'We do a lot of things in my way'

Rahul Dravid, who is about to embark on his first foreign tour as Test captain, has said that building a team is as much about finding the right people as it is about not having the "wrong people around them". Dravid was speaking to Cricinfo Magazine which is scheduled to be launched in the Indian market on January 4.

Asked if he's getting a sense of the kind of captain he'd like to be, Dravid said it would take time. But he said he had a sense of the kind of team he'd like to have: "Tough, competitive - a team that is looking to improve and have some fun along the way. Not taking things too seriously as at the end of the day it is sport and we must have a lot of fun playing it and must play it hard."

And he was clear about the kind of people he didn't want to have. "You don't want people whose own insecurities, whose own problems and whose own fears drag everyone else down. That can be a big dampener in teams.

"I want to say that at this level I shouldn't need to motivate anyone. If I'm needing to motivate an international cricketer then there's something wrong actually. The challenge is to not demotivate anyone.

"If you're going to be spending time in the team always having to cajole and look after a few people in the team, you're doing a disservice to the rest because you're wasting and investing too much time and energy in a few people who're taking away from the group.

"Players need to understand that they need to give energy to the unit. There are times of course when you're not doing well, and your form's not good and you'll need the support of other people. But most of the time you've got to give to the team and make sacrifices to the team and give back to the team."

While Dravid believes that a team needs different kinds of characters, he is clear that there are certain non-negotiable rules in a team sport. "You've got to understand that your behaviour, the way you conduct yourself affects other people and you have a responsibility to all of them. Those are the broad rules we work under. But within those non-negotiable rules I think it's important to allow people to express themselves."

Asked for his views on Harbhajan Singh, who stood resolutely in Sourav Ganguly's corner in the wake of the scandal over the leaked email from Greg Chappell, Dravid replied, "Well, Harbhajan's a champion performer. One of the great things about Harbhajan is that he really cares about his bowling. He's a very proud cricketer. And it's not hard work with people like that. I've no problems working with people who want to be champions, as simple as that. I think he figured out for himself that he needed to focus a bit more on the game and not worry about anything else, get back to what he was doing when he was successful. It's credit to him, it's not about what I've told him."

He made light of perceptions about Chappell's domineering nature. "I don't know where that has come from. I've not found him domineering at all. He's been more than willing to listen to my ideas and my thoughts and I get a very good say. At the end of the day I think he believes that a captain must get what he wants. In fact, in a lot of ways we do a lot of things in my way."

Rather, of the initial friction between Chappell and a section of the team he said that, "like anything, sometimes it takes a bit of time for people to understand what the other person is trying to do and achieve. I think the guys have responded very well. I've really enjoyed it. In a lot of ways he's trying to bring in some new thoughts, some new ideas. We have our opinions and sometimes we agree and sometimes we might disagree. At the end of the day he's done a really good job. He's trying to coach teams in a slightly different way. I think it's a good way."

The first issue of Cricinfo Magazine, which is a 124-page special with an additional 32-page pull-out on India's tour of Pakistan, also contains interviews with Greg Chappell, Bob Woolmer, Chaminda Vaas and Ian Healy, an in-depth look at the art of fast bowling, a talk-through with Virender Sehwag on one of his best innings, columns by Sanjay Manjrekar and Harsha Bhogle and more.