1996, Lords. Indian Cricket was to discover its 2 gems, one- who went on to become one of India's most succesful skipper - Saurav Ganguly, other- who donned different hats to give stability to it's batting line up for a long long time- the Rock Solid 'Rahul Dravid'.
Some critics who initially rejected Dravid 'as not fit for ODIs' had to chew their hats when he showed how indespensable he was for ODIs in the 1999 and 2003 World Cup. In the pre-Dhoni era when India was struggling to find a wicket-keeper batsmen, an altruist Dravid took up the keeping gloves to add muscle to it's batting line-up. Though he was not a regular keeper, India never felt wanting for one. After having dropped him unceremoniously after the 2007 world cup debacle he was called to the ODI team only to face the chin music on fast and bouncy pitches like England. He went on to amass over 10,000 runs in ODIs(which was infact 1 year before he did that in tests) before calling it a day in August 2011.
In 1996, having scored 95 in his Test debut, he played a mind boggling 94 Test matches for India on the trot. He's one cricketer who's not been bogged down by injuries when Indian players plagued by injury concerns often took long breaks. His commitment to the game, on and off the field, was unmatched, in the words of Big B "he talked cricket, he walked cricket, he slept cricket"!
He was an ardent student of the game which showed in his copybook shots which were like straight out of the cricketing manuals. Technically his batting was flawless, for he had a penchant for perfection. Budding cricketers are invariably advised to keenly observe Dravid's batting. Few people have rightly observed that he was the last traditional batsmen of Test Cricket.
A correspondent of 'The Telegraph' says, in UK, Dravid is liked more than Sachin! Glenn mcGrath once said, "if there was one Indian player who would get an automatic entry into an Australian team filled with stars, it would be Rahul Dravid"
Many people see it as blasphemous to put Dravid above Sachin or Sunny. But the order of precedence is surely contestable. Dravid like Sachin or Sunny was not a gifted cricketer. He has worked hard and evolved himself as a cricketer and created a niche for himself. The greatness of player like Dravid cannot be assessed only in terms of statistics, though Dravid has remarkable statistics. His contribution has to be assessed holistically, as there are a lot of intangible contributions he has made to the wider interests of the game. He has the highest number(88) of 100plus partnerships, which stands testimonial to the role of a sheet anchor which he played to perfection. He held on to his wicket on one side so that the other batsman could go for his shots. When he was at the crease, he gave one thing which very few batsmen gave to the Indian fan - 'hope'.
An altruist, a perfectionist, a true Gentleman of the game of Gentlemen, the finest ambassador of the sport, will be missed like no other cricketer.
