There actually is not any place for sentiment in sport, it could seem. Under Erik ten Hag, Manchester United gained the FA Cup and the League Cup, but the Dutchman was sacked by the troubled one-time English giants in October 2024. He subsequently moved to Bayer Leverkusen within the German Bundesliga at first of this season, however his tenure lasted a mere two league fixtures.
Defending champions Leverkusen accomplished a double final 12 months below Xabi Alonso (who has since moved to Real Madrid) however started this season poorly, dropping their opener to Hoffenheim at house and then frittering away a two-goal benefit to permit ten-man Werder Bremen to salvage a 3-3 draw. That was proof sufficient for the membership to be satisfied that the crew wasn’t headed in the fitting path, that Ten Hag wasn’t the person to guide them ahead. Hence the gorgeous sack, simply weeks into the brand new season.
Coaches in skilled sport are judged by outcomes, and outcomes alone. Some of them get an extended rope as a result of of their observe document, others jettisoned instantly — like ten Hag — for one motive or the opposite. Especially however not completely in membership soccer, it’s a rampant pattern, although it’s not as if different disciplines are immune from this phenomenon.
Last week, Rahul Dravid parted ways with Rajasthan Royals, the franchise with which he’s primarily recognized although he performed for Royal Challengers Bangalore (because it was known as then) for the primary three years and captained them within the inaugural version in 2008. Having accomplished his task as India head coach on the finish of the T20 World Cup in June final 12 months, Dravid’s return to Rajasthan in an identical capability was a no brainer. He had been related with the primary champions of the IPL for 5 years from 2011, first as captain and then as crew director and mentor, earlier than taking cost of the India ‘A’ and Under-19 groups for 4 years, between 2015 and 2019.
Forgettable marketing campaign
To lump Dravid’s exit in the identical class as ten Hag will likely be each unfair and unfaithful. Admittedly, the Royals had a poor 2025 season, registering simply 4 victories and ending an unedifying ninth within the ten-team event. But their marketing campaign appeared doomed from the time long-standing captain Sanju Samson was unable to maintain wickets within the first three matches owing to a finger damage sustained throughout the T20I sequence towards England in January.
With Samson slotting in as an impression participant who solely batted however didn’t hold wickets, the captaincy was bestowed on a brief foundation on Riyan Parag, one of the 5 gamers Rajasthan had retained earlier than the season.
Parag’s appointment got here as a shock given that there have been different, extra skilled choices to choose from, not least opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and West Indian Shimron Hetmyer, each of whom had been additionally retained alongside Dhruv Jurel. Parag wasn’t fairly as much as scratch as both batter or skipper; maybe, the primary seeds of unease stemmed from his ascension to the throne.
With Dravid’s exit, Rajasthan at the moment are the second IPL franchise and not using a head coach. Chandrakant Pandit, who was in cost when Kolkata Knight Riders ended a 10-year title drought in 2024, left after deciding to ‘explore new opportunities.’ There has been a rising clamour for extra Indian head coaches within the IPL – as of now, the one remaining cricketing bosses are Ashish Nehra (Gujarat Titans) and Hemang Badani (Delhi Capitals) – and the most recent developments haven’t helped, however then once more, that’s the very nature of high-stakes sport, isn’t it?
Within months of Pandit overseeing KKR’s profitable march in 2024, Dravid introduced the curtain down on a terrific stint with the Indian crew by wrapping his palms round significant silverware as head coach for the one time.
After winding up his teaching stints with the ‘A’ and Under-19 groups, Dravid moved to the National Cricket Academy (now the Centre of Excellence) because the cricket head in 2019, revolutionising the system and placing processes in place which were constructed exponentially on and fine-tuned by his favorite batting accomplice, V.V.S. Laxman. In November 2021, Dravid succeeded Ravi Shastri because the Indian coach; inside just a few months, Rohit Sharma was elevated because the all-format captain with Virat Kohli ceding the T20I and Test captaincies (he was eliminated as ODI skipper). Dravid and Rohit, as totally different temperamentally as is conceivable, struck up an distinctive relationship primarily based on mutual respect, belief, affection and supreme confidence in one another, main Indian cricket into the long run with a horny, entertaining model of play throughout codecs.
Dravid’s two-year contract was to finish with the 50-over house World Cup in the direction of the tip of 2023. Taking sustained excessive strain of their stride, India was excellent all through the event, successful ten matches on the trot with grand authority and unmatched superiority.
