Port of Spain (Trinidad), March 27 Skipper Rahul Dravid has taken responsibility for India's cricket World Cup failure but says resigning the captaincy was not an issue.India were eliminated from the tournament at the first round stage after losing to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and finishing Group B with just two points from their three matches.'We definitely do take the responsibility. I am not sitting here and trying to shirk responsibility. I am the first one to stand up and say that we should have done better, and it starts with me,' Dravid told the media here.'I am not trying to put the responsibility on anyone. People are asking me what's the way forward and what do we do. I haven't really thought about stuff like that.'Till about 24 hours ago (Friday), I truly believed that we will still be in this tournament. I didn't have the time to think what's ahead of us. But I am not trying to say I don't take any responsibility. I take full responsibility for the fact that we haven't progressed to the next round.'On the issue of the captaincy, Dravid said he had been appointed until the end of the cricket World cup and his fate was in the hands of the Indian cricket board.'I was appointed captain till the World Cup. So I am not even the captain at this point of time. So it's not my decision to make,' Dravid stressed.Dravid, a key member of the team's much vaunted batting line-up, said the batsmen did not perform to potential during the group stage.'Some of these guys have had success before as well. It's a question of maybe the guys going back and looking at their performances, how they performed in the important games and critical games,' he noted.'Yes, we have not batted anywhere near our potential. We picked what was the best batting line-up in the conditions but I guess we were the best batting line-up in India, but we did not bat well enough in these two games. It is definitely something to think about.'India became the second major team to be eliminated from the cricket World Cup, following Pakistan's surprise exit after their three-wicket shock defeat to Ireland a fortnight ago.'Both the teams did not play good cricket. I think Pakistan stumbled against Ireland and we stumbled against Bangladesh,' Dravid reasoned.
(c) Indo-Asian News Service
