It is indeed a tough job to keep wickets for 50 overs and one can expect Dravid to bat nearly for 30 overs in a oneday. But the fact to accept is that Dravid is performing well while he is keeping wickets. Parthiv is still not a finished article. If we opt for parthiv then it will be criminal injustice to kaif who is a brilliant fielder and also a genuine batsman down the order. Kaif has also proved that he has won matches for India. I think parthiv should be given oppurtunities in test matches so that he gets experienced and at some stage we can experiment with his bat down the order.
What matters most is "team" if team is winning that is most important which dravid has said in pakistan .he declared when sachin tendulkar was on 194.And now same ganguly wants from Dravid now so what's wrong with it.
Though it may be bit hard on Dravid, it should be obeserved that specialists are out of fashion. Everyone (atleast in the one-day team) should be able to do well in atleast two of the three depts. batting, bowling, fielding (wk). Sometime back, people were crying that Dravid was made into wk just to keep his place in the one day team. He has horned his skills to an extent that people have forgotten those days and it shows that people have rather short memory. Look at Adam Gilchrist (people may argue that he is a regular wk. so what), he opens the innings. Though Dravid is the MVP in both forms of cricket now, he himself will agree that the additional responsibility of keeping has improved his overall game itself. He himself has said that he is able to judge the ball better while batting because of his wk. Media is the real culprit and they go on drum beating and raise the readers' passion. I guess Ganguly can understand things better than most of us (if not all) here and that's it.
It is indeed cruel to exhaust the human willingness for the sake of satisfying the fancies of a captain. Dravid the mainstay of India's sustained batting efforts in the recent past has now been burned out to cushion the failures of nonbatting captain.His contributions(captain's)to the game by way of runs seldom happens.This calamity is to some extent made up by inducting one more batsman by burning the the energy of Dravid as a wicketkeeper.This act would notonly shorten his career life but would also put more pressure on his batting as the exhaustion will overtake his batting ablity
RE:Dravid as wicketkeeper
by Vijit Vinod on Jul 05, 2004 05:34 AM
dravid should compromice for the team.we do not have any other wicketkeeper-allrounder.we should not change winning combination.
RE:Dravid as wicket keeper
by C.N.Shankar on Jul 05, 2004 05:12 AM
I agree with Mr. Das entirely. There was a time when poor Rahul had to accept the dual role since that was the only way he could be fitted into the XI. NOT Anymore! Dravid has made sure with his performance in the One Day Games ( with the Bat )that his name too will be 'pencilled' along with Ganguly & Tendulkar for the final List. The Tour Committee has to select only 8 players on the day of the Match. In the days to come Shri Ganguly will be forced to look up to Dravid for his place in the final XI as the days for Rahul to become Captain are not far away! It is time Ganguly stopped these 'airing of views' to the Media. It is for the Selectors to intervene and tell the Captain that it is STUPID to insist Dravid should keep wickets, more so when he has made his views public.
Yes, it is hard on Dravid but do we have an alternative? I think the media is unnecessarily creating an issue out of nothing. They are looking for some sound bytes and wasting everyone's time. Dravid has all the right to complain because he is the one taking all the pressure and strain. All said and done, he is the MVP of this current team and has to shoulder additional responsibility :-)) 3 cheers to Dravid!!
RE:Dravid and keeping
by Raj1 on Jul 02, 2004 11:11 PM
Gangully, You are running on a lottery ticket of Dravid. if Dravid gets injury their is no luck for you to win a match in either one day or test. At that time you have to plan the trip for Bangladesh/holland. As you are dump in pace bowling pitches. Understand the Dravid brain and intellectuals, who stays focus on the job . He is not worried about keeping, main worry is if get injury we all loose one of the great ever produced cricketer who loves to play for country not for selfish like you. You are unfit to be in a team of test playing team at all.
guys, if you've havent seen the pressure and stress Dravid has gone through, that's pretty sad since he has been going through a lot lately with this new role of his. you should bring in Patel or Ratra or if possible, Mongia (Nayan) into the team. Look at the long term effects: they have one more specialist batsman, you've got place to think outside the box, and move your batting order around. Maybe taking out a batsman and putting a wicketkeeper and keeping one spinner and a few (2 or 3) fast bowlers would really suffice since we now are relying on Veru, Sachin, and Ganguly on bowling now (which is very good; all three of these guys are aggressive bowlers) Dravid should be relieved, Sourav. come on Yar! give it to Patel and bring him in.
RE:Dravid? Wicket keeper?
by shakti on Jul 04, 2004 06:27 AM
bring in ratra, nayan or any other wicket keeper ? are you serious? do you think any one of them can replace the job done by dravid or can replace the extra specialist batsman who is responsible for Indian wins in last two years. can you think of as winning those magical games without kaif,laxman or yuvraj.can you think of australia without Gilchrist.. if they dont have gilchrist (keeper batsman at its best) u cant set australia as a winning combination no matters how much you play around with the remaining team. ganguly is very correct in going on with Dravid because there is no need to change the winning combination as all know dravid can do that.
