Humble servant walks into sunset

End of an era: Rahul Dravid calls time on his illustrious career

By his own admission, until the last couple of years, Rahul Dravid took himself a little too seriously. On Friday, he was at once relaxed and relieved, the odd dollop of self-deprecating humour coming to the fore as he handled a plethora of questions thrown at him in the immediacy of his retirement statement with tremendous aplomb.

“I will miss that process of training,” he admitted. “I have lived the routine, going to the KSCA or NCA every morning. My wife says you have to get out of your routine! My new routine will be buying the groceries and going to pick my sons from school, dropping them to school...”
Being an international sportsperson means not always being in a position to do everyday things. At 39, Dravid will take his first tentative steps towards a ‘normal’ life, having spilled blood, sweat and a few tears in improving the stock of the Indian cricket team.

As Dravid saunters away into the sunset, he leaves behind a million doubts. Who next? Who will be the next Wall? “I’d like to say that there is a huge group of young Indian players who can be better than Rahul Dravid,” he said, and sincerely so. “I would love to believe that in 16-17 years, you will be attending a press conference of a player who has done lot more than I have.

“When I look back at myself as a 23-year-old when I played for India, and then look at the present players, I know that I was nowhere near as talented as these kids. Obviously, just being talented does not necessarily mean you have a successful Test career. There are a lot of things that go with it – how you face the challenges and how you deal with things which are sometime internal more than external. I hope two or three of them can establish themselves and play for India for a long time.”
Unassuming and ungiven to chest-beating, Dravid deflected a question on his contribution to cricket with consummate ease. Asked if he was leaving the game better than he found it, the former captain replied, “It is for other people to judge whether I have left the Indian cricket better than when I started off. It’s not for me to make that decision.

“We are very disappointed that we didn’t do well in England and Australia. Having said that, I still do feel Indian cricket is in a good place. There is some really exciting talent coming through.”

Himself an unqualified legend, Dravid threw light on what it meant to him to play alongside some of the biggest names in the business. “It was an honour and privilege to play alongside a galaxy of stars and legends, whether it was Sachin, Anil, Sourav, Srinath, Laxman, Sehwag, Harbhajan. I was fortunate to have played in an era which was successful for Indian cricket,” Test cricket’s second highest run-maker noted.

“Some of the guys I have played with, my sons will not understand but if they go on to follow the game, they will realise that I have played with some of the great players and what they mean to Indian cricket. Sharing a dressing room with them was an absolute honour.”

Dravid has never believed in nursing grouses, harbouring grudges or carrying regrets. “If you play for 16 years, there are going to be times in your career where  you have to face some incredible highs and some disappointing lows. At the end of the day, there is a huge amount of satisfaction that even though I might have failed in certain times or failed in achieving certain things, I have always given it my best shot. I have left no stone unturned to try and become the best cricketer I could ever become. That leaves me with a  huge amount of satisfaction, there definitely are no regrets.”

Asked to pick his best innings, Dravid listed a few, then laughed, “I guess there are quite a few that come to the top of the head, but it is hard to choose between your sons!” Samit and Anvay will be glad to hear that. Papa is home. Finally.