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Is Rahul Dravid India's next captain?

On June 20, we put the dustcovers on cricket, put it away for the duration.

And it will remain there till August, when the three nation tournament in Sri Lanka featuring India, Australia and the host country in a triangular tournament raises the curtain on the next season.

The covers thus are on the pitch -- but there has been plenty of action behind the scenes. Much of this action has taken the form of frenetic lobbying. Officials lobbying for posts, office bearers lobbying for re-election, players lobbying for selection, senior players lobbying for the captaincy -- there's more politicking, right now, in the corridors of the BCCI than you would find in Parliament.

And quietly, behind the scenes, decisions are being taken by the men who control the destiny of Indian cricket. Later, when the time is right, these decisions will be "unanimously" adopted at carefully stage-managed elections, at previously orchestrated selection committee meetings and the like -- but essentially, the BCCI's electoral body, the selection committee and such will end up merely putting the rubber-stamp on decisions that have, during these last few days, been taken over glasses of the best Scotch at the Cricket Club of India clubhouse.

Come September, thus, Raj Singh Dungarpur will come to the end of his tenure as BCCI president. Almost certainly, Tamil Nadu-based industrialist and cricket administrator of long standing, A C Muthiah, will take over. Of course, officially none of this has been decided yet -- if you ask the BCCI president or secretary, they will tell you that the BCCI is a democratic body, that these decisions will be taken at the appropriate time, by the appropriate body. Junk -- when those appropriate noises are made, you will now be able to see it for what it is, a gigantic exercise in putting a democratic face on what is essentially a very closed, tight-run thing.

Meanwhile, the players are also jockeying for position. Read between the lines of the various statements being made by various players, and you'll see what we mean.

To quote one instance, Ajay Jadeja was in Mumbai for a while last week. 'A private visit' is what it will be described as -- but in essence, the intention was to lobby for the captaincy, ahead of the upcoming Test series against New Zealand.

For all those efforts, however, Jadeja had to return disappointed. Simply because the chairman of selectors believes -- and has told Jadeja as much -- that since he is not an automatic choice for a Test team, the question of his being considered for captaincy does not arise.

To use Ravi Shastri's favourite phrase -- it is all happening out there.

Faisal Shariff spent some time with a BCCI official -- one senior enough, and closely enough involved in the administration, to know what is happening behind the scenes. A strange kind of official, this. When we asked him why he did not climb that one step further up the ladder, why he is never a candidate for any post despite having been with the BCCI for over a decade, his response was pithy: "Because I don't choose to lick my way to the top!"

What follows is that official's thoughts... a kind of stream of consciousness on Indian cricket. Read on:

India does not have a cricket team, merely a bunch of talented individuals. As individuals they are very very good, as a unit they fail miserably.

Consistency is not one of the virtues of this team, they have not been consistent for at least three years now. There have been some victories -- mostly on flat tracks, while we continue to lose miserably abroad, not being immune even in Zimbabwe.

One major reason for this is the complete lack of camaraderie, team spirit, among them. To cite an instance in point, team manager Anshuman Gaekwad and wicketkeeper Nayan Mongia are now disgruntled because they received invitations for Srinath's and Kumble's weddings only a week in advance.

Both Karnataka players had decided their wedding dates months earlier. But they did not see fit to breathe a word to their team-mates, throughout the tour of England. It might seem like a petty thing -- but it is the kind of little thing that hurts your mates. Srinath fixes his wedding date but tells no one apart from Rahul Dravid and Venkatesh Prasad -- and that is the kind of thing that fosters regionalism within the ranks, when the idea should be to promote unity.

To make matters worse, the media has taken a hand, literally anointing Ajay Jadeja as the next captain of India. One national newsmagazine in fact carried a cover titled 'Why Jadeja should be India's captain'. And this kind of thing can only cause further divisions within the ranks.

On thinking through the whole thing in an unbiased, impartial manner, I am forced to conclude that even after eight years of playing competitive international cricket, Jadeja has been unable to establish himself as a Test player. Where then does the question of appointing him captain arise?

