Rahul is best Indian captain: Dungarpur

Varanasi, May 14 (UNI) Terming Team India skipper Rahul Dravid as the best cricket captain the country has ever produced, former BCCI chairman and selector Raj Singh Dungarpur today said the 2007 World Cup could be ''ours if we beat all opponents on the fielding turf''.

Talking to mediaperons here, Mr Dungarpur said even Kapil Dev, the all-rounder who captained India to its only World Cup triumph in 1983, has gone on record saying that this Team India is the best side the country has ever had.

Statements like these go on to speak volumes about the skippership of Dravid, who under the able guidance of Greg Chappel has not let the faith of national selectors go down.

Recalling the recent tour of Indian team to Pakistan, Mr Dungapur, who was then the team manager said that Rahul Dravid's decision to bat first even against the advice of Chappel, was not aimed to prove his captaincy only, but to save Sourav Ganguly from becoming a 'scapegoat'.

''Sourav had told Chappel that he was ready to bat at any position as aspired by Dravid. When asked Dravid said he wanted to open, against Chappel's advice of letting Sourav bat first, not for proving his credentials as opener, but to save Ganguly from failing and getting dejected on his favourite batting slot.

''At a time when so much was being written about the rivalry between Rahul and Sourav, the former helped his ex captain to steer through a rough phase by scoring a morale boositing 34 lower down the batting order, in the third test which India lost out to Pakistan,'' he added.

About Sourav's chances of making it back to Indian side, Dungarpur said that the comeback of the Price of Kolkata was not impossible, but extremely tough, especially at a time when promising youngsters were bursting on the national cricket scene every day.

''Playing County cricket in England will not help either Sourav or Zaheer Khan's prospects of making it back to Team India,'' he maintained.

UNI ARS DH RN1947