Rahul Dravid: The Selfless Warrior

So our Under 19 Cricket team has made us all proud by lifting the World Cup and we as cricket fans just cannot get the enough of it. It goes on to show the robustness of our cricket infrastructure and has reinforced a strong belief that Indian cricket has a very bright future ahead with a large pool of immensely talented players eager on making a strong impression on the world cricket.

Days after the triumph, the BCCI announced cash rewards for the team and the support staff as a token of appreciation and for further motivation. The head coach Rahul Dravid was given 50 lakh rupees while the team members got 30 lakhs each and the other support staff walked away with 20 lakhs each. Interestingly, Rahul Dravid was unhappy with the reward allocation. As humble as he has always been, he felt that there should be no disparity between cash prizes for the team and its support staff as everybody had worked hard equally.

And this is not the first such instance. From the time Dravid has stepped up as the Coach, he has been quite clear with the ideology that performance of the team is a combined effort and it is the team that puts in the maximum hard work. The Under 19 team is indeed blessed to have such a person as their mentor. Take for instance, the cash reward example. The question raised by Dravid is not just about the money but the message goes well beyond that. He firmly believes that a coach is nothing without the sweat of the players he trains, and also the planning of the support team that works day and night for the players.

This is just another trait of Dravid’s splendid personality that has made him the always loveable individual which he is. One word that summarizes Dravid’s career aptly: selflessness. The example that immediately strikes my mind, out of many, is his wicket keeping stint in ODI cricket. It was quite clear that wicket keeping was not something that Dravid was particularly fond of doing, yet he held on to it just for the sake of maintaining the balance of the team. And like he always did, he handled the job quite well, until Dhoni came in picture.

Dravid saw many cherished moments of success and also some agonizing failures through the course of his career. What however remained constant was his determination and resilience. His batting style in itself was symbolic of courage and class. The best out of Dravid came out mostly when the chips were down. Be it the unforgettable partnership with VVS Laxman at the Eden Gardens in 2001, or the historic match winning performance in Adelaide in 2003, Dravid’s batting always showed the tough character that he is. In fact, some of the most memorable of his innings came in situations where batting looked extremely difficult and mostly when the other batsmen failed to perform. What mattered the most to him was winning, and in fact in many cases saving the match for the team.

Dravid played in an era which saw the Indian team dominating the opposition bowlers with its batting prowess. And as some of the cricket lovers often lament, his achievements were heavily overshadowed by that of Sachin Tendulkar. And there are obviously practical reasons behind that. With the growing popularity of ODI’s and the introduction of new rules, the way batsmen played underwent a historic transformation and the Indian fans developed an appetite to witness the flamboyance of Sachin and Ganguly and later Sehwag and Yuvraj. However, Dravid carved a niche of his own: sticking to his basics, showing great temperament and bringing the much needed stability to Indian batting.

Cricket is said to be a gentlemen’s game and few players have shown such commitment towards upholding the spirit of the game like Dravid. We love Dravid not just for the number of runs he amassed or for the centuries he scored, but also for the manner in which he conducted himself on and off the field. His dependability, his humility and his graciousness made him a champion of world cricket who was admired globally.

We are now seeing him in a new role as the U-19 Coach and as is quite evident, the young boys are indeed having a joyful learning experience with the legend. What makes me particularly happy is that as much as we know Dravid, his training module would not just revolve around scoring runs and taking wickets, but would rather focus on nurturing the lads into responsible and committed sportspersons, which I reckon is of utmost importance in today’s time.

Needless to say, the future of Indian cricket lies in very safe hands…..