Whenever Rahul Dravid walked back to the pavilion after being dismissed in a match, a sense of disgust was visible in crystal-clear fashion across his countenance. It did not matter if he had made zero runs or 250 runs. He would always have the same expression on his face.
All batsmen hate to get out. But of all the batsman to have ever played the game, Rahul Dravid hated it the most. Indeed, he put such a heavy price on his wicket that he was rightly nicknamed ‘The Wall’ for his obdurate defence and no-chinks-in-the armour approach.
But the Dravid story really began in England in the summer of 1996 when he made his debut at Lord’s in the company of Sourav Ganguly. Both debutants had been drafted in to replace senior players and both were under immediate pressure to perform or perish.
The scintillating innings that Ganguly played to notch up a century on debut overshadowed a classy 95 by Dravid. That was to be the pattern of Dravid’s career for the next 16 years, for even if he top scored for his team, some other player usually drew more applause for a swashbuckling knock or a bagful of wickets. Thus though he won several man-of-the-match awards, perhaps he deserved many more. Read More

The supposed rift within Team India has been widely lambasted by the media and put forth as one of the main reasons for the pathetic display Down Under. Dashing batsman Virender Sehwag and skipper MS Dhoni, two of India’s most iconic players have reportedly fallen out with each other, and all is clearly not well with the embattled Indian cricket team. But the real rift is not within the team. It lies in the huge communication gap between the team management and the sizeable Indian media contingent.

The hush-hush policy that Indian cricket typically adopts is no doubt the reason for the utter lack of trust between the players and the media. Media management with respect to Indian cricket has seldom been professionally handled by the establishment. Office bearers of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) typically act as media managers on tours, often with disastrous results…

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Published in Tribune, saturday EXTRA on Saturday, February 4, 2012

The recent debacle faced by Team India should be a learning experience, says Vivek Atray.

The devastating 0-4 loss in the Test series Down Under has demoralised Team India’s fans, and has set the cat among the pigeons. This disaster, coupled with a similar catastrophe in England last summer, has left Indian cricket in the throes of an unprecedented crisis. There are calls from critics for a total revamp of Indian cricket and to sack the selectors, the senior players, the captain and the coach.

For this series in and against Australia, Team India played nothing like its number one rank and stature that it was eight months ago. It behaved like a shell-shocked, fatigued and ageing side, with little passion or pride in its performance. Read More

India’s shattering loss in the series Down Under has the potential to create enough ripples to revamp the entire scenario of Indian cricket. It should be viewed not as the end of the world but as a new beginning!

Team India has played not like the champion side that it was eight months ago, in both the longer formats of the game, but like a shell-shocked, fatigued and aging side, with no passion or pride

The reactions across India to 7 straight losses in Test Matches abroad have been predictably caustic and fiery. There are calls to ‘boot out the seniors’ and field an entirely new team. The logic given is that the team is losing anyway so why not field a team of green-horns who would learn in the process. Read More