If Rahul Dravid needed a new challenge at this stage in his cricketing career, he sure has got it. Having given up the Indian captaincy last year, the 35-year-old will now lead an international field as the skipper of the Bangalore Royal Challengers at the Indian Premier League.

“I am excited about the chance to share a dressing room with international stars like Kallis and Bracken. We are conscious of the fact that we wanted to pick people who believe in the concept of a team, who jell well. We had a chance to interact with some of the players we picked, and all are excited to be part of it,” Dravid said on Wednesday afternoon.

Appealing to Bangaloreans to support the team, the classy right-hander went on, “If you can get a good number of people in, it will be a great motivation for the players. It brings in a kind of energy and vibrancy which you might not have by people watching on TV. I hope Bangalore will come and support us in home games and have fun.

“This is a totally new concept, and we will know in time whether we succeed or not.,” he remarked of the IPL as such. “I still believe this is a domestic tournament which brings in a flavour of international players. It will be interesting to see how the fans react to it.”

On his experience of being in the auction hall last month, he reflected, “It was unique with its restrictions. I can’t say if I was thrilled or happy or felt bad -- it was just something new. The pace of the auction was so fast, the dynamics were changing quickly, and there was not much time to reflect on what was happening.”

Former New Zealand captain Martin Crowe, the Chief Cricket Officer of the Challengers, will be the team’s front man. Crowe designed Max Cricket back home. “We have a hell of a good coach (Venkatesh Prasad) who can run nets and help Rahul with strategies and tactics in a new game that has taken the world by storm,” Crowe observed.

“My role is as a front person, to take the message to fans that we are side that will appease a lot of people with the style of cricket we play. Rahul and Dr Mallya have picked people with integrity and humility, and balanced it with youth, a little of Twenty20 speciality. We are a side that will look to play intelligent cricket. Twenty20’s perception is of hit and giggle, thrash and bash; Rahul’s style and vision is the side selected will play with the brain. We want to be the inaugural winners.”

Coach Prasad was quick to talk about players being able to adapt to the Twenty20 version.
“It is all about adaptability,” said the Indian bowling coach. “They have got plenty of experience of adapting to different forms of the game, capable of changing to any form. It is changing the mindset -- we have got the experience and talent,” Prasad said.

Team bangalore

Rahul Dravid (Captain)
S Chanderpaul
Misbah-ul-Haq
Ross Taylor
Wasim Jaffer
Virat Kohli
J Arun Kumar
Bharath Chipli
Dale Steyn
Zaheer Khan
Nathan Bracken
B Akhil
Anil Kumble
Sunil Joshi
Abdur Razzak
KP Appanna
Praveen Kumar
Jacques Kallis
Cameron White
R Vinay Kumar
Mark Boucher
Srivats Goswami
Devraj Patil