Dravid takes guard

For Rahul Dravid, one of the most selfless and hard-working players of his generation, being named India captain is a just reward. But in taking this important step forward, the selectors continue to display traces of diffidence and uncertainty that cannot do the game much good. Dravid will be captain, we are told, for the two one-day series that are to be played against Sri Lanka and South Africa. After that what?

This is a question that is being raised quite validly by observers of the game. Here is a cricketer who has displayed consistency as a player, who has matured with the years, and one who has the coach’s trust. He needs to be given the time and space to grow into his captaincy and prove himself as a team-leader. This could entail poor decisions, lost opportunities and matches lost. But there really are no shortcuts to acquiring a world-class captain. The point is that if we can have a coach till the 2007 World Cup, why can’t we have a captain until then? That apart, the Dravid appointment signals a forward-looking agenda — and the team announced on Friday appears to have been chosen with precisely such an objective in mind. Coach Greg Chappell has generally been more impressed by form than reputation. The dropping of V.V.S. Laxman and Zaheer Khan seem to underline this. Team India is very much a work in progress and the new team could be a possible blueprint for a World Cup team. It has, for starters, a clearly youthful look to it — half the team have fewer than 20 international caps.

Can we then dare to look ahead? Leave behind forever the past year of bad form, poor discipline, humiliating defeats, the recriminations and hostility that signalled a fractious team, and — worst of all — the obvious lack of trust between coach and captain? This newspaper has been consistent in arguing that the time has come for Sourav Ganguly to step down from his captaincy, with his dignity intact and to a round of applause for having been Indian cricket’s most successful captain. We regard the Dravid appointment as a potential turning point in Indian cricket. Of course, it’s early days yet. But hard work and tough strategising have always brought incalculable rewards.