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Sachin quits?

Sachin Tendulkar has resigned the captaincy of the Indian cricket team.

BCCI sources indicate that Tendulkar informed the national selectors of his intention to relinquish the captaincy, stating that he didn't need the pressure any more.

His request was made immediately after the third one day international against Sri Lanka, in Goa, which India lost.

Interestingly, the BCCI appears to have suddenly gone missing. President Raj Singh Dungarpur is "not available just now". Secretary Jaywant Lele is "not in office". And chairman of selectors Ramakant Desai is "not at home".

Tendulkar himself, meanwhile, is yet to return from Puttaparthi, where he led a scratch India XI to a win against a star-studded International XI at a spanking new stadium set up by Sathya Sai Baba's acolytes.

The New Year couldn't have got off to a better start.

For quite a while now, the selectors have been going out of their way to make the captain's life miserable, pre-empting his decisions, dropping players he has asked for, and retaining players against whom he has reacted adversely, finally going so far as to dictate his place in the batting order.

By quitting -- a move, pundits say, that should have been made about six months earlier at the least -- Tendulkar has now forced the hand of the selectors, who will come under much closer scrutiny than before.

The immediate pressure, meanwhile, will now shift to Ajay Jadeja, who is likely to be named captain of the side that will play a triangular in Bangladesh from January 10, with Pakistan making up the third side. The selectors will be naming the national skipper on January 2.

However, the real fun begins in February, when the selectors have to name a captain to take on Australia. There is, reportedly, a move afoot to ask Tendulkar to lead India in Tests -- a move that, interestingly, is not finding favour with the master batsman, who reportedly is hell bent on relinquishing not only the ODI captaincy but that of the Test side as well.

Two selectors have made no secret of the fact that they would like to give the captaincy to Azharuddin. What is going against the move is, first, the fact that three selectors are adamantly against it; second, that the Board secretary Jaywant Lele has publicly called for Azhar's sacking for bad performance; and three, the fact that Azhar's form in recent months has in fact been below that of most of the other front-ranked batsmen in the side.

So who does that leave? Anil Kumble, the previous vice captain, is now not even a regular member of the squad.

Rahul Dravid? Or Saurav Ganguly? One, their leadership experience is limited. Two, if the argument is that Sachin Tendulkar's batting form has collapsed (?! Never mind his 1000+ runs for the calendar year, in both Tests and ODIs) because of the pressure of captaincy, then what is the guarantee that either Dravid or Ganguly will not face that same pressure, with deletrious effects on their own batting?

What is most interesting in this scenario is the onus it places on the national selectors.Thus far, they have got away with playing their games, because each successive defeat was conveniently laid at the door of the captain and his "poor form". Now, Tendulkar is no longer the captain. Whoever takes over will be their choice. And it will then be up to them to provide the right team, and ensure results -- because if the Tendulkar resignation has done nothing else, it has finally put the ball firmly where it belongs. In the selectors' court.

As they say in the press bullettins, further developments are awaited.