My 50th post : Dravid's Last Bow

When the first Indian wicket falls in India's next Test match, Rahul Dravid will not walk in at No.3. His perfectly balanced stance and steady poise in wonderful Test whites can only be seen in video recordings, for earlier today, Dravid announced his retirement from Test cricket; his final Test match was in the Adelaide Oval in January earlier this year. It is fitting that he marked the start of a new era in Indian cricket at the same venue by guiding India to a famous win in 2004. 

When Dravid debuted in 1996, my Dad pointed him out to me and said, "It's not just that he scores runs, he works very hard for them, but makes it look easy with a touch of class." Apart from the cricketing aspect, it was an important message for me, a 10 year old boy just starting to get the grips of life. The message I got was that while Dravid did not possess the natural flair of a Sachin Tendulkar, his performances were still in the same league as Sachin's. When I realized the amount of commitment and effort that goes into it, I instantly recognized there is more than cricket to be learnt from Dravid.

Always taken for granted, never given the deserved recognition, never appreciated enough for sacrifices made for team-causes and repeatedly over-shadowed by colleagues; this was the story of Dravid's career. But none of this stopped him from giving his 100% every time he took the field. This aspect of Dravid's personality was a blessing to Indian cricket; his ability and more importantly, readiness to bat anywhere in ODIs enabled Sourav Ganguly's men to become one of the most respected oppositions in world cricket.

That Dravid subsequently became one of the best batsmen in the history of cricket is no surprise. But the fact that none of the achievements got to his head, and he still remains a modest and sincere student of the game makes him a true ambassador of cricket. His Bradman Oration last year is a testimony of his knowledge about not only the game's techniques, but also the economics and policies governing it. Surely it is a great sign for the future of cricket; to have someone like him in the ICC would do a world of good to a game that needs to be preserved and nourished in the right way.

The game will miss his square-cuts, leg glances, cover drives and most importantly, the most confident front-foot defence anyone could play. But the message of his career, that even if you don't possess the natural flair and prodigious skill to pursue your dreams, you can still excel with total commitment and pure hard-work, will ring loud forever. Thank you Rahul Dravid, for showing that one can remain a nice guy till the very end and still finish first.