Dravid stands tall in world cricket

By John Cheeran
International Cricket Council's (ICC) Awards announced on Friday night in Mumbai should have bruised many egos in Indian cricket. Especially to those critics, who are sharpening their knives to stab Rahul Dravid's bat and back.
There are many Sourav Ganguly-cronies who point out what a poor captain Dravid makes. Now a specially appointed expert panel made up of Sunil Gavaskar, Ian Healy, Allan Donald, Waqar Younis and Arjuna Ranatunga has selected Dravid to lead the best Test team of 2006.
The point should be noted that ICC's Best Player of the Year and Best Test Player of the Year Ricky Ponting will play under Dravid.
Apparently, Ponting is irked at that honour going to Dravid.
It shows that the panel did not find Ponting's captaincy too praiseworthy since he essentially leads a better team -- six Australian players made the cut to be part of the Test 12.
Whereas as a captain, Dravid has a more challenging role since he is saddled with not so efficient set of players.
It is no wonder then that Dravid is the lone Indian in the best Test team.
Not even Sachin Tendulkar finds a place and not to mention of Virender Sehwag.
It also reveals the lack of class in the Indian team and in a broader sense the lack of talent in India.
Dravid put his achievement in perspective during the award night. "It feels great to be back here, accepting an ICC Award," Dravid said. "It's the second time I have got into this team and it is a huge honour and privilege. I think to lead this time would be a pretty easy job - you would just have to throw the ball to someone and they would do the rest.
"We had some very good results for a while," Dravid said of India's achievements in the past 12 months, "and we have stumbled since then a little so the upcoming tour to South Africa will be a great opportunity to get things back on track. I am a little disappointed that we are not in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy - it would be great to be feeling nervous ahead of that final on Sunday."
World Test Team of the Year 2006 (in batting order):
1 Matthew Hayden (Australia), 2 Michael Hussey (Australia), 3 Ricky Ponting (Australia), 4 Rahul Dravid (India, capt), 5 Mohammad Yousuf (Pakistan), 6 Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka, wk), 7 Andrew Flintoff (England), 8 Shane Warne (Australia), 9 Makhaya Ntini (South Africa), 10 Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka), 11 Glenn McGrath (Australia), 12 Brett Lee (Australia)