The 34-year-old batsman, said the thought of stepping down had crossed his mind after India’s early exit from the World Cup in the West Indies for which he felt responsible, Dravid said, adding, “but I still felt that I had the strength and energy to do it then” in the hope that things could be turned around.
However, towards the end of the ODI series against England which ended this month, he had begun considering resigning. “But I did not want to take any decision there without first speaking to my family and wanted to give it a few days back home to see if I felt differently before taking a final call”, he said.
The decision was “personal and based on my observation of whether I would be able to give it my very best like I have always tried to”, Dravid said. The former Indian skipper was of the view that “there is a shelf life to captaincy in India in which you can give it your best. May be the shelf life are becoming shorter as time goes by,” he commented.
Dravid, who characteristically chose his words with great caution, refused to comment on the issue of his successor when asked if Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, whose names were being mentioned, would be able to handle the job.
“I obviously will not like to comment on it and it is a decision best left to the selectors,” he said a day ahead of the meeting of the selection committee in Mumbai to choose his successor.
Asked what prompted him to take the decision, Dravid said he was not enjoying the job. “I had done the job for two years and they have been pretty eventful couple of years. Obviously it takes a lot out of you and I felt that I was not enjoying it.  The decision was personal and based on my observation of whether I would be able to give it my very best like I have always tried to. Finally, you have to be comfortable yourself that you will be giving it your best and not going through the motions which will not be fair to the team.”
Dravid rejected the idea that media was unfair to him. “I don’t think the media had been unfair to me personally but in today’s times with the explosion in the media there is a lot more pressure on players, captains, selectors, everyone. So I never felt it was personal.”