Legends illuminate Bangalore evening

Sticking to one’s strength was the key to success in international cricket, according to Rahul Dravid.

The former India captain was speaking during a discussion along with other former India skippers Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly and former Karnataka skipper V Subramanya on the final day of the Karnataka State Cricket Association’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations here on Saturday.       

“You need to understand what your strengths are and stick to them. You got to be true to yourself, there is no point copying others. I did observe the way Sachin, Sourav and (VVS) Laxman played their innings, constructed their knocks and adjusted to the conditions. It comes by experience, you learn along the way and I got better at it. I would never have succeeded if I had tried to bat like Viru (Virender Sehwag) or Viru wouldn’t have succeeded if he had batted like me. Run-making, at the end of the day, comes down to ones temperament. You may have the technique and the skills, but you need to have that temperament to score in difficult conditions or pressure situations,” he explained.

The three team-mates also dwelled upon the approach to batting in the advent of Twenty20 cricket. “You figure out a way to play, to play forward, play back and you work on it,” noted Ganguly. “Twenty20 has obviously changed the game, you get more results in Tests, you have 300-plus and even 400-plus scores in ODIs. In terms of skills, yes, the basics are the same but you have to adjust." Tendulkar echoed the sentiments. "Basics are most important in Tests and to some extent in ODIs,” before adding jest: “Not at all in T20, just go and swing your bat!"

The Mumbaikar also threw light on changing face of the game since his debut in 1989. “When I played for India in 1989 against Pakistan for the first time... We had nets before the game, you cannot call them optional but in a sense it was. The clothes were all different, the seniors had fancy clothing, we guys, who had just come in from the Ranji Trophy had different clothes. In 2003, a laptop came into our dressing room and we were like 'what’s that doing in here? How is it going to teach us the game?' Now, it is so important to us, in seconds we get all the information that we need."

Post their playing careers, Dravid and Ganguly have taken to commentating with great degree of success. "It is easier to sit and talk,” Dravid pointed out about his experience behind the mike. “It’s easier to say he shouldn’t have chased that wide one while six months back you would have done the same thing!"

The emcee pointed out how did they discuss Tendulkar’s game and pat came the reply. "The good thing about Sachin is that he doesn’t listen to all this (commentary) so he never knows (what we say),” said Dravid.

Sir Richard Hadlee, Javagal Srinath, Venketsh Prasad and Roger Binny reflected their views on the art of fast bowling. Srinath recalled how he struggled to the get his length right at the beginning of his career while Binny pointed out how swing his became his ally in the absence of express pace.

“You got to learn a lot of things when you go abroad. I used to ask him (Hadlee) a lot of things about fast bowling but at the end of the day he would end up taking more wickets. Azharuddin (who was present on the occasion) and Sachin (his captains) always used to tell me to pitch the ball up (aage dalo, aage dalo yaar, kya kar raha hai?). But as you grow older, you will learn the importance of these things. Mastering the length is the most difficult job for a bowler,” Srinath observed.