I never thought that I finished last: Rahul Dravid on cricket and being a role model

Cricket’s Mr. Nice Guy on why stepping back from the field has given him an opportunity to look at life and the game in a new light.

July 29, 2015 03:27 pm | Updated March 29, 2016 06:52 am IST - chennai:

CHENNAI: TAMIL NADU: 28/07/2015:  An interview with Rahul Dravid to The Hindu Metro Plus.  Photo: V. Ganesan

CHENNAI: TAMIL NADU: 28/07/2015: An interview with Rahul Dravid to The Hindu Metro Plus. Photo: V. Ganesan

I’ve never found the courage to sit down and write a piece about my favourite cricketer, although opportunities have been aplenty: there’s his debut at Lord’s that I vaguely remember watching with my father when I was about seven years old. More vivid are the scenes from India’s tour of Australia in December 2003, where his scores of 233 and 72 were two of the greatest innings ever played or from Rawalpindi, the following year, where he scored a mammoth 270 or his 180 (overshadowed by Laxman’s 281) at Kolkata in 2001. For a long while, I’ve been content reading stories written by those who managed to pen down his modest style of batting in the most flamboyant of prose.

On staying grounded: I just see the fact that I am a cricketer — or was a cricketer — as just something that I did. Otherwise it didn’t really change me as a person. And I think Bangalore is quite a relaxed city in that sense, it just allows you to do your own thing and be as normal as possible. And it’s something that my wife and I really want for our kids as well. That’s the way I’ve been even through my career: you don’t do silly things like go out to a mall on a Saturday afternoon because it becomes a nuisance for the people you’re with.

You might’ve probably guessed by now that Rahul Dravid is my favourite cricketer. After 15 years of obsessing over every shot of his, convincing sceptics that he was more than just a middle-order batsman — “India’s batting Batman,” as Mukul Kesavan describes him — I introduced myself as a journalist who was set to interview him (he was in the city as part of GoSports’ mentoring programme) and not sadly as, I wished I had many times before, an obsessed teenager. For most of my generation and the one before that, the members of the old guard — Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman — were our idols. The batting contemporaries had as much an impact on cricket as they did on our hearts.

Dravid laughs sportingly when he’s referred to as one. “I didn’t go out honestly to try and be a role model. I grew up wanting to play sport and so I didn’t really see any pressure in trying to live up to an image. I’ve just been fortunate enough to play the game and by playing the game well, I guess I realised that the popularity of the game means that a lot of people follow you and what you do.”

Cricketers here are like rockstars, and like rockstars, there is the ferocity that they present on the field while the crowd around them steadily reaches a crescendo. But it’s an unlikely quality in Dravid, a contradiction of sorts — a common, uniting theme in all reports about him, apart from how he was always shadowed by Tendulkar, was that he was cricket’s Mr. Nice Guy, sometimes much too nice. Public opinion on Dravid has been changing over the last few years — there is a video that resurfaced of him engaging in that ‘rare’ fight with Shoaib Akhtar. Then there’s the time when he trolled Nasser Hussain during the India-Bangladesh match in the World Cup earlier this year. These tags only amuse the man. “I know a lot of that happens when you’re in the public eye, everyone’s scrutinising and critiquing you. There have been times when I’ve lost my cool on the field, which has been a few. That has happened . And that’s part of being a sportsman for 20 years, there are going to be times when I lose it. There will be times when I might get upset and might not do the right thing; it’s all a journey that I’m on and I don’t feel obliged to try and be perfect all the time.”

The 42-year-old’s serious, weathered face turns soft when he talks about life post-retirement. Dravid, who is currently the India ‘A’ coach, says that it has given him an opportunity to ease back a little and look at different things. “I spend a lot more time now at home than I used to. I still do travel a lot more than other people but compared to what I used to, I’m at home a lot more now and enjoy that. Which makes it more and more difficult to travel now.” Does he have the time to look at social media or is staying away from it a conscious decision? “Partly yes. Because I don’t really understand the medium very well, maybe I’m of a different generation, who knows?” laughs Dravid, adding that he’d rather spend time with his young kids instead of staying up late to be on social media.

Favourite pitch in India: I had my most successes in Kolkata and played a lot of my best cricket there. It has been a place with a lot of great memories for me. I love Bangalore too; I didn't have a lot of success in Bangalore but playing at home in front of my fans is always very special. Just wish I had a little more success in Bangalore than I did internationally.

It wouldn’t be out of place to say that Dravid was the bastion of the team in his time and few can argue about that. His ability to give it all to the game — he ran till beads of sweat almost drenched the ground beneath him — his concentration, his selflessness, his technique and temperament, took a toll on him mentally. “It was quite draining. The thing with Test cricket is that the challenges I found were always emotional because you had to go through ups and downs, concentrate for long periods of time, find yourself in pressure... and I think dealing with that was really part of being a successful cricketer. And in time, I learnt how to cope with it, to relax, to mentally take a break from the game. It’s one thing to take a break physically but if you’re constantly still thinking about it, it’s not easy. It’s definitely a reason why I had a long, long career because I was able to manage that side of things as well.”

Dravid’s cricketing life has seen many landmarks — he has amassed almost 11,000 runs in the ODI format and 13,000-odd runs in the Test format — yet due credit was sometimes never awarded to him, especially in the 50-over games; he remains an unsung hero. But Dravid doesn’t think so. “I never thought that I finished last. I personally look at myself and think ‘Wow, I’m pretty happy and satisfied with what I’ve achieved as a cricketer’ and I thought I’ve got enough accolades and publicity, probably a little bit more than sometimes I would’ve personally liked. I sometimes felt it was too much.”

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.