Some more pain and gain

'Short-term pain for long-term gain' is Anand Vasu's summing up of the Dhoni situation. He suggests that the selectors "... must give him the time and space he needs to grow into the job." One hopes the selectors, led by a Chairman who's has a syndicated column in which he is more than happy to take shots at his own team, can take this piece of advice.

Additionally, perhaps there is one more thing Dhoni can do (or be allowed to do) to ease the pain. Drop the 'keeping gloves. He has never been a great 'keeper and he is, when it comes down to it, more important to the Indians as a batsman. In a couple of years, the inevitable move up the order will become permanent (surely to the opening slot on the flat-as-Panchgani-tableland pitches). India have never really had a full-time keeper-captain, and it never really seemed to work for anyone else either - there is way too much of a workload. The pragmatic thing would be to simply hand over the slot to Dinesh Karthik (who has proved that he has the ability) and move into a slip or mid-off. Dhoni'd do himself and his team a favour.