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Wednesday, Nov 23, 2005

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Dravid is Test captain

Sports Reporter

Selection panel not happy with Sourav's performance, says More

Chennai: BCCI Secretary S.K. Nair paused mid-sentence amidst the electronic whirs and clicks of dictaphones and cameras before announcing the name of India's Test captain for the forthcoming series against Sri Lanka — Rahul Dravid.

The announcement was made at the Taj Coromandel here on Tuesday afternoon after the BCCI selectors met in the morning. The chairman of the selection committee, Kiran More said Dravid's performances had been "outstanding" and that they were "looking ahead".

Sourav Ganguly, who had led India in its last Test in Zimbabwe and had been in the hot seat for five years, was dropped as skipper and attention now turns to whether he will make the Test team to be announced on Wednesday. The ODI team for the last two matches against South Africa will be announced on the same day. "Not that we didn't discuss Sourav, we took everybody's point," said More. "But Sourav's performance — he's not done well in the last two-three years and we are not very happy (with it)."

When a journalist pointed out that Ganguly had won in Zimbabwe, More said, "If we can't win against Zimbabwe, Bangladesh we don't stand anywhere. He's had his opportunity and (we) respect what he has done, but we are looking to the future."

Dravid's journey

It's been a tremendous journey for the technically and politically correct Dravid who made his Test debut at Lord's in 1996. Over these years, the man from Bangalore has been a standout — his high elbow in the back-foot defence eliciting as much praise as his obvious cricket intelligence and brooding intensity. Initially thought of as too defensive to play the abridged version, Dravid remodelled his game, took on the wicket-keeping gloves and found his niche as a finisher.

The last series against Sri Lanka highlighted the evolution of his one-day batting. He conducted a master class, dropping and running to draw the field in, and subsequently clearing the infield with lofted drives. But Dravid the batsman is a known commodity — his class is beyond question, his legacy fit to rub shoulders with those of past masters. He played out his role as Ganguly's deputy without reproach and, in the context of Indian cricket's palace intrigues, that is rare. The man with 7,894 Test runs averaged over 100 under Ganguly, playing key parts in India winning Tests abroad.

The captain

But it is to Dravid the captain that we must now turn. He first led the Test side against New Zealand in 200-04, when an unfit Ganguly pulled out. He has two wins (versus Pakistan, Multan and versus Australia, Mumbai) in five Tests and 13 wins in 26 ODIs. Interestingly his Test average as captain is 17.25, with no hundreds or fifties; as ODI skipper he averages 46.47. His style of captaincy has been more flexible than Ganguly's, and shares common ground with Greg Chappell's cricket philosophy.

Though his appointment as captain predates the announcement of the squad, it follows the method Australian selectors choose while deciding on the captain — pick your eleven and then pin the tail on the best of them.

Board President's XI

Meanwhile, Venugopala Rao will lead the Board President's XI against Sri Lanka in the three-day match to be played in Bangalore from November 26th. Mr. Nair announced the twelve on Tuesday.

The squad: Board President's XI: Venugopala Rao (capt.), Dheeraj Jadhav, Shikar Dhawan, Robin Uthappa, Neeraj Patel, S. Sriram, Parthiv Patel (wk and vice-capt.), Kulamani Parida, Amit Mishra, Ranadeb Bose, Gagandeep Singh, Munaf Patel. Manager: V.B. Chandasekhar.

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