Goodwill and awe swelled amidst the cricketing fraternity once Rahul Dravid's retirement emerged as the all-pervading theme in Bangalore.
Excerpts…
G.R. Viswanath: “I remember when he repeatedly got out to a moving ball on one of the tours, he came back and hit 1000 hanging balls to rid of his problem.
He was a thinking cricketer with vast amounts of concentration. In my time, Sunil Gavaskar had that quality and after him it was Rahul.”
E.A.S. Prasanna: “Cricketing world will definitely miss Rahul, but all good things will have to come to an end. I also feel that he is retiring not at the peak of his career.
“His peak was when he slammed three centuries on the tour of England.”
Javagal Srinath: “Two words come to my mind when I talk of Dravid - 1. Dignity: the way he acts or handles people in any given situation is very dignified; 2. Navigation: when it comes to game-play, he is superb at navigating through tough situations.”
Sunil Joshi: “He is the greatest ambassador to cricket and his biggest asset is his humble nature. He proved that nothing can be a substitute to hard work and I think every young cricketer should follow him.”
Vijay Bharadwaj: “We have watched him for more than 15 years and the way he trained until today is still the same and that is a lesson for all of us.
“Among batsmen, after G.R. Viswanath, Rahul was the biggest player from Karnataka to play for India and that goaded all of us on. He may not have been the most talented but he showed what we can all achieve with the power of the mind.”
