Mumbai, Sept 14: The sudden decision of Rahul Dravid to step down from captaincy was a bolt from the blue for the legions of cricket fans in the country, especially after he recently led India to a Test series victory in England after 21 years.
However, there have been instances in the chequered long
history of Indian cricket when others before 'The Wall' had
relinquished their captaincy when least expected, the prime
example being Dravid's team-mate and predecessor Sachin
Tendulkar.
Tendulkar had a love-hate relationship with the selectors
when he was at the helm for the second and last time in his
glittering career and was unhappy over the latter dictating
terms about his batting order.
The dramatic announcement to the scribes by Tendulkar,
who had replaced Hyderabad stylist Mohd Azharuddin at the
helm, that he was stepping down as captain at the end of the
two-test series against South Africa, came when the visitors
were engaged in a three-day warm-up game at the Cricket Club
of India here before the start of the Test series.
Tendulkar was replaced by Sourav Ganguly as captain for
the five-match ODI series against South Africa and he went on
to create history by becoming the country's most successful
test captain before himself being dumped from the job in 2005.
Dravid, who also made his Test debut at lord's in 1996
with Ganguly, replaced the Bengal stalwart and has led India
in 25 Tests and 79 ODIs, in the process also guiding the
country to away wins over the West Indies and England and
their first-ever Test victory in South Africa.
Bureau Report
