the most difficult decision for anyone to take..Dada took it with gumption.
And Rahul is and will be one of India’s finest batsman…but,will he be remembered as some one who took Indian cricket across the shores successfully..I doubt. Will he be remembered as someone who identified talent and nurtured them…No…would he have done it, if he were to have continued longer in his role as captain…will be pure conjecture..but his backing of the wrong horse in Sehwag, shows his inability to pick the right people at the right time….
Dada…ROCKS !!!! Dravid… Well… Ian Chappell can hold his views..obviously he has to stand by what his “middle” brother has fed him on
He quit captaincy because he realised he wasn’t fit enough . He is now failing in even getting runs .. he doesnt bowl , nor does he show superb fielding skills.. its time for him to quit ..
hay hayyyyyyyyyyyy
I just wanna say its his time to retire from ODI
He should play Test he is made for it
His days are over….He was A great Batsman and He is buttttttttt
Its time to retire with honour from ODI
else he will be thrown out as next DADA (Ganguly)
I am not harsh on the fans or I dont have any enmity with Rahul
But He needs to understand this…??????
If he takes the place and sit there like a rock
How can young Talents flourish,
I surely think like everything else cricket do have a age to retire
And Rahul should also……frm ODI
I think you all know this
Rahul scored good runs in 166 matches
But all those INDIA lost
As a Captain he did his Best
But India now needs NEW BLOOD
enough of the old guys
They have done so much for their country
But now they should give chance to others
Ganesh Sidharth K wrote:
Ganesh Sidharth K wrote:
i think he doesnt have command over thesenior players and more over he is not as aggressive as the previous captains..
It would be a better decession if yuvraj is made as the captian because i think even dhoni is not as aggresive as yuv.The most important quality a captian should have is command on the team members.
super stuff!