Caution : What should you not expect here? Statistics and an expert cricket analyst's point of view. Remember, it is from a GIRL and an INDIAN cricket fan. Allow this to sink in before you read any further.
I remember being this 11 year old girl trying to fight with my brother to let me watch 'Just Kids' on Sahara. He instead made me sit in front of the tv and watch the Natwest series. I started liking the game. Maybe because India was playing really well and we won a classic final. The test series followed. Now, this game being played in white was dull and boring. I tried not to like it but there was this man, who toiled hard, sweating excessively to save the game for India and in the process got to his double century at The Oval. He laid the foundation for what would turn out to be an epic tour for India. To me, he scored a lot of runs, he looked cute with all that sweat and he spoke great English. That's all I knew. I admired him for who he was.
Fast-forward by two years. I was 13 and Dravid got married. Not one girl in my class liked his decision. All of us were 13, just 13. We collected all possible info from the newspapers and news channels on who his wife was, how she looked, how lucky she was and... Ok, I leave it at that.
Then came the famous tour down under. And there was Adelaide. He stood, with his best friend and both of them determined to do what they do best. When Steve Waugh stuffed that red cherry in Dravid's pocket after he hit the winning runs with his trademark four, we liked it. While the guys were busy discussing what drive he played, we girls discussed how cute he looked when he punched his fists after the drive. The point is, all of us were talking about Dravid. Okay.
Then the historic Pakistan tour. Team India had landed in Pakistan and there was a picture of Dravid taking a pic of the airport in Khaleej Times(The newspaper we used to buy then). That was important to us. The one-day matches began. During the first one-dayer, when he was in his 90s, my friend called and we stayed on the line because we wanted to celebrate his century together. Damn! Shoaib Akhtar disturbed his stumps and Dravid was out on 99! We won, though. I am not even telling you how I celebrated his double ton at Rawalpindi which followed.
Maybe, I can just go on. I remember him in these matches like it happened yesterday. All of us do! And I am left wondering why does this same memory fail me during my exams! Ok, no deviating.
His interviews were never interesting. Seriously! He would never let out any secrets and he was bad at cracking jokes. I remember the interview with a news channel before the 2004 Pak tour. He was asked what his favorite song was. He thought for a while and came up with,"Probably, Jana Gana Mana.." Argh! This is all that he could come up with? But that did not mean I never watched his interviews. Every interview he gave on a news channel, I saw the telecast, the repeat, the re-repeat and then the re-re-repeat on youtube.
There was nothing flashy about him. Maybe, that's why we liked him. He is this gentleman who is yet to find himself associated with some controversy. The middle finger, looking into the bowlers eyes or the use of abusive language didn't mean anything to him. The opponent teams hated Dravid, the batsman but loved Dravid, the man. To be asked to write the foreword for Steve Waugh's autobiography is no small task. And then to deliver that Bradman oration with such class, only he could do it. Graeme Smith once said that Dravid is the most handsome looking batsman to be playing the game currently. We all nodded in agreement. When asked to comment on it, Dravid felt a little awkward and just smiled. He was this shy man, of whom Dhoni said during his initial days with the team,"He is always reading some book or the other, siting in one corner." That rubbed on his batting techniques too. Experts called him the perfect student and the bookish cricketer. He was never contend with whatever he achieved. Remember how he was so hard on himself after scoring that 90 at Perth? Sometimes, he is like these 9 pointers of my class who are never satisfied with what they score. After we trusted him more than anybody else. Even more than Sachin. We wanted more and more records from Sachin but when it came to winning a match, we still went back to Dravid. During the Melbourne test last year, when Sehwag got out in the second innings, my brother woke me up and said,"Jeni, Sehwag is gone." I replied,"Dravid is there no?" and went back to sleep. That was probably the first time that Dravid didn't live upto my/our expectations. And slowly this series saw the wall develop some cracks. Clearly visible ones. I didn't like it one bit when his stumps were disturbed.
Today, when Dravid announced his retirement, my heart sank, so did yours. In his last interview to CNN-IBN, before flying to Australia, when he was asked if Adelaide would be his last test, he smiled and said,"It will be my last test in Australia." We knew it was coming, it had to come but we did not want it to come. All that I could do when his voice cracked up today when he said that he was done was to applaud. All these memories from the Oval to Adelaide came rushing back. I suddenly felt patriotic, maybe because I was proud that this man is an Indian. With his virtues and values, he portrayed a better image of India to the world. Not everything comes with a price tag and Dravid has certainly been a priceless asset to Indian sports.
Tomorrow morning when we wake up, I don't know which will be harder - For us to accept that Rahul Sharad Dravid will no longer be seen in those white shades or for him to accept that he need not hit the nets at six in the morning anymore.
Thank you for all the memories. We will miss you, the human being and then the cricketer.
I am still thinking if the wrong Rahul has retired. Sigh!
P.S: I did not post a pic of his along with this post due to two reasons :
1. I felt the focus will shift to the pic and not to the post. ;)
2. I had difficulties in choosing a pic. :D
