Will the selection committee meeting on September 18 turn out to be a mere formality? If a section of the cricket board is to be believed, that is exactly what will happen. According to a BCCI insider, the board has already approached Sachin Tendulkar to fill the void created by Rahul Dravid's sudden resignation from the hot seat. It is now Tendulkar's call. If he answers in the affirmative and is willing to play all ODI series in coming one year, he will lead India in both, Tests and ODIs. In that case, there will be no split captaincy and Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be made Tendulkar's deputy. However, Tendulkar will reply in the coming two days. It is learnt that most of the BCCI prefers one captain for both versions.
BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah, however, denied that board has made any offer to Tendulkar. "It's for the selection committee to decide. How can we make such an offer?" he told this newspaper on Saturday.
"Neither will we directly communicate with any cricketer (on this matter) nor will we issue any directives to the selection committee," he added.
The selectors, on the other hand, are still divided over the issue. Chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar will surely cast his vote in favour of Tendulkar. But some of his colleagues are not so sure.
They feel, if Tendulkar is choosy about playing the ODI series, he should not be landed with the job at all. Instead, Dhoni should be made skipper in both forms of the game.
Apart from choosing the leader, the selectors will also pick the squad for first three matches of the upcoming seven-match ODI series against Aus tralia. The Australians are arriving here on September 25. The series starts with a day-nighter at Dravid's hometown on September 29. If a public vote would have decided the issue, Sourav Ganguly would have been the runaway winner. He towers over the rest in an opinion poll conducted by a television channel. The powers that be, howev er, are unlikely to toe the line. Former Australian captain Ian Chappell backs V.V.S. Laxman as Test captain and Dhoni as ODI captain. But Laxman's elevation to the top seat appears remote.
Tiger Pataudi feels that the team must have an old guard at the helm "for a while" looking at the fact that they have some tough assignments in the next one year. "Our next series is against Australia. Then we have a full series against Pakistan, and then the team will tour Australia for Test and ODI series.
"Looking at this, Sachin or Sourav should be the man for the job. A youngster can be made the vice captain which will help him groom as a future skipper," he said.
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