A billion expectations weigh upon Rahul Dravid - Mike Atherton

[King]

All captains torture themselves to some extent, but none more so than India's Rahul Dravid, says Mike Atherton. More... A billion expectations weigh upon Rahul Dravid By Mike Atherton, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 12:53am BST 02/09/2007 When you have captained a country populated by only 60 million or so, a minority of whom could be described as passionate about cricket, rather than a country of a billion or more, the majority of whom share your passion, then it is the little things that you notice. Like the look of horror on Rahul Dravid's face when I suggested that we meet for breakfast at his team's hotel in Manchester the morning after Thursday's day/night encounter at Old Trafford. "No, no, no; it will be crawling with Indian fans. It will be much easier for me to come to you." Being pestered at breakfast by hordes of disgruntled supporters is not something an England cricketer of my generation would think about. Disgruntled, yes; hordes, no. In pics: Fourth ODI at Old Trafford Floodlit encounters are killers for the players: the adrenalin is still rushing through the veins when you ought to be getting some sleep, and the non-stop routine of play/travel/practice/play mitigates against any chance of a lie-in. Dravid looks fresh enough - dressed in jeans and a rugby shirt - when he walks into my hotel, unaccompanied and thankfully unnoticed, but the dark lines under his eyes give lie to any assertion that he took India's third defeat in this one-day series lightly. He readily admits to a sleepless night pondering the options he took as Ravi Bopara and Stuart Broad inched England closer to victory. Should he have turned to his quicker bowlers sooner? Could he not have pulled a rabbit out of the hat as Collingwood did by bowling Kevin Pietersen at Sachin Tendulkar? In the end he didn't beat himself up too much. "I came to the conclusion that they just played well," he says. "Broad, in particular, is a wonderful find for you." He shakes his head wistfully at the thought of a young quick bowler who can bat and field. It says much about Dravid that he went through the process of post-match analysis so soon after such a demoralising loss. He says it is something that he does automatically now, appraising his batting and his captaincy in any given situation. He is a deep thinker about the game; he cares, too. Those who say that a leader should never second-guess the decisions that he makes are either spouting management consultancy rubbish and have never been in a position to make decisions, or they have forgotten what the pressure of doing so is like. All captains torture themselves to some extent. But a captain can care too much. Too much second-guessing of the decision-making process can lead to periods of self-doubt, mental weariness and indecision next time around. And it has been noticeable this summer that Dravid has looked burdened by the job of leading the most cricket-crazy nation on earth. Does he feel it is a burden? "Burden is too strong a word and people say that because of how I look. I'm not naturally a cheery-looking soul on the field. I do enjoy it but there are aspects I find tough. What I find hardest is the absolute lack of proportion. It makes it very hard to build a team when two or three bad games provoke such an extreme reaction." Does he mean in the media or at home generally? "Both really. The media in India have been changing rapidly. I actually enjoy [this will make a few England cricketers choke on their muesli] reading the papers over here because I'll get criticised for how I actually captain the team - the bowling changes I make and the field placings I set - rather than, for example, how many times I clap my hands and something equally irrelevant. As for the pressure from home, well, there is a lot of talk of how pampered our players are but it's not easy for our young players having to deal with such extreme emotional reactions to their every performance." Dravid has travelled the full range of that spectrum over the last six months himself. He was vilified after an appalling World Cup campaign which saw India bundled out before the competition had begun in earnest. He found himself between the rock of public and player opinion, which held Greg Chappell accountable for a disintegrating team, and the hard place of loyalty to a coach who Dravid believed had India's long-term interests at heart. Becoming only the third Indian captain to win a Test series in England surely shifted public opinion back in his favour? "Ah, but that will be quickly forgotten if we lose this one-day series." Such heightened reactions to every performance must have an impact. It was most noticeable at the Oval where Dravid's decision-making and his batting suggested a captain struggling to cope with the expectations. "Sure, I struggled in the second innings [he scored a tortuous 12 off 96 balls]. I knew what I ought to have been thinking but the match situation made it difficult and all of a sudden I started missing leg-stump half-volleys. I thought, 'what the hell's going on here?' As for the follow-on, I'd make the same decision again." Perhaps that is where a coach would add some value - someone to see the wider picture, someone old enough and wise enough not to be caught up in the hyperbole - but since the Chappell experiment India have been coach-less. Chappell began with the players hanging upon his every word because of his greatness as a player. But by the end, as a result of feuds and criticisms of players that found their way into the public domain, he had lost their respect. It was a salutary lesson in how the Indian cricket machine can chew up and spit out even the best. "Tension is a good thing within a team, but it needs to be creative, not destructive. John Wright had similar problems at the start but unlike Greg he was prepared to adapt. By the end he [Wright] was more Indian than the Indians." The removal of a visionary like Chappell has probably ended whatever chance Dravid has of making a revolutionary impact on Indian cricket as captain. He is 34 and likely to be around for only another couple of years or so. "Our cricketing culture has to change to some extent. It is an athletic game now and we have to instil these processes into our young cricketers. Our Academy has got to become more professionally run and we must manage our own contracted players much better." All that is too much for one man whose primary responsibility has to be to the players under his care and to his own game (and to his young family). He wanders off, head bowed, deep in thought, idolised by millions yet, momentarily, looking like the loneliest man in the world.

[arkay]

Chappel - visionary - my foot If Atherton thinks Chappel is a visionary, may be they should hire him.

[Chandan]

Chappel - visionary - my foot If Atherton thinks Chappel is a visionary, may be they should hire him.

Dravid thought so, not Artherton!