Considering the amount of money Dr. Vijay Mallaya has, it would not have been impossible for him to buy some better players. What I am trying to say is not that he should have interfered in the selection of the players, but that he had the cash to buy some other players.

“My biggest mistake was to abstain from the selection,” he said. “I had a separate list of players but since Dravid is such an iconic player I trusted his judgment. And Charu Sharma also backed him. I was very tempted to bid for players whom I wanted but they held me back. I backed them thinking they advised me properly. Obviously, things have turned out differently. Unfortunately in cricket, unlike in any other sport, the captain is the boss.”

But, is the team bad? I don’t think so. Consider this list, and don’t think about their IPL Stats:

1. Kallis : Best All Rounder in the world
2. Dale Steyn : Best Bowler in the world
3. Mark Boucher : One of the most successful Wicket Keepers in the world
4. Misbah ul Haq : The best T20 player (or one of the best)
5. Anil Kumble : India’s most successful bowler

And many more distinguished players. Where Rahul Dravid went wrong was in thinking that the IPL is a Test Match tournament.

Let us now talk about the players Mallaya wanted and how Dravid refused them:

Mallaya: MS Dhoni
Dravid : he is too expensive ( I am tempted to laugh at this)

Mallaya : Mc Cullum
Dravid : No, we’ll take Boucher

And the rest, as they say, is history. Kallis though, seemed confident about Bangalore’s chances for next season! He needs to be reminded that he really did not justify his $900,000 paycheck.

Photo: Newscom

Post from: EveryJoe

Rahul Dravid, are you listening?

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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.

Post from: EveryJoe

The Day of the Underdog