Man of caliber takes his bow

[1]

A man of high intellectual caliber like Rahul Dravid could not possibly have reconciled his inability to cope with anything other than the most exacting standards of excellence in performance even in the chancy theatre of sport. When his defences stood breached with astounding regularity in Australia, it was already clear that Dravid would not be seen in international cricket again.

It was mental agility as well his diligently tending to his fitness that saw him last as long as 16 years in international cricket. In the end, it was an honest decision to call it quits as much as walking was when given out caught behind in his first Test innings when he was only five shy of joining Sourav Ganguly with a century on debut at Lord’s in the summer of ’96.

Always concerned about the future of Indian cricket because he was not sure the succeeding generation would show the same dedication to sustain performance across the formats, Dravid batted on, with amazing success right up to the English summer of discontent last year. He may have tarried a tad in the matter of timing his retirement but he was never going to be the senior that the selectors had to show the door to.

A foot soldier to the end even though he was captain for a phase until he gave it up himself in the aftermath of an unhappy 2007 World Cup, Dravid was a cricketer’s cricketer, ready to advise youngsters if they sought him out, keen to pass on his expertise in the matter of furthering skill sets.

However well he adapted to the demands of instant cricket, he was not the most innovative of batsmen but he did pass 10,000 runs in ODIs, a twin measure of greatness that eluded many other Test greats.
Always politically correct in his public pronouncements on the game, Dravid was the thinking cricketer we will miss in an era in which the importance of Test cricket is certain to diminish.

Even today there is none who can analyse the game with such clarity of thinking that is reflected in his fluency of his words and their depth. Those on the cricket circuit who came to know him well were to have rubbed shoulders with a man of true caliber. We may not see the likes of him soon enough in Indian cricket.