Indian legend Rahul Dravid was on Monday announced as an owner of Dublin Guardians franchise in European T20 League (ETPL), the former cricketer opened up about how he would go about things when the league begins. The Guardians have appointed the veteran tweaker Ravichandran Ashwin as their captain and Dravid said that the spinner will have complete freedom while taking decisions.
“I think honestly, the plan is for me to not actually get involved in the cricketing side of things. So to put together a good team that can do the job on a day-to-day basis. You certainly won’t see me in the dugout. And I’m not someone who’s going to be there at every practice session. Or for that matter, not there for even every game,” Dravid said in an interview with PTI.
“But I will certainly be supportive. I think we’re lucky to have signed on someone like Ashwin as a captain and a mentor. And we’ll put a team around him that will allow him to lead the team and run the team in the way that he wants to. My job will really be to put together a team both on the field and of course there’s a lot of work that needs to be done at a franchise level off the field. Which for me will be the priority and the focus. And sort of let Ashwin and the experts (support staff) that we pick, let them manage and run the cricket. So that is certainly the direction and the plan and the role that I see for myself,” the former India head coach was very clear about how he wants to operate,” he added.
There are way too many T20 franchise league cricket happening around the world at the moment but Dravid is confident that ETPL can make its own space.
“There is a rich history and a culture and a tradition in this part of the world, in Ireland, Scotland and Netherlands and in parts of Europe. Cricket is played by the local population as well and has been played for a long time. There are a lot of clubs here in Ireland and including a lot of Indian professionals have come here and played in Ireland.” “So there’s already a captive audience. There’s already a captive followership. There’s already a captive talent pool that we can hope to sort of build on.” The ETPL which includes three nations — Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands provides them with a huge canvas, said Dravid.
