I totally agree with the author what he wrote. Having appointed Chappel as our coach, we should have given him a free hand. When Chappel-Dravid duo took over, Indian team was on a roll winning each and every series convincingly, till the WEst Indies fiasco.
About Dravid as a caption. He started well in fact. When we played aginst England at home in Mohali, the test was petering into a draw, but Dravid and his men brought out a fantastic victory on the 5th day. Having tasted the blood India went to Mumbai with five bowlers, five batsmen and keeper. He rightly chose to bowl first with the idea of skittling out a depleted England side, perhaps under 200 and then knock up 400 or 450 so that India need not bat for a second time on 4th or 5th day. His decision was absolutely right, but for dropped catches. As many as eighteen catches were dropped and Englishmen flourished and turned the table against India. Dravid attrached a lot of criticism for his decision, but I fee with five bowlers at his command he did the right thing. Once bitten twice shy, Dravid was apprehensive about his all decisions from thereon. Most of the cricket fans think they know cricket better than the Dravids, Sachins and Gangulys. Such criticisms through media influence everybody,including the BCCI and the cricketers are forced to be on the backfoot and tread cautiously. We cannot expect a flameboyant attitude from our captaions as they are watched and criticised for every movement they make. And the sad part is that most of those criticise are just arm-chair critics with no cricketing background whatsoever and with little knowledge about the finer points of the game.
If at all Dravid has to relieve the captaincy, it is honourable for him to retire gracefully than continue as a member in the team.
