Cricinfo – Dravid not commanding enough, says Kapil

Kapil Dev, the former allrounder and captain of India, has said that though Rahul Dravid is a brilliant batsman, he is not commanding enough, adding that he tends to “go with the flow”. Kapil felt that on the field Dravid looked like a captain from an altogether different era.

I am not sure where Mr Kapil Dev is going with this kind of talk. I agree he was the only captain who won us the world cup against all odds but was also one of the coaches who failed miserably. Inspite of his superlative credentials, he was pretty bad at coaching. The team never got going under him. And now he is bad mouthing the coach saying his experimental techniques will not work for Indians. Well Mr. Kapil Dev if you were so good and all knowing about the Indian psyche, we wonder why you were never able to get the team to win matches. If anything, you are remembered for shedding tears on BBC during that time. Well for your information, Dravid may not be the shirt waving captain like Ganguly but he is an acute strategist as was seen in several occasions in the way he used the power plays. Aggression is not all about waving shirts or bad mouthing opponents, its all about how you approach a given situation and how you deal with pressure. For the past few days, Kapil Dev has only talked trash, bad mouthing the coach and now the captain. This is highly immature coming from a someone who was considered a great player by everyone.

Its easy to be an arm chair critic. When things are not working, people always find mistakes. The same people who have been praising India’s methods about bringing in the young and grooming them for world cup are now going back to the old ways by bringing back the tried and tested old players in the name of experience. Irfan Pathan who has been the darling of the masses a few months before (when Sachin Tendulkar was showered with praises for pushing him up to No.3) is back to his No. 6 position. It is an interesting turn around. Lets see if the old horses bring some glory back to the beleaguered team.

Related posts:

Dec 5, 2006
14:16

Anonymous had this to say, #1

Good to see a post after a long time

Dec 8, 2006
09:53

DJ had this to say, #2

dude.. u iit guys should limit urself to geek stuff.. by the looks of it, dravid doesnt seem like he has captancy material, and on any given day, kapil’s team performed better than chapels.

get ur facts right.. u know whose writing this post. remember the days when i used to kick every one’s butt for centuries in my house? u want more?

dude, how are ya, by the way..

keep in touch.
dj (as always, the great)

Dec 8, 2006
11:19

Jagadish had this to say, #3

Dude dj, seriously, get YOUR facts right. Kapils team sucked ass man. They lost home series to south africa. They did not win anything. We won a lot of series at home and that seems long forgotten. We even won the test series in Pakistan and West Indies after a long time after losing one days series.

And coming to your non-existent centuries. I wonder you got confused playing with your cousins. We always played the shorter version which definitely did not suit your style. Let me not go there.