Former Indian captain and legendary batsman Rahul Dravid believes that coach Duncan Fletcher has a lot to offer and should be given more power in team selection to prosper as coach, says a report in The Times of India.
"Duncan has a lot of strength as a coach. He connects well with a lot of players and works quite well with them. But, in some ways, the scope or power that he has to make decisions or to make selections has been a little limited," he said.
"Some of these people do have the maturity to be able to understand that when players come to them with a problem, they don't necessarily use that as a way to drop someone. But also the coach sees players from such close quarters, he understands players. So I think he must have a say," he added.
"I think his reputation is on the line as well. I think, knowing someone like him, he would want to get more involved and have a say in where his own career and his own reputation is headed," Dravid said.
On the role Fletcher can play to help the new-look Indian middle-order, Dravid said, “He's seen a lot of players ... who's a better middle-order player among Manoj Tiwary, an Ajinkya Rahane or a Shikhar Dhawan or Murali Vijay? At least, to have an opinion, an informed opinion by actually coming and watching some games. The fact that he didn't come and didn't attend the selection committee meeting tells you that maybe that's not in his scope of work, he doesn't have those powers.”
Meanwhile, the Mid Day reports that Dravid has has backed Mahendra Singh Dhoni to retain his captaincy but felt the selectors can, in the near future, consider reducing the current India skipper's workload.
“From his own personal point of view, you also want to see the best of Dhoni as a player. He has a lot to contribute as a batsman and wicketkeeper and we want to see the best of that," Dravid said. I don't think we want to lose that and if that means at some stage, maybe the time's not right now but in the near future, we have to relieve him of the responsibility from one format to get the best out of him as a player then I think the selectors have to take that call,” he said.
