The Hindu : To don the gloves or not is Dravid's predicament

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Sep 13, 2003

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Sport - Cricket

To don the gloves or not is Dravid's predicament

By G. Viswanath

Mumbai Sept. 12. Ten days after Ajay Ratra scored his first Test century at Port-of-Spain in May 2002 and proved his mettle at the highest level, Indian selectors decided that Rahul Dravid would keep wickets for the country till the World Cup in South Africa.

Apparently it was captain Sourav Ganguly's idea which went down well with coach John Wright and the National selectors. India's think-tank had already applied its mind for the quadrennial event in South Africa and the five-match series against the West Indies was considered the appropriate time (when the World Cup was a good nine months away), for Dravid to prepare and position himself as India's batsman-wicketkeeper.

Dravid accepted the responsibility without a word of protest — an out-and-out team man. He never took a step back when the team was short on confidence for a quality opener and required little persuasion to meet a contingency option.

Rumours were rife then that Dravid would not fit into the scheme of things for the World Cup, if he did not agree to keep wickets. It turned out later that such innuendoes were just hogwash.

Dravid's chance to don the gloves came after the first two matches at Jamaica were abandoned because of rain. He took charge at Barbados on May 29, 2003 and since then has been India's No. 1 'keeper in limited-over internationals.

India's plan to pack the team with seven batsmen, for the World Cup in particular, forced the job on Dravid. In the course of time leading to the World Cup, Dravid got used to wicketkeeping. He fine-tuned his skills with Kiran More imparting the nuances at Lords and also at Chelmsford. A keen student of the game, Dravid soon became a reliable man behind the stumps.

Earlier, during the 1999 World Cup in England too, Dravid had stepped in for the injured Nayan Mongia.

It was assumed that once India's World Cup campaign ended, the wicketkeeper's role would not be thrust on Dravid.

However, Ganguly appears keen to ask Dravid to continue as a batsman-wicketkeeper though the latter has expressed his desire to be released from the job.

Dravid wholeheartedly kept wickets from May 2002 to the World Cup. The long break between the World Cup and the new season gave him to time to introspect and evidently he's not as enthusiastic as he was sixteen months ago. A debate is raging on the subject and Syed Kirmani and Kapil Dev have said categorically that Dravid should not be asked to keep wickets.

During the Ranji Trophy final between Mumbai and Tamil Nadu, chairman of selectors Brijesh Patel could not throw light when asked about the role of Dravid in India's one-day team.

There are some bright and competent wicketkeepers around like Parthiv Patel, Ajay Ratra and Thilak Naidu. A few more could emerge, but with these three being picked for the TVS Cup Challenger Series, it can be surmised that the selectors have already shortlisted their choice for the wicketkeeper's slot.

Parthiv Patel is a frontrunner for the two Test series against New Zealand, but it's anybody's guess as to whom the selectors would opt for the tri-series in India and Australia that would involve a minimum of 12 one-day matches. Given a say, which he would indeed have, Ganguly would straightaway opt for Dravid.

Dravid has delivered doubling up as a wicketkeeper. He has played 48 one-day matches as a batsman-wicketkeeper, beginning from the 1999 World Cup match against Sri Lanka at Taunton, scored 1558 runs with three centuries and nine half centuries and has held 48 catches and effected nine stumpings. Dravid currently has an average of 48.69, the best for any batsman-wicketkeeper.

And the time has now come for Indian cricket to take a decision and many feel that Dravid's wish should prevail.

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