In his prime, Rahul Dravid would have flicked a toe-crushing yorker from the Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath to fine leg for a boundary or would have hooked a bouncer the South African ‘White lightning’ Alan Donald over the ropes. But he never allowed them to breach his ‘wall of defence’.
But on Thursday in Visakhapatnam, the ‘wall’ was breached with ease and Rahul Dravid was floored by the cultural programme given by the mentally-challenged students of Hidden Sprouts, in his honour.
The former Indian Cricket Team captain visited the school along BCCI selection committee chairman M.S.K. Prasad and was visibly moved seeing the special children coming out with a variety of performances. He was seen enjoying every moment of it and wore a broad smile when Mohit, a special child, danced to the tune of Chiranjeevi’s song ‘Ammadu let’s do kummudu’.
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These children are much more talented than the young lads I am training right now, he said after the programme. Dravid is now the coach of the India A and India Under -19 team.
He had loads of appreciation for all the teachers and went ahead to say, “I am also a coach now. And coaching is a challenging job. But you all are doing a much greater job than I am doing. You are performing ‘God’s Job’,” he said.
Though he picked up some grey shades, Dravid in his trademark shorts and the India cap still looked fit to play for the country.
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Speaking about his new assignment, he said, “India has a great depth of talent and we are harnessing them to become potential players for the nation in the future.”
Hidden Sprouts funded by K. Srinivasa Rao and a bunch of like-minded people caters to about 150 mentally-challenged children.
“The school runs totally on CSR funding and donations. We do not charge the parents. And we have about 25 trained teachers to take care of the children,” he said.