When a champion stumbles, you offer a comforting arm on the shoulder, not a thump on the back. It is an indicator of how you value your people.

In the jungle when the lion grows old and slow, he is left alone to be surrounded by the very animals who would hide in his presence. We are, we must be, different because grace is a human trait.

Rahul Dravid is not yet the old lion for he still has his bat, his weapon, that can keep foes away. But he has been treated like one. You could argue that he need be treated no differently from anyone else and that if he doesn’t score enough runs he should be left out like anyone else. The problem with that theory is that seeks to treat proven match-winners like young hopefuls.

A Dravid or a Tendulkar or a Kumble has won you matches in the past and, when in form, will win you matches again. The organisation must seek to create an environment that gives these match-winners the best possible opportunity of regaining form.

But to leave him alone, not speak to him, not explain what the plan for him is to be petty. The plan could well be that playing two Ranji Trophy matches is a good opportunity to return to form but that plan must be communicated so that the player knows where he stands. Sadly, I suspect, there is no plan to communicate and it might well be that as a knee jerk reaction to the howls of protest against his exclusion, Dravid will be brought back. That will make everybody insecure.

... contd.