My Tribute to Rahul Dravid

The last update in my FB wall said "If I was any good at writing, I should have come up something like this" and I posted Arun Venugopal's excellently worded article on Rahul Dravid for Sportstar. (http://www.sportstaronnet.com/stories/20120322507102400.htm). As soon as I posted it, something dawned on me, just for that one fleeting moment, and I realized what it was. The great man Rahul Dravid whom I admired the most, wouldn't have posted someone else article to describe the way he would have felt about his heroes retirement. He would have taken all the painstaking effort to come up with one on his own. Although the only effort that I took is to waste three hours in my office to write this, I hope it echoes every fans sentiments and their feeling for my great hero.

The Retirement

And then it happened. On March 9th 2012, Rahul Dravid announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket. Although I had been preparing to hear this press conference for about a day, with all the rumours floating around, when the moment came, I cannot help but feel that tinge of sadness. It was one of those moments where you shake away that couple of drops on eyes when someone you had known all your life is moving to different city and you might not see them for couple of years. The press conference was short, crisp and that trademark sweat on the forehead was to be seen (even in his retirement press conference). There were no tears or talk of glory - the word 'process' was mentioned few times - no names were named and everyone were thanked. This was not Showtime on Primetime Telivision but just a formal retirement announcement.

And all importantly it was on a Friday and not on a Monday morning. It showed the charactor of the man. Everybody involved in the PR business knows that the worst day to announce something good and the best day to announce something bad to avoid negative publicity was on a Friday or a holiday (if you are still wondering about this theory, Tiger Woods first press conference, after his infidelities became world known was on a Friday to avoid negative publicity). The rationale behind this that the newspaper readership or online news viewership would be at its lowest on weekends as most of the people would be busy shaking that hangover from Friday evening, or busy with family and friends. There would be no after work drinks discussion on the importance of Rahul Dravid's or his value to the Indian cricket, no small talks in break room while drinking water. No one would even bother browsing and reading about the great man online from home. People would rather prefer a matinee movie rather than IBN live. In my own selfish way, I was hoping the retirement would get enough press coverage and Dravid would get the accolades and the type of 'off the feild farwell' that he deserved to get something akin to Shane Warne and Glenn Mcrath after the famous final Ashes test in Sydney on that fine January afternoon in 2008. And to be fair it did get enough credit and more. It was heartwarming and the best article which epitomizes Rahul Dravid the person was from Rohit Brijanth for Livemint.

I remember

-that my first memory of Rahul Dravid was way back in 1996 against SL, it was the very first match that Sachin Tendulkar captianed (incidently I think he scored a century and India lost that match-just a piece of STAT- no pun intended), Dravid was run out for couple of runs somewhere close to the end of the Indian innings. I definately remember cheering for Dravid during his 148 in Jo'berg and I had become a fanatic by the time he had scored his 144* a matching saving innings in rained test match against WI in Georgetown. It gave me a sense of satisfaction that I watched the entire innings of 233 in Adelaide bunking couple of days of college and 270 in R'Pindi which was during my semester study holdidays. The monumental Pindi innings lasted for 3 days-few balls on Day 1, the entire day 2 and almost till Tea on day 3. I can say with pride that I watched those innings, except for the nature calling bio breaks during the playing time.

-I could still feel the joy when I saw the 50 of 22, one late evening in a bus-stand in rural Tamil Nadu and the 3 sixes of Samit Patel during the only Twenty-20 that Rahul Dravid played. My only regret in both the innings was there was no Tony Greig or David Llyod to commentate, similar to Sachin's finest hour in Sharjah, whereas it was the monotone of Sanjay Majerakar and Wasim Akram respectively. Is that called destiny?

-the days when I would feel the butterfly during his innings in 2008, when I would pray GOD and watch with one eye closed when Mitchell Jhonson was running in to bowl.

-the sweat in my palms after the 136 against England at Mohali. I remember that feeling in my stomach after the 20 ball duck in the second innings that not many people seemed to remember. I hoped that was not the last innings Rahul Dravid would be remembered for.
-The sense of fullfilment in my 20 year cricket watching came, when after waking up in the wee hours watching Rahul Dravid bat and pile up consecutive centuries on consecutive Saturdays and the 3rd on the next Sunday (lucky me) in the recently concluded series against England.

After Retirement Contemplation

Only a handful of cricketers have played cricket, learnt from it and remade their game to suit to the needs of ever changing game of cricket. Most players loose thier fluidity, their ability to change with times and redifined terms and formats of cricket. And it is a self-mastery and the kind of dedication out of this world that saw the man, whose press conferences and oration that bespoke a rare brand honesty and intelligence that extended his career to the kind of greatness that few can claim to have acheieved or even contemplated to acheive. No pure batsman who have not kept wickets for their state have kept wickets for their country and none of the legendary middle order batsman ( one and 2 drop) took up opening.

I have been reading lot of stuff on the web, some well written and some gibberish tributes to Rahul Dravid and I noticed 2 imortant things that everybody seemed to resort too.

1. Dravid was not as talented as some of his peers but compensated for it by his sheer power of will and perseverance.

2. Dravid to Sachin Tendulkar is what William Ponsford was to Donald Bradman and what GR Vishwanath was to Sunil Gavaskar or adding in another anology is what Scotty Pipen was for Michel Jordan in terms of their contribution.

This, I would agree and would make an wonderful arguement with Virender Sehwag or VVS Laxman but not Rahul Dravid. As the great Sachin Tendulkar himself said there is no tribute is worth or can describe someone who had played 168 matches and scored 36 centuries. This is just in terms of stats which people refer to, but not in terms of their contribution to Indian cricket, not in terms of playing that significant innings abroad that would put the Indian cricket on World cricketing map and earn the respect of opponents from outside the subcontinent.

As for the first statement, it is a no brainer. Name atleast 50 cricket players who had that natural talent and technique to adapt to different format of the games and score runs, the way Dravid did. If you can. Then name all the players who were more talented than Dravid and check that against the number of people who played international cricket and you would know Dravid's talent percentile.

And its been 10 days since Dravid retirement. As I am aimlessly typing Rahul Dravid in google (actually I just hit 'R' and google does the rest for me) and sorting it by the hour, I am wondering if I would feel the same joy that I got when Dravid scored a century, if I hold the record for watching the most number of balls in Test match cricket since I have almost watched all of Dravid's innings in the last ten years or would I watch a cricket match in the wee hours to just see Dravid feilding in the slips.

My favourite movie had a tagline which said
"How much can you possibly know about yourself if you've never been in a fight?". And there was Dravid fighting for Indian cricket, for the last 16 years which said it wall. He was a Gladiator.
Thankyou Rahul Dravid. Thank you 13288 times.