The wall stands tall - A tribute to the cricketing legend of our times...

The true Gentleman of his time

There are several things I savour from the days I started to watch cricket with my grandpa.. Since my days as kid, there were more and more ppl around me who were fawning over Azharuddin's swagger, Sachin's raw talent and Saurav Ganguly's off side shenanigans - I was simply smitten by the quiet, paavam  looking, Dravid.

Those were the times when Ajay Jadeja was considered to be the eyecandy of the Indian team so stylish his shots that comes quite naturally to him, not even those staggeringly required run-rates bothered him, Sachin was praised for his sheer brilliance with bat, Azharuddin for his flamboyance with bat, those flicks with immaculate timing and the way he simply outdoes the oppn is considered as bliss. Sourav's arrogance and heart throbbing hooks off the leading bowlers of his days and his ability to piss off his opponents even after caving in to those rib-cage breaking bounces that goes inside to trouble him.

Always feeling disappointed and learning

There came a man so calm and so perfection personified. It was pretty awful to watch him during the titan and singer cups during his earlier days. and he was surely not happy with himself for not having to rise to the occassion. The emotions were quite palpable. Not much of those maddenning maniacs the Indian fans would've spared him even before bed for ruining their day.

That was a time when the game was in total turmoil the whole country was shell shocked and shattered to hear the game they held so close all these years is orchestrated. They were so disheartened to see their gods have let them down.The game was hit an all time low marred by the scandals and What followed was total chaos.But amid all these there rose a man so silently, so mentaly at peace, never feared to focus on the task at hand how unsurmountable the situation may be. Most of his counterparts became a fan of this man so perfection personified. He always said that only the passion for the game he held so close and loved playing made him see through all these. He is never feared to go back to basics, to start from scratch, to go to the levelling ground where he started as yet another young bloke among thousands of those waiting for that elusive break.

Calm and Ecstatic after one of his Centuries

With his long playmate in tests who clocked playing
together in the field more than anybody else mostly saving
from the turbulent situations - The Saviours

His favourinte cuts he enjoyed the most. Playing on the backfoot

He too was vicitimized in the cash rich board where even politicians had a say in every series, where not juse merely performance counted anymore, favouritism, bias an politics are the only factors that decided who gets to represent the country. But he made them so grittingly under pressure only by his performance. He was a great learner of the game. Both on and off the field. always willing to contribute in what ever way he can. Donning the wicket keeping gloves was one such example. That was when the team could not simply afford another specialist wk in place of a batsmen or a bowler. He was more than willing to step into the glove of the

Of his ostentatious compatriots, Rahul Dravid batted exactly like the person he is: stately and upright, dignity and poise his two shoulders, standing up to everything coming at him with minimum fuss. He picked his shots carefully, almost like he was weighing the risk for fear of letting himself and his side down. There was little about him that was flamboyant - there isn't with an oak - and patiently, brick by brick, he built giant edifices. He is a good man and he batted like a good man.

And this is what make me like the man he is. So grounded in whatever he does in whatever way. Like with most of his choices in life, he has chosen well again. He has not craved a full house on its feet, there has been no grandstanding. The retirement is a sports-page event not a gossip item. He knew it was time. 

Ever so dedicated even during practicing in nets. Always
willing to learn, playing the ball straight

Relished playing his part and always contributing
to the team in every discipline

The contrast couldn’t be sharper. He would come in and look to defend the first ball, let it hit the middle of the bat and slowly build his innings… the others would walk in looking to smack the leather off the ball – Sehwag with disdain, Tendulkar with authority, Laxman with his wrists and Sourav Ganguly through the off-side. In a partnership, Dravid was always the proverbial anchor – trying to keep the others firmly in the grasp of reality. But for them, it was easier to take the flights of fancy that Dravid could only dream of.

He spent more time in the nets than the others, he worked on his fitness, he worked on the little things that came easily to the others, and he worked on keeping his head above water… why he even worked on his wicket-keeping to stay in the ODI team. But hard work has a sort of mortal, doable quality to it. We can all work hard – if we have the motivation and the belief… that’s all it takes

His ODI pal with whom he went on to pile
lots of runs and enjoyed playing with

But to do it over 17 years requires the kind of genius that not everyone is born with; the genius of hard work. We can all work hard for a while but after some time, we start to falter. We get bored. We get distracted. We want to do the extraordinary. We want to play beyond our limitations and that is often where we go wrong.

For many of Dravid’s contemporaries, the nets were a place to try out new things, to hit the big shots, to build confidence before a big match. But for the Bangalorean, it was a drill – something that had to be done as a matter of course. Throughout he would make tiny adjustments, trying to get as close to his sense of perfection as possible, because he needed to be at his best to survive. The difference between the Dravid that we saw in England and the one we saw in Australia was minute – a matter of his feet not moving a few inches more – but that’s all it took to make him crash and burn.

He realised that, which is why every waking moment was spent thinking about the game – his technique and the opposition. It was the kind of focus that bordered on the maniacal but it was also the kind of focus that made him loved and respected. People could see he wasn’t frivolous. He was the serious kind and he took the game very seriously.

Reaching out - Always willing to connect to his fans

If he shied away, he would never know how good he could be. He kept wicket in about 70 one-day internationals, never most convincingly, but he allowed himself to look bad for the team to look good. It was always the team for him and as he had once quoted Kipling: for the strength of the wolf is the pack and the strength of the pack is the wolf. It was nice to see a cricketer quoting from literature.

