 Cricket controversies in 2007
30th Dec 2007 23:03 IST
Manish Kumar
Rahul Dravid's sudden decision to withdraw himself from contention when his contract for captaincy was up for renewal after a successful tour of England remained a mystery wrapped in enigma will have to rank as the biggest surprise or at least inexplicable decisions of the year in cricket.
But the man remained inscrutable, particularly when it was widely acknowledged that apart from the debacle at the World Cup, the team had performed creditably under him.
Rumours of not getting along with the chairman of selection committee, Dilip Vengsarkar did the rounds, but the man just put his head down.
All was apparently not well with Vengsarkar, as Dravid made it a point to meet the board chairman to announce his decision to step down as the captain. It was 'Colonel' Vengsarkar's heavy-handedness which also came in the way of Sachin Tendulkar accepting the captaincy, sources claimed.
But the biggest shock for his fans was the decision to drop him from the ODI team against Pakistan despite a not too bad 823 runs in 31 matches at 37.40 with eight half-centuries in the year till then.
continued.. |
