Strong Arm

Rahul Dravid is made captain on trial as the team searches for form and the players for direction. With time running out, India's most efficient firefighter steps onto a burning deck.

When Graeme Smith was being primed for the job of South African captain, his Board is said to have asked him, "What would you be willing to give up to become captain?" Smith is said to have replied, "My youth." Rahul Dravid could well have answered, "My peace of mind."

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DRAVID: The test begins

The captaincy of India, every new appointee declares, is a "privilege" and an "honour". Actually, it is like tap dancing with your shoes on fire-it gets you a lot of attention, but no one else knows what it really feels like. Being captain in cricket is like no other job in sport. Being captain of India is like no other job in cricket. Being captain of India today is a job no sane man should want.

So, almost inevitably, up steps the most sane man in the Indian team. Dravid, 32, occupies the prickliest seat in Indian cricket today not because he deserved it or he was ready or because time demanded change. All those conditions applied even a year ago. But he is captain primarily because his predecessor Sourav Ganguly had backed the selectors into a corner from where they had only two options-to be fair to Dravid or to send for new backbones.

For the next month, Dravid will get his first extended run in charge in 12 ODIs versus Sri Lanka and South Africa. Captaincy changeovers are never smooth in India; moving from Ganguly to Dravid has come with fearful turbulence. For starters, Dravid has been given 15 players, of whom eight have played less than 20 ODIs. Six of these have played fewer than seven ODIs. It is part of a larger plan for the 2007 World Cup, which will require 18 months of patience and equanimity-qualities not replete in Indian cricket-to come to fruition. The team and its new coach Greg Chappell are still sizing each other up. At the start of the season, the team understood that Ganguly's time at the top was up but his spat with Chappell has tested loyalties and split opinion. Not logical, but only human. The bridge between the support staff and the players is not as strong as it should be and Dravid will have to play architect, engineer and Horatio.

For a deed which requires delicate negotiation, Dravid has the captaincy without the one given he needs to succeed: the cushion of time. Successful leadership is a product of hours in the job. Dravid's three immediate predecessors ended their first year of captaincy pretty much 50-50 in the records (see box). So, 12 ODIs packed into 34 days will say nothing about Dravid's captaincy. Neither that he is a master, nor that he is a mug.

He may have too little time, but there the selectors could extend him another favour. "A captain must get the team that he wants-more often than not," says former all-rounder Robin Singh, who has played under Mohammed Azharuddin, Sachin Tendulkar and briefly under Ganguly. Whether the Kolkata man had powerful support or whether he just wore down selectors is immaterial. Getting his men was one of the reasons he succeeded. Dravid is not Ganguly, but that is no reason to panic. Captains are neither magicians or messiahs-nor are coaches-and the best that they can be expected to do is make the team they get better. Ganguly got five seasons, pushed the Indians some distance, but ran out of steam himself. Dravid has got his rightful turn but it must be longer than 12 matches or else derailment lies ahead.

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SKIPPERS' ROPE: Azharuddin (left); Tendulkar; Ganguly (right);

In any case, it is not like they went and made Bozo the clown captain of India. In Sri Lanka earlier this season, Dravid the tactician drew praise for setting attacking fields. Ganguly, considered "aggressive", would usually defend a target by planting men on the fence and inducing mistakes through strangulation. Dravid, the less demonstrative, chose the swordfight. Ganguly once declared when India were 36 runs ahead of Zimbabwe. Dravid once declared when Tendulkar was six short of 200. Ganguly rarely failed to surprise. Dravid, to everyone's surprise, may prove he is not afraid to shock. In the midst of every selection debate-and he is expected to get into a few-Dravid stands firmly on the side of good sense: team work means giving not taking, dazzling talent or exceptional attitude/ work ethic or both are of little use if they are not converted into runs and wickets when it counts.

Dravid is being told he must be his own man, lead with his personality. It is a tricky call because a captain's personality can be differently split. Azhar, Robin Singh says, led by personal performance. Tendulkar set high standards but suffered due to tough away tours and frequent changes in personnel. Ganguly got his way because he was backed by the Board. Then there is the reverse view, from a player who prefers to be anonymous: Azharuddin was a "detached" leader, Tendulkar was an "imposer" who tried to think for the group while Ganguly knew how to communicate and fought for his men. Obviously captaincy is a grey mist.

If not anything else, Dravid will be a pragmatic captain. "Personally, I can judge myself on effort but results are important," he said. "In cricket, the yardstick is always the numbers-whether with the bat or otherwise." In the midst of bitter sectarian sniping, it is sometimes forgotten that Ganguly owed some of his success to the numbers from Dravid's bat.

Under Ganguly, Dravid scored 14 centuries and 22 fifties and averaged a freakish 97 in Tests won. He kept wickets in ODIs for a season longer than necessary. All the time he had people whispering into his ear that he was being taken for a ride and was jeopardising his longevity. If he bought into it, it did not show. If the banished Ganguly now returns to the side, he has the opportunity to reciprocate Dravid's loyalty. Anything else will sink the team. The compromise formula of separate captains had better be just a pie in the sky-or all India will be looking at is a pie in the face.

Recently in Australia, West Indian maestro Brian Lara gave Dravid a little tip about Zen and the Art of Captaincy: "Learn that you cannot control the future. Understand that you cannot bat for your batsmen or bowl for your bowlers. Learn to relax." This Dravid fellow happens to be good at learning. He understands already that captaincy is quite a brew: it needs time, the right personnel, talent scouting and management skills, the powers of persuasion, sound advice and, of course, luck. It means dealing with a coach who might want more, selectors who want more from less, a Board that wants more but will yield little, a public that, always, wants it all.

The outside world gets Dravid as a bland corporate brand, forever chained to cliches-The Wall, Mr Reliable, Mr Not-Ever-Taking-His-Shirt-Off-In-Public. But it doesn't really matter. He is known best to his mates, with whom he will spend more time this month than with his new-born son. A firefighter in the middle, a mediator in the back room, captaincy will require Dravid to crank it all up one more notch and take a step forward as cricketer and man. It will require risk and ruthlessness, strong shoulders and an even stronger chin, pride and humility, an understanding of when to yank the reins and when to let them a little loose, the willingness to take punishment and inflict it.

It may even require him to do what he rarely likes doing. It will require Rahul Dravid to reveal himself.

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