It’s official! Rahul Dravid had been named captain of India’s cricket squad. I know a lot of people have been pushing for this, but I have to admit I am a bit surprised.

Mohali: Sourav Ganguly’s days as Indian cricket captain has virtually come to an end with the national selectors on Thursday appointing Rahul Dravid as the skipper for the upcoming one-day international series against Sri Lanka and South Africa.

Cricket Board Secretary SK Nair, after an hour’s meeting of the National Selection Committee here, said the Committee’s decision was unanimous and had nothing to do with the injury to Ganguly.

“It has nothing to do with Ganguly. He will be considered as a player depending on the (fitness) report which will be submitted by the physio John Gloster on the 17th (October),” Nair said after the meeting.

Asked if the decision to appoint Dravid as captain meant the selectors desired a change, Nair said, “Obviously, when it is a different name, it means a change”.

Ganguly has been advised rest till October 17 after being diagnosed with “symptoms of mild tennis elbow”. He was ruled out of the Challenger Series now on at the PCA Stadium here.

The one-day series against Sri Lanka begins on Oct 25 and consists of seven ODIs while the five-match series against South Africa commences on November 16.

The Indian team will undergo a three-day camp under coach Greg Chappell in Bangalore from October 19 to 21.

The squad for the first two matches of the Sri Lanka series would be announced tomorrow.

“Nothing to do with Ganguly” my ass… How can you remove the cricket captain and then say it has nothing to do with him? But, I guess they say what they have to say, he is still on the team, after all.

More opinions on Dravid here, here, here, and here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 13th, 2005 at 2:34 pm and is filed under Cricket. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.