The Day of the Underdog

Kris Srikkanth and my dad are more than happy. Their deepest wish has come true.

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BCCI, in a hasty attempt to resolve the captaincy crisis following Tendulkar’s refusal, have passed on the hat to Kumble. They had several options beside Kumble: Dhoni, Laxman, and Ganguly. Not going for Ganguly and Laxman is understandable, but they must have had a hard time choosing between Dhoni and Kumble. I think their pseudo-logic behind leaving out Dhoni was that they didn’t want to burden the ODI captain with additional responsibility at this point. But there was also a trace of indecision — Kumble’s captaincy lasts for the Pakistan series only. They aren’t confident he is capable of being the main man (phrase borrowed from Uncle J, without permission) for next year’s Oz tour.

I have gone all around the blogosphere making mockery of BCCI’s decision, since you know, it isn’t the wisest of decisions, but out of respect for Kumble (and it’s just occurred to me that it’s quite early to be making judgements), I am not getting into it here. Paradigm shift might be the word. After all, he’s always been underrated and never got enough of the camera focus, not even as much as he deserved. So how much do we really know about his leading capabilities? Yes, yes, players with leadership potential begin to demonstrate the skill quite early on, but there are always exceptions. Kumble has the experience. He knows his cricket. He’s a good chap. I think our IMHO’s can wait.

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The team at Googly have shelled out ten reasons why Kumble deserves to be India captain. Fun read.