Defined as a person or group made to bear the blame for others or to suffer in their place, a scape goat is one of their favorite dishes the Indian board always has on its menu. Even though i am a relative newcomer when it comes to following the antics of the so called jokers running cricket in India, I am in no way new to the tamasha. Having seen Indian cricket go through its many rough patches and a few bright spots, one thing was always clear about the players -You better hope your team performs well when you are not. This is the truth about the game. No player or for that matter no performer is at the peak of his performance all the time. There will be times when, the seemingly immortal become mortal, the unbreakable become fragile. that is when the wolves come out howling for blood. When there are enough lions, hungry and strong to cover your weaknesses up, these wolves will stay at bay, patiently waiting for the leftovers after the hunt.
This is the reason i think Rahul Dravid is still playing at his favorite number three spot despite repeated failures. Let me make one thing clear. I am a huge fan of his, both for his performance as well as his personality. He, along with the current crop of seniors, defined what professionalism is and showed one master class after another on what the word exactly meant. But I feel he is lucky enough to be having this bad phase, which every player goes through, when India is on such a high. Whenever India lost a test series during the 90s the selectors always found the scapegoats. That is the reason why VVS Lakshman, the only batsmen who can inspire a feeling of awe from the master ( Once Sachin said " When you are batting with VVS, you should never get carried away. he makes batting looks so easy"), took so long to enchant the whole world with his displays.On the other side of the coin was Ganguly. When he was conquering one territory after the other and taking the Indian team where it never went before, his batting suffered. He averaged in 30s for most part of his captaincy. Apart from a few dazzling bright spots his overall figures looked meak. However, his presence in the team was justified by what he brought to the table. He was fearless and never blinked when stared in the eye. This he was able to do because the rest were able to cover it up. He never fulfilled his true potential till the time came for him to perform one final act, which is considered as one of the greatest goodbye seasons any sport has ever seen.
So how does this work? Take the case of pall bearers. When everyone is full of energy no one feels the pain. If one of them goes down the rest can still afford to keep going. What if most of them go down? That is when trouble starts. You either replace the whole batch, when you have enough people waiting in the wings, or persist with them. In the Indian scenario, it is equally important for the board to run the sport as it is to please a billion followers. So when the situation is bad the hunt for the goat starts and often the player who is supposed to evoke the least resistance is sacked. But today Rahul Dravid is lucky, that he can afford to rest while the rest of the team chugs along with great gusto. I think somehow he deserves it. Given the number of occasions he has shouldered the responsibility, not only can he afford to take such a break, he even deserves a ride in that palanquin. In a world where the meaning of on field performance changed to showing off new dance moves, where gloss replaced gumption and glam replaced game, it is required of someone to hold guard, to preserve the sanctity of the perfect cover drive and the solid defence. I am glad the 'e' which nowadays defines everything that comes from his hometown has stuck together with him in a rough patch to let him be the escaped goat rather than be a scape goat.
This is the reason i think Rahul Dravid is still playing at his favorite number three spot despite repeated failures. Let me make one thing clear. I am a huge fan of his, both for his performance as well as his personality. He, along with the current crop of seniors, defined what professionalism is and showed one master class after another on what the word exactly meant. But I feel he is lucky enough to be having this bad phase, which every player goes through, when India is on such a high. Whenever India lost a test series during the 90s the selectors always found the scapegoats. That is the reason why VVS Lakshman, the only batsmen who can inspire a feeling of awe from the master ( Once Sachin said " When you are batting with VVS, you should never get carried away. he makes batting looks so easy"), took so long to enchant the whole world with his displays.On the other side of the coin was Ganguly. When he was conquering one territory after the other and taking the Indian team where it never went before, his batting suffered. He averaged in 30s for most part of his captaincy. Apart from a few dazzling bright spots his overall figures looked meak. However, his presence in the team was justified by what he brought to the table. He was fearless and never blinked when stared in the eye. This he was able to do because the rest were able to cover it up. He never fulfilled his true potential till the time came for him to perform one final act, which is considered as one of the greatest goodbye seasons any sport has ever seen.
So how does this work? Take the case of pall bearers. When everyone is full of energy no one feels the pain. If one of them goes down the rest can still afford to keep going. What if most of them go down? That is when trouble starts. You either replace the whole batch, when you have enough people waiting in the wings, or persist with them. In the Indian scenario, it is equally important for the board to run the sport as it is to please a billion followers. So when the situation is bad the hunt for the goat starts and often the player who is supposed to evoke the least resistance is sacked. But today Rahul Dravid is lucky, that he can afford to rest while the rest of the team chugs along with great gusto. I think somehow he deserves it. Given the number of occasions he has shouldered the responsibility, not only can he afford to take such a break, he even deserves a ride in that palanquin. In a world where the meaning of on field performance changed to showing off new dance moves, where gloss replaced gumption and glam replaced game, it is required of someone to hold guard, to preserve the sanctity of the perfect cover drive and the solid defence. I am glad the 'e' which nowadays defines everything that comes from his hometown has stuck together with him in a rough patch to let him be the escaped goat rather than be a scape goat.
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