Please stand by

The mood amongst the entire Indian cricketing fraternity was upbeat following the historic win in Chennai. If there was anything that stood out like a sore thumb in the otherwise festive mood was the form of Rahul Dravid.

Quite a few heated remarks were exchanged today the spot at which Rahul should bat in the next test after his dismal performance in the last few innings.
Some even questioned his position in the side.

The reasoning was based on the fact that his confidence is as low as it can possibly get, some of the safest hands dropping sitters, he should just call it a day and so on...

I have always maintained that not only Rahul but any player in such a position should continue to take the responsibility in the side, if he is in it, to bat at 3 in this case while most were of the opinion that he should swap his place with VVS at no.5.

I may stand out my opinion about where Rahul should bat cos in an interview, even Sunil Gavaskar endorsed the other view.

My only objective if I were influential would be to just let him be! That the best and the most you can do for a great player like himself.

No. 3 is not new to him. He has been thinking like a no.3 for the last 10 years. Thats where he has got thousands of those runs and I bear the faith that he will emerge victorious once again . Moving him from this position will add to the mental burden that is at the moment quite unbearable by itself.

When players go through a bad patch a lot of doubt in their own ability creeps in. Decisions like getting him to bat lower down the order will reinforce such doubts. Will make him ask those questions to himself again, much more louder, at a time when all he should be doing is not give more than due importance to a bad form.
As they say, form is temporary, class permanent!
Dravid redefines class.

Being on the wrong side of age, the ghost of retirement starts to loom large in the mind which certainly does not help when the team sends out signals which may not appear encouraging.

The team has virtually every other aspect of the game working in its favour. So, this is a time when the team can stand by the wall which once stood so resolutely for it. No, I do not endorse taking a known liability overboard but all I mean to say, is give him his due. His fair chance.

I have immense faith in the spirit of a sportsman... the spirit of a champion.

Just let him be will be my prayer for him.

Is it deference?

Deference to one's elders is a trait that binds Indian society but weakens its sporting teams, for rare is the man who has the courage to upset the pecking order - Andrew Miller

In the recent past there have been a lot if instances where the school of thought abiding by the above have raised a concern and demanded for the head of the senior players, not always unjustified.

All generalizations are bad, including this one.

What I mean to say is that the only way to handle situations like this and that is on a case to case basis.

I can not refute the fact that Indian sporting teams have been hurt by the prolonging of the careers of its senior sportsmen on more than one occasion. And, whenever this has happened, it has been due to the fact that the seniors have not been able to come to the terms with the fact that their time has come.

So, when I say that the seniors have on numerous occasions hurt our sporting teams, this is the only aspect of the above quote that I agree with. Where I begin to differ in my opinion is with the cause of the problem.

Players in India have an inappropriate prolonging of their careers for reasons apart from just deference. Youngsters in India as SRK said in one of his interviews that youngsters have very little respect for reputation and even lesser baggage of history. They are gutsy! They are raring to go! They want to conquer the world! And…they know they can.

When players become stars, they are elevated to the level of being demi – Gods in our country. They get the adulation like none other. So, when their time does come, it becomes very difficult for them to accept it, come to terms with it.

We do understand that the senior players get in the experience that no youngster can. But at the end of the day, you need to be able to contribute in one department – performance which has no substitution!

Through a long career, players often go through a phase where they have no competition and are a certainty in the side. Suddenly when their aura begins to dim and they see young blood keeping them on their toes, they are no longer in the mental and physical shape to take on the competition. So, to avoid such a situation, senior players often do not provide the encouragement to the youngsters and thus serve their vested interest. There have been stories of a senior fast bowler advising Srinath to bowl short. This he believes wasted the early half of his career and prolonged the senior’s.

There have been situations where in the senior players have been involved with practicing politics just to keep their own place in the side. This is exactly what caused the rift between Ganguly and Greggie. There was no doubt that Ganguly was going through a real long unacceptable lean patch while there were players on the brink of selection.

There are other instances when senior players have been performing and more than justifying their position in the side as well as providing the much required inputs to the lesser experienced juniors. Seniors like these can never hurt any sporting side, in fact they are an asset!

Also, India is not a Pakistan where a boy is literally picked from the streets to represent the country, but we have had very successful debuts of players in their late teens who have come in and done really well for themselves and the country and on most occasions, ousted a senior cricketer.

Seniors have to move on and juniors have to take their place, but the transition has to be smooth and not knee-jerk.

Summing it up, seniors have hurt the sporting teams of our country but it is not deference to blame for it, it’s the seniors themselves and there can be no generalization!