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[undercover]

PORT OF SPAIN: At a point in the post-match press conference, Indian skipper Rahul Dravid seemed to drift off into another land. He stared at a faraway place and then shrugged his shoulders and proceeded to answer the questions the media had for him.

Not even in his worst nightmares would India have imagined this fate for his team. So when he was asked about the repeated failures of his star batsmen in crunch situations, he had no real answer.

"We have had successes in the past but the guys need to go back and sort out some things. Our batting should be our strength. This was picked as the best batting line-up in India but we just didn't bat well enough. It's certainly something that we need to think about," he said. "It is the time to think critically. When you lose like this, you have to sit down and think how we can go forward from here. It's just that I haven't had time to think about it."

Asked if he had any plans to step down from captaincy, Dravid didn't reveal his future plans either.

"I am not the captain anymore. I was selected to lead the team upto the 2007 World Cup so now whatever questions you might have should be to the wise men in the board," he said. "One tricky banana-skin game did us in."

Even though India still stand a chance of making it into the Super 8s, Dravid said he had virtually no hope of making it to the second round.

"You certainly wouldn't write a fairy tale this way."

At the other end of the spectrum stands the man with all his processes and visions, coach Greg Chappell. The former Australian skipper presented a very defensive front -- Refusing to answer questions on the grounds that they were inflammatory or because they were not in the right forum or simply because this was not the right now.

"Pressure certaibly affected us. It certainly had a cbearing on the results. No comment is going to help the situation. I am happy that I have done the best job I could. It's not the right time to make an assessment," said Chappell. Skipper Rahul Dravid has blamed the batsmen for India's 69-run loss to Sri Lanka here on Friday, which has left them all but eliminated from the World Cup.

[feverpitch]

no comments. just get OUT!

[fineleg]

"I am not the captain anymore. I was selected to lead the team upto the 2007 World Cup so now whatever questions you might have should be to the wise men in the board," he said. "One tricky banana-skin game did us in."

Rahul Dravid says:One banana-skin match against Bangladesh?
What abt today's match? Why could you not fix the banana-skin mistake today? Huh?

[prfsr]

I am happy that I have done the best job I could.

I truly believe this statement. He came in showing unenviable results for a state side and did nothing different here. His fiasco with SG will sell him a lot of books, so that was a smart move on his part. It is not his fault that BCCI was bowled over with his techno-gibberish.

-P

[bouncer]

He was a bad coach then, he is a bad coach now............Fire his sorry ass.......right now

[feverpitch]

He was a bad coach then, he is a bad coach now............Fire his sorry ass.......right now

Nope... we want a show trial, the kind he held for SG, so that when he writes his book, there is nothing left for him to crib about and only fineleg, silly point, massa prem, bro ian, asslicker fraser and varsha chogle, mba buy copies for their masochistic pleasure!

[fineleg]

He was a bad coach then, he is a bad coach now............Fire his sorry ass.......right now

Nope... we want a show trial, the kind he held for SG, so that when he writes his book, there is nothing left for him to crib about and only fineleg, silly point, massa prem, bro ian, asslicker fraser and varsha chogle, mba buy copies for their masochistic pleasure!

For a minute I read fraser above as feverB, since the adjective so fits! Hehe!

[Prafulla]

I will not blame a single player, captain or coach. It is collective failure. We simply did not play well and best way forward is not to play the blame game. No player/coach/captain wants to lose. So sometimes, our ability and intention do not coincide. and in sports - many a times, our opponent plays better too.