That sinking feeling all over again

India coach Dravid praised his players for a fine World Cup campaign until the final loss to Australia

- Vivek Krishnan

All tournament he had stayed in the background, and he could have well done that as his team crashed to a soul-crushing defeat on Sunday night. The scenes in the dressing room were emotional enough to shake his heart. They had lost a World Cup final at home after coming in as favourites. And in that moment, the hurt was real. It was raw. So, coach Rahul Dravid stepped up to face the media.

This was him taking responsibility. This was him fronting up for his skipper. He had done this once before, in 2007 when he was skipper. But he decided to spare Rohit Sharma the agony. The dream had come and gone.

As he walked onto the ground to congratulate Australia, Dravid put on a smile. But try as he might, it soon turned to a grimace. There was no emotion escaping except perhaps anguish. The work done over the last two years would have been running through his mind, the moments spent with the players, with Rohit, the tactics that had come off, the changes that had worked a charm. You try to stay in the moment; you try to accept defeat in the same manner as victory, but is it ever easy? "At this point of time, there's disappointment. I mean, what else can I say? But, you know, I'd like to believe that, you know, in time, we'll look at some of the positives of this. But sure, at this point of time, there is disappointment," Dravid told reporters.