He wasn't the Wall, not for me though. Yes, his defence was as perfect as it could get, his steeliness so admirable, but he played shots that warmed the heart. The cover drive, with the big stride forward, and the prettiest of them all - the whip through midwicket played so late and while so nimble on his toes.

In cricket as in life, the debate over what leads to genius has been dominated by a simple argument: is it nature or nurture? While Dravid’s team-mates often colluded with nature, the right-handle was clearly nurtured to an exalted status through the self-effacing quality called hard work.

Partnership stands during recent tour of England'12
goes to show his contribution even in modern times

Dravid doesn’t inspire the impossible. But what he does do is stretch the limits of the possible to a point where the thin line dividing the two starts to blur. And THAT is his genius. He didn’t start off as a man blessed with greatness but each year he seemed to add a new chapter to the legend in the making. And THAT is his genius too.

When kids walk in to meet their coaches for the first time, they often harbour dreams of becoming the next Tendulkar or Sehwag. Who wants to present a straight bat to everything? You might hear Gavaskar praise you but the crowd will mostly boo. And nobody likes to be booed.

But their coaches will point them in the direction of Dravid. ‘Be like him – he is a genius of hard work,’ they will say. He wasn’t blessed but he had his sights set on a goal.

Showing his grimace - Announcing his retirement
at at a press conference in Bangalore recently

And in the end, he can proudly say – he got there. He isn’t the bridesmaid any more, he isn’t second best. He’s first among equals and he’s pretty much earned the right to be called a genius through hard work and you can’t say that about too many people right now, can you?

Not just cricket he is a man so passion personified always focussed and ever willing to go wherever the goal he held so close takes him to. Makes you say 'IN LIFE BE LIKE HIM'

Trying hard to control his emotions
during his Press Conference recently in Bangalore

He will be missed, as the great always are. He will see his children grow, take them to school, imbibe in them the reading habit (for hez a avid reader and learner than most others), hopefully from time to time he would instill his fire to the new flowers that will inevitably bloom in our cricket of the need to put grit over beauty, team over self, challenge before rejection, humility before arrogance, for that is what he stood for. Surely the Wall stands Tall !!

Wisden cricket - Famous five of Indian cricket

A good compilation from UPCRIC

Rahul Sharad Dravid is born in Indore on 11 January 1973 and makes his first-class debut for Karnatakaagainst Maharashtra in the Ranji Trophy just after his 18th birthday, scoring 82. He makes his India debut

Soon after stepping down as captain, Dravid loses his place in the one-day side but remains a constant in the five-day arena, passing 10,000 Test runs in 2008 as well as signing for the Royal Challengers Banga

Dravid is India's man of the series on their 2011 tour of England - which is widely expected to be his last - as he finally records his first Test century at Lord's, and adds two more rearguard hundreds as India

Dravid is man of the series on India's tour of England in 2002, scoring 602 runs in four Tests, includingcenturies at Trent Bridge and Headingley and a double ton at The Oval, but a Test century at Lord's,

Dravid is the top run scorer at the 1999 World Cup with 461. He makes 145 against Sri Lanka, sharing a second-wicket stand of 318 with Ganguly, who smashes 183. It is the record ODI partnership for any wicket

Later that year, he is handed his Test debut against England at Lord's. Fellow debutant Sourav Ganguly scores 131 at number three, while Dravid, at seven, compiles a characteristically painstaking 95 from 267

Although he is nicknamed The Wall for his safety-first batting style, Dravid's career hits a purple patch inthe winter of 2003-04 when he hits double centuries in successive series against New Zealand,

Australia's record run of 16 consecutive Test wins is ended in an astonishing game at Kolkata's Eden Gardens in March 2001. After India are forced to follow on, Dravid (180) and VVS Laxman (281) add 376

But another 4-0 whitewash, this time in Australia, leads many commentators to question the future of India's old guard and a disappointing series for Dravid - in which he averaged under 25

By 2003, Dravid is India's vice-captain and although he is a losing finalist in that year's World Cup in South Africa, in May he marries surgeon Dr Vijeta Pendharkar.

Dravid remains a prized wicket for opponents, but his captaincy is criticised after England's first Test win on Indian soil in 21 years comes in March 2006, when stand-in skipper Andrew Flintoff

Dravid signs for English county side Kent for the 2000 season and has a successful summer, scoring 1,221 first-class runs at an average of 55, including an innings of 137 at Portsmouth in a fascinating duel

Having deputised as captain for Ganguly on occasions, Dravid is handed the captaincy on a permanent basis in late 2005 after Ganguly's very public row with coach Greg Chappell, the former Australia skipper

Dravid soon establishes himself in a powerful India batting line-up which includes former teenage prodigy Sachin Tendulkar, elegant left-hander Ganguly, the free-scoring VVS Laxman and aggressive opener Virend Sehwag

In April 2009, Dravid sets a new record for Test catches by an outfielder when New Zealand's Tim McIntosh becomes his 182nd victim in Wellington, overtaking the previous record set by Australia's Mark Waugh.

The 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean is a major disappointment for India, as they lose to Bangladesh in their opening game and fail to make it past the group stage. They win that summer's Test series in England

When the cricket world comes together in January 2005 to raise money for victims of the Asian tsunami, Dravid takes his place in a star-studded Asia XI which play an ICC World XI containing players from Aus

While Dravid is an automatic choice as a batsman and an excellent fielder, he would occasionally be asked to keep wicket in order to improve the balance of the limited-overs side, picking up 14 stumpings in on