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Indian Premier League
Kumble comes out in support of Dravid
Cricinfo staff
May 16, 2008
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Firm backing: Anil Kumble comes out in support of Rahul Dravid
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Anil Kumble has firmly backed Rahul Dravid, the captain of the Bangalore Royal Challengers, and said it was time "people who matter" understand what sports is all about.
Kumble's statement comes in the wake of the comments made by Vijay Mallya, the liquor baron who owns the franchise, where he defended his decision to sack Charu Sharma, the CEO, and also said his biggest mistake was to trust Dravid on matters of team selection.
"What's important though, is that at this time, you need all the support and backing you can get," Kumble wrote in his column for Hindustan Times. "You need the people around you, the people who matter, to understand what sport is all about, to realise that no one goes out there to lose.
"What's unfortunate is that, invariably, everyone starts pointing fingers at the captain. So it stands all the more to reason that people within the camp then stand up and say 'we believe in you and your team'. That's what's most important in this kind of situation. I do understand that the IPL is different and there is a corporate look and feel to the whole concept. But having said that, at the end of the day, it is a cricket match - one that a cricketer does not want to lose."
Kumble admitted that his side had fallen too far back in the tournament - after losing seven of their first nine games - but felt there was still an opportunity to get back the winning feeling. "As players, we go through various ups and downs in our careers, there are phases when nothing one does is wrong and there are others where the same things that come so naturally to you seem like alien concepts," he wrote.
"But as cricketers, we also know the bad times will pass, that we will pick ourselves up and bounce back. There's nothing new in that and I expect we will here too. It might be somewhat late for this tournament and that's unfortunate, but we have a bunch of proven quality players and nothing can take that away."
VVS Laxman had earlier come out in support of Dravid, saying that the side had only fallen back because they had lost out on some close games. "If they had won those, no questions would have been raised about his captaincy," he had told Cricinfo.
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