One cannot compare him to Azharuddin on the basis of two or three games that Jadeja led in. When you captain a side for a match, there is less pressure on you -- if you win, it is hailed by the media, but if you lose, the spin is that after all, you are a stop gap player, your top player and captain is out through injury, therefore your loss is forgiveable. Jadeja, thus, has nothing to lose in those games, and he managed to get through unscathed. But being the official captain is a different ball game altogether.

Jadeja's strength is that he knows how to play the PR game, he plays his cards brilliantly. It is easy for a player to attach himself to some giant personality and appear on magazine covers and on the television news, but that kind of media hype is not what the selectors consider when they sit down to select a cricket captain. And it is for this reason that he will never make it as India's Test captain.

Besides his cricketing credentials, one aspect that will weigh with the selectors is that Jadeja has given Azhar a real hard time throughout, speaking behind his back, mocking him, pushing his own candidature at any and every opportunity. Frankly, it was not right for Jadeja, as vice captain, to make all those statements about how he was a more aggressive captain than Azhar.

And Azhar is very obviously aware of all this. If you watched India in the field during the World Cup, you would have noticed that Azhar frequently consulted Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, even Javagal Srinath. But how often did you see him summon his vice captain, Ajay Jadeja, over to take part in the on-field discussions?

The captaincy is, at this point in time, a very sensitive issue. If the selectors were to drop Azhar, not just from the captaincy but from the team itself, it would have been very simple -- Sachin Tendulkar will immediately accept the captaincy. But Sachin has made it very very clear that as long as the name of one Mr Mohammad Azharuddin figures in the playing eleven, as long as Azhar does not officially retire from international cricket, he will not touch the captaincy, and that is that.

Shivlal Yadav played his cards very well when he announced to the media that Tendulkar had refused the captaincy, and lauded Azhar as the best captain India has ever had. Yadav is very close to Azhar -- but then, Azhar has over the years kept everyone even remotely associated with the selection committee happy.

Meanwhile, the controversy has effected Azharuddin to a considerable extent. When you are captain, and you are aware at all times that there are other players in the side with more mass appeal, players who the media and the public are backing for the captaincy, it sparks insecurity within you.

Chairman of selectors Ajit Wadekar, as also three of the four other selectors -- Anil Deshpande, Ashok Malhotra and Madan Lal -- are firmly in favour of a change in leadership; Shivlal Yadav is the one person who continues to back Azhar.

The question is, who? Sachin Tendulkar has firmly ruled himself out -- at least as long as Azhar does not announce his retirement. Jadeja has been ruled out by his own inability to make a permanent place for himself in the team, and for other reasons discussed above. Anil Kumble, a former vice captain, is also more or less out of the reckoning.

Thus, an interesting name that has been cropping up in off the record discussions of late is that of Rahul Dravid. He has several things going for him -- he is a certainity in any Test team, he is a good reader of the game, has leadership qualities, is well read and articulate, very self-effacing at the same time. I think, by my reading, he might be captaincy material in about a year's time. But who leads until then? That is the ticklish question.

As if the situation was not bad enough, Board president Raj Singh Dungarpur went out of his way to make it worse. All those statements that he made, in England, were irresponsible and unbecoming of a man of his stature. For instance, he went way out on a limb to say that Azhar has been doing a wonderful job and is the best, most successful captain India has ever had. And in making that statement, he forgot that it was not his job, as Board president, to select the captain or even assess his performance.

Once that was pointed out, Dungarpur said that he had made those statements in his personal capacity, and not as Board president. That is even more silly -- how can a man occupying the president's post make his personal opinion public? Can the President of India discuss national politics, express his personal opinion about whether the BJP or the Congress should form the next government? What was Brijesh Patel there for? Since Patel was there, why did Dungarpur have to face the press and make a fool of himself?

A question that intrigues everyone is, what is Raj Singh doing all this for? What does he seek to gain? the answer is very simple -- Raj Singh is one of those people who likes to feel that he is the person calling the shots, all the time. And that is one reason why he keeps backing Azhar for the captaincy -- because in return for the backing, Azhar lets him call the shots, feel important. This may not be possible with a player like say Sachin. Anyway, Raj Singh is on his way out, so that will be the end of that particular -- and particularly sorry -- story.

