Dravid Meted Out A Ganguly Like Treatment!!!

One can just recall the way the former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly was repeatedly dropped despite a fair amount of decent shows on the field and the inclusion of lesser known players who were nowhere close to Ganguly when their caliber was taken into consideration. This finally forced Ganguly to retire from all sorts of international cricket who otherwise might have thought about playing the 2011 world cup held in the sub continent. And this time around, it is RahulDravid who has been meted out such a treatment. Dravid's performance in the recent past is needless to be highlighted I suppose.

When compared to Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid stands a higher caliber taken into account his match saving and match winning knocks in most of the crucial encounters that India have faced. The selectors might have had atleast some reason in dropping Sourav Ganguly but, no reason can be found out or even thought of with Dravid being dropped. It is really difficult for anyone to guess as to what is going on in the minds of the Indian selectors when a senior pro is replaced with an inexperienced and non deserving young players like Virat Kohli and Sudeep Tyagi. This can never get worse anymore.

It seems that there is absolutely no one to question the BCCI regarding the selection committee who take in and drop players at will and without a proper justification. I wish that there be a voting system where in people come and vote the players whom they might want to be in the ranks of the playing XI. Just kidding!!! BCCI has been giving the youngsters a lot of chances back to back since the inaugural T20 world cup in 2007 held at South Africa which India won. Since then, Ganguly and Dravid were never considered no matter what the youngsters had to say.

The only disastrous decision that has so far not been taken by the selectors is dropping SachinTendulkar no matter what his batting has to say. If this is the way the selectors go ahead, this would be the last time one can see the flamboyant batting display from the blades of Rahul Dravid. This would make Dravid take the decision of retiring even with a couple of years of international cricket still in his hand. And all these with no fault of Dravid and instead this would be the signal that the BCCI would be sending for the youngsters who can think of playing for not more than 30 years when some players have played for even 40+ years.

Younis Khan's Step Ahead Towards Retirement

Well the latest news is that the Pakistani captain (now better be referred to as former Pakistani captain) has decided to call it a day only from captaincy. Not long before had the Pakistani decided to quit T20 internationals and continue playing the other two formats of the game namely the tests and the one day internationals after lifting the T20 world cup in England earlier this year in July. The then statement of Younis Khan stated that he was interested in giving young legs a chance but, the exact reason behind his resignation is best known to Younis Khan.

However, Younis Khan had agreed to continue playing in the T20 games for the Indian Premier League. Not a surprise when there is so much affection in the game involved by Younis Khan. No..Younis Khan is not interested in the big bucks that the IPL assures. But, a check mate imposed by the Indian Premier League chairman Lalith Modi to ban all Pakistani players from participating in the IPL might have made Younis Khan re-think of his decision to take part in the IPL atleast as far as his self respect is concerned. However, a slight soft corner from the Indian counterparts might force anyone change their minds.

However, the reason that is believed to have been behind Younis Khan's retirement raises a lot of eyebrows. One has to really wonder about the drop catch by the Pakistani skipper (former) off Grant Elliot in the semi finals of the ICC Champions Trophy which is yet again believed to have shatterred the hopes of Pakistan making it to the finals of the ICC Champions Trophy. May be that had the catch been taken, things would have turned in favour of Pakistan. Like we still remember Herschelle Gibbs dropping the catch off Steve Waugh in the super six game of the ICC World Cup in 1999.

Also not to forget the drop catch off Sachin Tendulkar by Abdul Razzaq in the crucial tie (for Pakistan) in 2003 which then had ended the hopes of Pakistan making it to the next round of the world cup in South Africa. It all depends on the PCB as to whether Younis Khan's resignation would be accepted or not-meaning whether the PCB will continue the match fixing enquiry on Younis Khan which can make his decision to quit more firm. It would be fun to watch in case Younis Khan drops the idea of retiring from captaincy and continue to lead his side if at all the PCB decide to drop match fixing charges against him.