Pointing fingers easy, says Kumble

New Delhi: India’s Test captain Anil Kumble has come out in defence of his Bangalore skipper Rahul Dravid after their dismal run in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and criticism by team owner Vijay Mallya .

“What’s unfortunate is that, invariable, everyone starts pointing fingers at the captain. So it stands all the more to reason that people within the camp then stand up and say ‘we believe in you and your team’. That’s what’s most important in this kind of situation,” Kumble wrote in his column in Hindustan Times.

Bangalore have lost seven of their first nine matches and Mallya, apart from sacking CEO Charu Sharma , blamed Dravid for the team selection.

“I do understand that the IPL is different and there is a corporate look and feel to the whole concept. But having said that, at the end of the day, it is a cricket match - one that a cricketer does not want to lose,” he wrote.

“As players, we go through various ups and downs in our careers, there are phases when nothing one does is wrong and there are others where the same things that come so naturally to you seem like alien concepts. But as cricketers, we also know the bad times will pass, that we will pick ourselves up and bounce back,” wrote Kumble, conceding that Bangalore had lost the plot in this year’s IPL.

“It might be somewhat late for this tournament and that’s unfortunate, but we have a bunch of proven quality players and nothing can take that away.”

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