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The making of a captain

And finally, this latest column by Harsha Bhogle, dealing equally with the exit of Rahul Dravid and the developments on the T20 front. From that column, this clip:

There is much to like about Dhoni as a person and as a cricketer. He seems to have a balanced head on his strong shoulders and seems quite capable of sizing up situations. It helps to have young legs and unfettered minds in the team and under him, India have surprised many at the World Twenty20 Championships. They have played with passion, with calm minds and have won a crucial cricket match with a catch, a run-out and runs saved in the field. You wouldn't have thought that was possible three weeks ago when fielders strolled in the deep and lobbed returns in.

And this:

Thursday's win over South Africa was one of Indian cricket's better days. And a phenomenal commercial for Twenty20 cricket. India should have been rocked by the withdrawal of a champion batsman but the captain let him sit out and didn't bother persuading him to play.

That is the way to go and in doing so he made a statement on what he thought the rest were capable of. Only Yuvraj will know how bad the pain was but it must have been excruciating enough to warrant missing a game a day after playing the innings of his life.

And so to the big day...