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Purists of the game will say Rahul Dravid’s decision to not apply for the job of Indian head coach isn’t the right thing.
No one can forget the way BCCI persuaded Dravid to take up the job. A celebration followed because Dravid had said yes from no. When he agreed, the BCCI bigwigs rushed to take credit for it.
Almost three years later, BCCI’s take on Dravid is different, and here is why.
The BCCI could have just told the Cricket Advisory Committee to give Dravid an extension rather than asking him to apply for the job. But the Indian board chose a different path.
There are strong indications that the Indian board didn’t want him anymore in the system.
There is also a far-fetched conspiracy theory that Dravid knew about Gautam Gambhir being intalks with BCCI about joining the Indian team as a head coach.
When murmurs about Gambhir losing out on his East-Delhi seat due to his non-performance were getting louder, the southpaw expressed his wish to drop out from politics to take up his cricket calling. Gambhir knew that he could do well in cricket and had to complete some unfinished business in life.
Gambhir decided to train his mind on winning the IPL for KKR, and the BCCI got involved in looking at the success rate of the former Parliamentarian.
The theory remains that Dravid knew it all.
Whether it will hurt Indian cricket or not, in the long run, is a matter of conjecture, but it looks clear that the culture of becoming a disciplined cricketer flourishing under him will take a hit.
The Indian dressing room will miss Dravid for sure.
No one will ever forget those lectures on the importance of playing domestic cricket.
BCCI got a narrative through his theories, making it compulsory for domestic and international stars to play red-ball cricket to strengthen their basics.
Dravid’s powerful words will reverberate in the minds of those younger cricketers. They will, hopefully, take the legacy of Indian cricket forward.
What else is the reason behind Dravid not continuing as India’s head coach?
He has a young family and lives out of a suitcase. He wants to stay home. He has done and been there for ten months in a year for over two-and-a-half years. The time has come to move on. We are ready to see him again in a role with the IPL teams.
Who knows? RCB might rope him in as a head coach and he can stay mostly at home. Or a partnership with Sourav Ganguly won’t be bad at the Delhi Capitals. Even the Rajasthan Royals will always love their mentor coming back to their dugout. Who can stop the Mumbai Indians from contacting Dravid and starting fresh?
