TIME it is to think and rethink if the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) should continue with Head Coach Rahul Dravid whose tenure officially ended with the culmination of the recent ICC World Cup. No matter if the BCCI decides to have a new Head Coach, since a change is quite likely to improve things. But the truth also cannot be overlooked that the overall performance of Rahul Dravid has been genuinely outstanding. The World Cup might have slipped from India’s hands, all right, but how much role did Rahul Dravid play in that set back, if one may pick up courage to ask! Yet, that is actually not the core issue at this point.

 

The core issue is if only a change of Head Coach will wash out the mistakes the team made in actual play on that fateful evening. And therefore, the natural extension of that core issue is if Rahul Dravid could have done any better. The BCCI has to analyse this core issue and its attendant facets very deeply before arriving at any decision. For, the decision concerns less about Rahul Dravid’s fate as Head Coach -- since his contract is already over; it concerns the future steps Indian cricket must take to continue its journey of excellence -- which it has had in the past two years despite wounds and warts. There is no doubt that India’s cricket team acquitted itself very well collectively. Some of its players notched up some personal glories as well.

 

It won the Asian Games Gold Medal, and in most major world tournaments, it rose to the top level before crashing out. In the two major setbacks, one was in the Test Championship while the other being the latest in the 50-over World Cup. In other words, this overall performance can be accepted as good enough. Some people may weave a story of Dravid’s failure as Head Coach with these details in mind. Some others may call the same as a saga of decent showing. Thus, there is scope for both the theories to hold sway in the thinking of cricket’s establishment.

 

With Dravid’s contract having been over, a change may be brought about in that position, all right. But this must not be done by heaping an uncalled for blame on Rahul Dravid’s head. For, as can be said in proverbial terms, Dravid did take the team to water, but the team could not bend itself do drink the potion -- in the final act. So, who and what is to be blamed, if at all? True, the team must have suffered a terrible emotional turmoil after the defeat. Yet, the team must accept its own responsibility, as well, for not been able to deliver at right moment. Will the BCCI think of changing the entire team, or at least its Captain? If that is preposterous, then blaming Rahul Dravid, too, would be equally so. This must lead the BCCI, therefore, to a sane approach and take steps that would help the team travel the long journey of excellence in a more composed manner.