Srikkanth meets Dravid:

Despite his woeful run of form, former captain Rahul Dravid, continues to receive the backing of all the men who matter, but there are suggestions from various quarters, including from the selectors, that he should take a break from the game so he can regain his focus and come back afresh.

Dravid, once India's leading batsman in both forms of the game, has struggled in the last two years and despite giving up captaincy, he hasn't been able to get back to his prolific run scoring ways of the past.

Despite calls for dropping Dravid, the selectors included him in the squad for the two-Test matches against England. But after the twin failures in the Chennai Test, the calls for his sacking will only gather more support, especially considering India have the likes of Murali Vijay, Subramaniam Badrinath and Cheteshwar Pujara waiting in the wings.

However, despite his poor form, Dravid was on Monday offered a central contract, to indicate that the officialdom and the five wise men who control Indian cricket, still had faith in him. Even Sachin Tendulkar backed the former captain at the end of the Chennai Test when he called Dravid a "great" and that the team was not worried about him being out of form.

Sources tell us that post the win in the Chennai Test, chairman of selectors Krishnamachari Srikkanth had a lengthy chat with Dravid, and it is understood that he echoed the statements of his predecessor Dilip Vengsarkar, who had on Monday said Dravid needed to take a break.

Srikkanth is learnt to have told Dravid that the selectors had full faith in him, were still not considering dropping him, and that it was only right that he take a break from the game so he could regain his focus. The chairman of selectors is even learnt to have offered to Dravid to bat down the order at number five instead of his regular number three position, and have VVS Laxman bat at number three.