Captain, oh captain !

Sachin Tendulkar has reportedly turned down the offer to be India's new Test captain.The apparent explanation given by an unnamed source attributes the development to '' some personal reason.''

The development will surely come as a surprise to the BCCI which was to name the Test captain for the upcoming tests against Pakistan and the tour to Australia later in the winter.Evidently it was by and large assumed that Tendulkar would accept the job but his refusal has thrown up some interesting possibilities.

Tendulkar's previous stint as captain was dismal with just 4 wins in 25 tests,a success ratio of a meagre 16%.More importantly each of the 4 wins came at home with not a single overseas win.In fact when India toured Australia in 1999/00 under Tendulkar's captaincy,they were whitewashed 3-0,not an impressive record considering that the Aussies will host India in a month's time.

Other possible reasons might include the worry that captaincy would affect his batting.However this might not be true as Tendulkar's average while captaining in tests is 51.35,marginally lower than his overall average of 54+.

With Sachin bowing out of the race,newly crowned ODI and T20 captain M.S.Dhoni is the frontrunner for one of the toughest jobs in world cricket.Dhoni however is not too experienced in the longest version of the game, with just 20 Test caps and a single century against Pakistan in 2006.

However with Dravid stepping down as captain after the England tour and Ganguly unlikely to be looked at,one might say that there is no other viable candidate for the job.The veteran leggie Anil Kumble had recently said that he would accept captaincy if given the honour.He might have an outside chance of making it.Kumble has no previous experience of captaincy,except a lone ODI against England in 2001,in which he led India for the first and last time.

It would be fair to say that the team would not have found itself in such an embarrasing situation had Rahul Dravid not stepped down as captain after the tour of England this August.It might be recalled that Tendulkar had led the side against Sussex at Chelmsford in a practice game during the same tour.Incidentally,he had also scored a sparkling 170 odd knock during the same match.