With the sacking of Charu Sharma as CEO of the enterprise, Vijay Mallya’s Royal Challengers seems to be facing an off-the-field crisis in addition to losing woes. Apparently, bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad is on his way out too. I suspect Dravid will be next. I don’t know what the sacking of the CEO can do, when the problems are on the field. The BRCs don’t seem to have any team spirit going for them. Seven games into the tournament, they don’t have an opening combination. The international players in the team seem indifferent to say the least.
As fellow blogger Apurv notes, there seems to be very little sympathy for Dravid, and that after a desperate yet scintillating, classical-cricket knock against Kings XI Punjab (which is btw, the most uninspired name). After seeing all the nothing-shots and slogs going for four and getting applause, it was a goose-bump moment to see Dravid almost effortlessly cut and drive so beautifully. That 66 off 50-odd balls was a treat to watch and would have been worth its weight in gold if only the other batsmen chipped in. So dismal was the showing of the Bangalore team against Mohali, that apart from Dravid’s 66 and Kohli’s 30-odd, the 10 extras conceded was the next highest and the third double-digit score. They were in soup – duck soup (pun intended).
Most bloggers and media folk seem to be baying for Dravid’s blood with every loss. Granted, he got some of team selection wrong and is not the most inspired captains; but he would have expected a bit more support from the Test greats. Kallis has been a flop with the bat and ball and Boucher as unpredictable as the weather. Of the entire lot, Praveen Kumar and Zaheer Khan have given most bang for the buck.
In hindsight, it is fairly easy to speculate on the droopy-shouldered Bangalore team. Perhaps the knife had hanging at their throats for sometime now. One could almost sense that from Dravid and Zaheer’s desperate efforts. When the chips are down, nothing inspires more that trust and nothing deflates more that threats: a simple management principle that most people learn only when it’s too late.
Maybe this just goes to prove that people should stick to what they know best. Like I had mentioned before Cricket run by business men is like Tech companies run by those who don’t know more than a few buzzwords (and look for returns just as team is formed).
With such being the state of affairs, one can only feel sorry for the never-say-die man Rahul Dravid. 😦
VM\'s Random Ramblings 
VMM,
I strongly suggest you switch over to supporting CSK before Mallya sacks you as the official team supporter.:)
charu was so inebriated by kingfisher he had at auction that he thoght IPL is something to do with test matches hence the team selection…
but dravid is wise guy (or i thought so) why he is still thinking it is…about tests i.e.
I guess yesterday’s loss further compounds Dravids problems. I think that Dravid is a bit confused…. which is a bit strange considering that he is a fine thinker. Practically everygame is witnessing achange in the batting order. I could not understand the logic of dropping Misbah and asking Boucher to bat at three.
Thanks for the kind words VM.
BRC is a joke. Dravid, Waseem J? What are they doing in this form of cricket? Dravid should fake an injury and step aside. At least Waseem has learnt the trick.
@OTT, you aren’t giving up are you? 🙂
@SP, yes, wonder what has happened to Dravid? The only possible explaination is the pressure. Or maybe there is more to this story.
@Apurv, you’re welcome and thanks for stopping by. Problems compounded indeed. At the moment, BRC is not the team to be in. 😦
@Arun, nice to see a newbie. However, I woudn’t go so far as to say the BRCs are a joke. T20 is anybody’s game and one good over and a cool head can make the difference between two sides. Like you say, I won’t be surprized if Dravs withdraws from the whole IPL circus. Sadly, either way, whether he stays or goes, he will get criticized – its loser vs. quitter. 😦
VM
there’s always going to be critics…but i think he will be admired largely if he says that T20 is not his cuppa tea and he is quiting for focus on tests…
its far better than going on and on like this and getting the embrassement of striping down of icon status and finally from team…
A straight point indeed, SP. It’s amazing how honesty, although on the face of it looks weak, makes a strong statement of courage. I hope Dravid does do that, for his sake and for the sake of Indian cricket.
Unfortunately my sympatheties are not with rahul… as he more keen in satisfying his ego rather than getting something going for his team… that knock was nice but some of the playing x1 selections have also been dubious… kallis has been terrible and there is no reason for that. Maybe his form deserted him.