Tendulkar declines captaincy

[honestbharani]

Apologies if I sounded agro, but there are times when you make your 'speculative statements' sound very much like fact.

Firstly, the plan was for Dravid to never step down as captain, so Sachin being VC should never have meant he was the 'next' captain. Sort of like Gilchrist, because Ponting was never going to lost his captaincy. Dravid should have ideally stayed as captain until his career ended, or if he ever was no longer good enough to demand a place in the side.

No one can really say what the PLAN was with any certainty. Sachin was given the vice captaincy only because the selectors thought he would take over in an emergency, which is the way it is in Australia and everywhere else. Sachin himself had given his nod for this and that is why he is back being vice captain after such a long time. Rahul quitting captaincy IS an emergency and as such, all the more reason why Sachin should have taken up the job.

Now let me get this straight. I think it is a good idea by Sachin to get himself out of the race just as I think it was a good idea by Rahul to quit captaincy. Neither are too good at captaincy and with both of them, it seemed to me that it might affect their batting. Maybe not in terms of runs with Sachin but definitely in his approach and with Dravid, in both. Both of them are invaluable as batsmen for INdia, esp. in tests and therefore, we need them at their very best as batsmen for the tough series coming up. And therefore, I think it is good that neither will be weighed down by the responsibility of captaincy now.


All I am saying here is that if you think Dravid did a big disservice to Indian cricket by quitting captaincy when he did, the same should now apply for Sachin as well, may not be to the same extent, but still, if you saw that as a cop out by Dravid, this is more or less a cop out by Sachin. That's all. And of course, the whole "Sachin did the same in his day" point has already been made in the other thread about Dravid quitting the captaincy.

I'm not going to talk about this alienation stuff, this stuff that Sachin is talking more before the WC to the captain than after it etc. because it simply gets us nowhere. Its all rubbish that people love to do because it gives us something to talk about, and it happens more so in Indian cricket than in anything.

It is not about talking to the captain alone, it was just his whole body language and as someone who basically watches every match that India plays in, I think I can justifiably say that SAchin didn't look as animated as he usually does in the WC. He almost never walked up with any ideas when we have seen that generally he seems to have too many of them... The ONLY reason it happens more in India and Pakistan and West Indies than the other teams is because IN FACT these are the teams that have more internal quabbles than the other sides. Not EVERY single rumour is going to be false.... And I never did insist on any of my ideas. If you read my posts post England test series, I talked about how united the team and the dressing room looked and about how much Sourav and Sachin seemed INTO the team.... I am not quite the pessimist you are making me out to be, tbh...

HB, I respect your posts greatly, but you seem so headstrong on proving that there is a split that you're flipping from one thing to another. First it was a split between Rahul and the Sachin/Sourav gang, and now maybe its all the seniors vs. the younger players. So basically, you've gone from one extreme to the other, because of a gut feeling. Fair enough have a gut feeling, but to deny that you didn't suggest that Sachin was trying something dodgy (whether it be ignoring Dravid or whatever) would be false. I remember someone, and it may have been you, mentioning that they thought Tendulkar still hadn't gotten over the time when Dravid declared on Sachin when he was on 194 vs. Pakistan in 2004.

That someone was SJS, actually. I haven't made this point in two years, it would be pretty stupid of me to say that now. I don't think Sachin and Dravid had or even now have too many problems, but I do think there have been problems between Chappell and Sachin and MAYBE Sachin is still a little disappointed that Dravid didn't stick up for him against Chappell. I am not saying Sachin led a riot against Dravid and his place in the side, I am just saying that he may have SLIGHTLY chilled off in his attitude towards him and that MAY have been why Dravid is starting to look so tense nowadays. Again, I am not saying anyone committed any great sin, just one of those things that can happen between human beings...

And I knew you'd bring up Lara's acceptance of captaincy as a criticism of Sachin. Completely different situations. Indian cricket isn't in tatters like WI was firstly, and secondly, Lara was taking charge of both forms of the game. There is NO need to have separate captains when the captain in the ODI team is ALSO in the test team, and many of the former captains (Dravid, Sachin, Sourav) are playing UNDER Dhoni in the ODI team. It just complicates matters.

I didn't say Lara accepted in the SAME situation. I said SIMILAR because there were no other captaincy options at that time too and he was basically a semi-retired ODI player at that time having publically stated that he is trying to play more tests and cut off on ODIs. I am almost sure that IF Sachin had indicated that he wanted to be captain in both forms if he were to be made captain, it would have been done with Dhoni as the understudy. IN fact, I felt that was the decision the selectors would take once DRavid quit captaincy. You said DRavid basically let India down when he quit captaincy and I am saying Sachin is pretty much doing the same thing if one were to look at it from THAT point of view. My own opinion is that both have made good well judged calls simply because their batting skills far outweigh their captaincy skills. If you feel you are not the best option, you simply quit or don't accept the job which is what these two have done...