Calcutta: Rahul Dravid feels coach Greg Chappell failed to adapt unlike his predecessor John Wright.

In a startling revelation while talking to former England captain Michael Atherton, the Team India captain said that both coaches took time to come to terms with the Indian psyche, but while the New Zealander was ready to compromise a bit, Chappell proved less elastic.

“Tension is a good thing within a team, but it needs to be creative, not destructive. Wright had similar problems at the start but unlike Greg he was prepared to adapt. By the end he (Wright) was more Indian than the Indians,” Dravid was quoted as saying in Atherton’s column for The Sunday Telegraph.

Taking the cue, Atherton in his column feels Dravid has probably been affected by what happened to Chappell.

“The removal of a visionary like Chappell has probably ended whatever chance Dravid has of making a revolutionary impact on Indian cricket as captain. He is 34 and likely to be around for only another couple of years or so,” writes Atherton.

In fact, the former England opener goes on to describe Dravid as the loneliest man in the world.

“All that (the hype, criticisms) is too much for one man whose primary responsibility has to be to the players under his care and to his own game (and to his young family). He wanders off, head bowed, deep in thought, idolised by millions yet, momentarily, looking like the loneliest man in the world.”

During his chat with Dravid, Atherton finds him a deep thinker of the game and one who is so analytical in nature that it reaches a point of torture.

“…It is something Dravid does automatically now, appraising his batting and his captaincy in any given situation. He is a deep thinker of the game; he cares, too. Those who say that a leader should never second-guess the decisions that he makes are either spouting management consultancy rubbish and have never been in a position to make decisions, or they have forgotten what the pressure of doing so is like. All captains torture themselves to some extent.”

But Atherton contends that too much analysis may actually be counter-productive.

“A captain can care too much. Too much second-guessing of the decision-making process can lead to periods of self-doubt, mental weariness and indecision next time around. And it has been noticeable this summer that Dravid has looked burdened by the job of leading the most cricket-crazy nation on earth.”

Atherton feels the way Indian fans react to their team’s performance have adversely affected the gentleman in Dravid the cricketer.

“Such heightened reactions to every performance must have an impact. It was most noticeable at the Oval where Dravid’s decision-making and his batting suggested a captain struggling to cope with the expectations.”