Eleven days that stirred Indian cricket

By John Cheeran
Eleven one-day matches do not make a captain. If anyone knows this, that would be Rahul Dravid who has declared his manifesto for Indian cricket’s future in tandem with coach Greg Chappell.
Dravid was no stranger to captaincy even in the Ganguly era. Dravid had handled Indian team in the past when Sourav Ganguly chickened out against Australia in Nagpur and in Mumbai. And it was Dravid who led India to their first ever Test triumph in Pakistan by winning the Multan Test. It was entirely a different matter that someone who was nursing his bruised ego in Calcutta rushed to Pakistan to be part of the photo opportunity in the Test series win.
In the last two one-day series, Dravid led India with authority and by personal example. Eight wins and three losses in eleven matches surely is a short term record a captain can take pride of.
Ganguly’s USP as a captain was his arrogance. Many in the media promoted the theory that it was Ganguly’s arrogance that won India the matches though those wins were scripted by VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and Rahul Dravid’s priceless efforts.
Dravid’s sensible leadership has brought a seminal shift in Indian cricket. He has brought dignity to the office of the captain and punctured the balloon of arrogance to let the hot air drift towards the East. He has proved that to win you don’t have to be crude and rude; only play at your best.
Dravid is aware that being the Indian captain he is his nation’s prime sporting ambassador. Gone are Ganguly’s delaying tactics while fielding. Throughout the series against Sri Lanka and South Africa, Dravid has not given much work for match referees to fine either him or his colleagues.
Even to the nastiest of rivals, South Africans, Dravid was civil. He was honest and candid to admit in Mumbai that his side was able to learn quite a few things playing against South Africans. Despite the two defeats handed out by the Safs, Dravid said the skipper Graeme Smith lived up to the tag of South Africa’s best sporting ambassador.
And among other things the way Dravid supported Yuvraj Singh as he was struggling against Sri Lanka has been noteworthy. Now Yuvraj has emerged as the rescue man of Indian middle order. Dravid has been selfless in going down the order as India’s floating policy gave rest of the players a chance to prove their worth.
He kept his faith in bowlers; inspired the level of fielding to new heights and when chips were down went out to pluck those runs to keep India afloat.
As Dravid said in Mumbai after that stirring series-levelling win against the Safs, Team India is far from finished.