Mismanagement characterised the entire World Cup exercise. When the organising committee provides every participating team with an official scorer, for instance, where was the need for the BCCI to send its own scorer, at considerable expense, to England?

The more you look at it, the more you realise that nothing the BCCI does, makes sense. Andrew Kokinos is a physiotherapist. If you look at other teams, the minute a player is injured, the physio is the first person to come running out -- but the BCCI issued a directive that Kokinos must not go out on the field, only Dr Ravindra Chaddha should. Where is the sense in that? Chadda is not a physiotherapist, he is not even a full-fledged, practising doctor. And in any case, the ECB had also provided every team with a doctor, with access to all the best medical facilities -- so what was Chaddha doing there? Why was Kokinos not allowed to do what he was hired to do?

The main player behind all this is Jagmohan Dalmiya. He may be the president of the International cricket council, but he will never give up the control of the BCCI. Despite the board having a president in Raj Singh, it is Dalmiya who calls all the shots, all the time. If things are to improve, there will have to be some tough talking by the BCCI officials, they will have to stand up, take a grip on the functioning of the board.

It is not as if the BCCI is doing a bad job -- in fact, it has done exceptionally well for the players, if we speak in financial terms. All the Under-16, Under-19 and Ranji players are insured by the board, through Oriental Insurance, this has been happening since the last season. Under this scheme, all injuries sutained by the players on field and even while travelling are covered and for this, the board pays lakhs by way of premiums. If, thus, a Ranji player is injured, he gets Rs 3,500 every week for a maximum of 52 weeks.

The board also has a Benevolent Fund which has done well by the players. After the World Cup in 1996, the board distributed cheques to every single cricketer who had played at least 10 Ranji games -- a player who had played ten matches got Rs 25,000, and an additional Rs 500 for every additional game he had played. And from this year, by the same scheme, umpires who have officiated in 10 Ranji games will get Rs 25,000, that number going up incrementally with every additional fixture he officiates in.

That is just the tip of the iceberg -- the board's officials have, quietly and behind the scenes, been doing things for the betterment of Indian cricket. But none of this is public knowledge -- because the board lacks a good spokesperson, one who knows how to highlight the achievements. Jaywant Lele, the secretary and therefore spokesperson, is a complete disaster. And while on the subject, I would love to know what he was doing in England for 45 days -- bowling to the Indians in the nets perhaps? There certainly was no official need for the secretary of the board of a participating nation to be there for the entire duration of the tournament.

Only half in jest, it would be wonderful if Ajay Jadeja were to be made spokesperson of the BCCI -- his media skills would certainly come in handy for us.

Another man on the way out, for a variety of reasons -- not least the fact that his contract ends in September -- is Anshuman Gaekwad. And that opens up the question of who will be the next coach of India. A name being suggested is that of Krishnamachari Srikkanth, who is now coaching the junior team. But is he the right choice after all? He was the kind of player who, in his time, went for his shots irrespective of the situation, often threw his wicket away. How much credibility will he have when he tells today's players to hang in there? Another person who has been lobbying, behind the scenes, for the job, is Kapil Dev -- a player who always wore his heart on his sleeve and made no bones about the pride he took in playing for the country. It will be interesting to see which of these two names the board finally decides to go with.

One thought in passing -- the board's policy of not allowing the players to talk to the press has been criticised in the past, but I think recent events have indicated why it is a good policy. The players have, after the World Cup, been, all of them, talking out of turn, pursuing their own individual agendas. For instance, what on earth was Rahul Dravid doing at Lord's during the final? He is not, as per the contract, supposed to be even talking to the press, and there he is, commentating, taking part in discussions, even discussing what went wrong with the Indian team! Then there was Ganguly's statement, about how Tendulkar should have been batting at number four, and all the rest of it, those were irresponsible -- it is an indication of the kind of man Sachin is, that he did not respond to that one. Then there are the various statements Jadeja and Robin Singh have been coming up with. I think that since there is a clear violation of contract here, the board must severely reprimand all these players.

And while on the subject, the board also needs to take action against Azharuddin for hiding the extent of his shoulder injury from the board and the selectors.

People