Rohit appeared on track to emulate Mahendra Singh Dhoni by changing into simply the second Indian captain to elevate the World Cup trophy on house soil till Australia gate-crashed the social gathering within the Ahmedabad closing.
Rohit felt there was unfinished enterprise to take care of; it was his telephone name that satisfied Dravid to remain on for one more seven and a half months, till the tip of the T20 World Cup. “In some ways, if we had won that game in Ahmedabad, I’m not really sure whether he would have asked me to continue,” Dravid instructed this author final September. “Both of us felt there was some unfinished business. We’d done a lot of good work and felt we wanted to have one more crack at it.”
Like within the 50-over model, India had been unbeaten heading into the June 29 closing in Bridgetown towards South Africa. A second heartbreak in a brief span appeared imminent with Heinrich Klaasen firing on all cylinders when India got here charging again. Spearheaded by Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya, aided by a sensational last-over catch by Suryakumar Yadav and led inspirationally by Rohit, India overturned a misplaced trigger in stirring trend to tug off probably the most sudden of heists. Not recognized to nice outward exhibits of emotion, Dravid’s roar as he lifted the trophy confirmed simply how a lot that success meant to him, although in that second of triumph too, his quiet dignity remained his staunchest ally.
Unsurprisingly, Dravid has maintained studied silence within the days since Rajasthan Royals put out an announcement formalising the previous India captain’s departure.
“As part of the franchise structural review, Rahul had been offered a broader position at the franchise, but has chosen not to take this,” the assertion revealed. One can’t say this with any certainty, however the possession group should have been stunned by Dravid choosing a clear break. Franchise homeowners aren’t usually accustomed to gamers/coaches turning them down, however realizing Dravid for so long as they’ve finished, they need to have seen this coming.
Dravid doesn’t make compromises on the expense of his integrity and dedication. A ‘broader position’ didn’t curiosity him as soon as it was apparent that his tenure as a head coach after only one 12 months was coming to an finish.
In the previous few days, there was intense hypothesis about Dravid’s fast plans. He has been linked with KKR, nonetheless and not using a head coach following Pandit’s determination in the direction of the tip of July, in addition to with Chennai Super Kings, unsurprising given his robust bond with former BCCI and ICC boss N. Srinivasan, who’s again as chairman of Chennai Super Kings Cricket Limited. Perhaps Dravid is contemplating these choices, maybe he isn’t.
After all, he hasn’t had a ‘break’ for greater than three a long time, going from aspiring India cricketer to a memorable Test debut in June 1996, establishing himself as an unquestioned, dependable No. 3, taking up the captaincy in 2005 and finally calling time on his Test profession in 2012, after which he moved on to a technical off-field function in varied totally different capacities.
What’s in retailer?
Will Dravid resolve to take a while off now, simply to style life with out an official cricketing duty? His two boys, Samit and Anvay, are upwardly cellular, the previous having simply graduated from the Under-19 ranks and the latter making a robust pitch to interrupt into the state U-19 squad when solely 17. Maybe the doting father will select to share his knowledge and experience and information with his sons, with whom he in all probability hasn’t been capable of spend as a lot time as all of them would really like, given his quite a few commitments. Dravid isn’t a hands-on, obsessive mother or father fussing over his cricketing children like many others, however that doesn’t imply that he isn’t deeply invested of their natural progress.
A decade is a lifetime within the IPL, and Dravid was maybe uncovered to an entire totally different ideology and model of performing on his return to Rajasthan Royals after 10 lengthy years. Again on the threat of speculating, that doubtlessly made it more durable for him to stay with the franchise, which is a disgrace so far as the youthful gamers are involved as a result of there’s a lot to be taught from Dravid – about cricket and method and batting and game- and situational consciousness, positive, but in addition about life, about methods to conduct and carry oneself, about methods to channelise aggression and about methods to present the world (not that that has ever been a Dravid trait) that good guys can certainly end first.
Despite having been within the public glare for many years on finish, Dravid is an intensely non-public one that is a grasp at conserving his ideas and feelings to himself and simply the closest chosen only a few. It’s not that he doesn’t belief simply however he is a good believer in internalising somewhat than enjoying his life out for everybody to see, which is why he has stayed away from social media.
In so many ways, he’s nonetheless an beginner at coronary heart however with a professionalism relating to the game that’s nearly with out parallel. In time, maybe in a really quick time, Rajasthan Royals will realise the folly of letting him go. Cricketing greats like Rahul Dravid, they don’t precisely develop on timber, do they?
