Revision as of 23:44, 20 January 2021

In a nutshell

[ From the archives of the Times of India]

MOTHER: Pushpa Dravid (professor)

FATHER: Sharad Dravid (worked for Kissan Jams. Hence Dravid’s nickname Jammy)

BROTHER: Vijay Dravid (engineer)

WIFE: Vijeta Pendharkar (doctor)

SONS: Samit and Anvay

ROOTS: Though often mistaken to be a Kannadiga, Rahul is actually a Maharashtrian Brahmin. The Dravid lineage can be traced back to the period of early British rule when Maharashtrians migrated to what is now called Tamil Nadu and Karnataka

BORN: January 11, 1973 (which makes him a Capricorn) in Indore, after which the family relocated to Bangalore

SCHOOL:All-boys St Joseph’s High School. Rahul was a good middle-distance runner and also played hockey as a centre-half

COLLEGE: Did B Com from the co-ed St Joseph’s College of Commerce

HOME: ‘Srishti’ in Indiranagar, Bangalore

FOOD: Fond of homemade food, especially chicken and fish. Also enjoys Italian food

SPOUSE: Had an arranged marriage; both families have been friends for several years and belong to the same Brahmin sub-caste (Deshastha Brahmins). Vijeta, youngest of three siblings, studied at Shri Shiva ji Science college in Nagpur, then got her medicine degree and MS from the government medical college there

SPORTS PERSONALITIES HE ADMIRES: Pete Sampras, Prakash Padukone, V Anand, Roger Federer. As a boy, admired Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, GR Viswanath. Likes watching rugby and soccer, where he backs Real Madrid

MUSIC: Old songs, especially Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar. Also likes Sting

A profile

Source:

1.[ From the archives of the Times of India], Bobilli Vijay Kumar

2.[ From the archives of the Times of India], Boria Majumdar

A Classical Hero For Modern India

Rahul Dravid epitomised the best traits of a resurgent country as it moved into a new century

His arrival in mid-1996 on the horizon of India’s cricketscape could not have come at a better time. Just as a liberalised India was opening up and making giant strides in the world – and just when middle-class Indians, uninhibited and confident, were leaving home shores to stake a claim to the world’s treasures – arrived Rahul Dravid to control and steer Indian cricket forward. Dravid was symptomatic of the mid-1990s India; strongly nationalist and resurgent, determined and passionate, committed and hard-working. Of a middle-class ethos and with a global outlook, Dravid was a product of his time. The away pitches of Australia, South Africa and England did not scare him for he represented a different India, hardly ever insecure. Not as talented perhaps as the other legendary number three, Ricky Ponting, Dravid epitomised virtues which a turn of the century India would need; reliability, reliability and further reliability. Even when things did not necessarily go his way like in Australia in December-January 2012, his commitment never wavered. He was the first and only Indian at the MCG at 9 am on Christmas day to practise against hundreds of throwdowns ahead of the Boxing Day Test. He would even shadow bat over dinner when things weren’t going his way as manager G S Walia later recounted. How do we define Rahul Dravid in a sentence? The task might sound impossible but isn’t so in reality. In fact, the answer is fairly simple. Had Sachin Tendulkar not played his cricket at the same time, Dravid would surely be the best batsman to have ever played the game for India. At a time when we are ruing our sudden dip in form in overseas conditions, Dravid’s achievements overseas, more than anything else, appear staggering. In the pre-Rahul Dravid era, India hardly ever won a Test match on foreign soil, the presence of Sunil Gavaskar notwithstanding. Port of Spain 1976 or England 1986 were aberrations that were few and far between. Most if not all of India’s famous away wins between 2002-08 have one common factor, Dravid. Not always associated with his style of batsmanship, Dravid has been the catalyst for all of India’s famous overseas Test wins in the course of the last decade, a record incredible enough to catapult him to the echelons of the game’s greatest of all time. Rediscovering himself against Steve Waugh’s Australians at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata in 2001 with a peerless 180, in the process helping V V S Laxman to his magical 281, Dravid fashioned the Headingley (2002), Adelaide (2003-04), Rawalpindi (2004), Kingston (2006) and Perth (2008) away wins for his team. His scores in these matches, 148, 232 and 72, 270, 81 and 68 in a low-scoring contest in Jamaica and 93 are Bradmanesque figures, which put the debate over who is the best ever number three of all time after the Don himself to rest once and for all. No tribute to Rahul Dravid can be complete without mentioning his off-field persona. Even when the going was tough, he exuded a sense of calm at press conferences, just like the way be batted. Comparable perhaps to the State Bank of India in his qualities, unfailing and purely Indian, not without reason is Dravid recognised as a true ambassador of the game in an era of hyper-nationalism and aggressiveness. Gesticulating to the crowd or hurling abuses at the opposition just isn’t Dravid, as also misbehaving with scribes or acting in a high-handed manner. Not without reason does Tendulkar say, “There was, and is, only one Rahul Dravid and there can be no other.” The other interesting attribute without mentioning which an assessment of Dravid remains incomplete is his emphasis on what he called “the importance of ugliness” as a standout quality in any cricketer. While serving as guest editor of the Times of India he was forthright in observing that the achievement he values the most is the "ugly hundred" – a century that is achieved despite poor form, touch and timing by virtue of sheer determination and unflinching commitment and integrity in one’s approach to the game. Dravid, it is universally accepted, wasn’t particularly suited to the 50-over format. Yet, he ended up scoring 10,000 runs. This statistic, more than any other, defines Dravid the cricketer. Prepared to struggle and prepared to be uncomfortable for long periods if need be, he is a rare species in an age of T20 cricket. Talking about the need for accountability and modesty for cricketers in the course of his much appreciated Donald Bradman oration in December 2011, Dravid had an interesting take on legacy in the context of continuing when you aren’t doing well and in the process tarnishing your legacy. He echoed the Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe’s words, “'I can sacrifice my legacy for the love of the sport.” There can be no other cricketer who can say such a thing for there can be no other Dravid. To conclude, it is fitting to leave the last words on Dravid to Tendulkar, who has spent more time with him on the field than any other player over the last 16 years. “For someone who has played 164 Test matches and scored 13,200-plus runs, no tribute can be enough.”

Like Arjuna, he only saw the bird’s eye

He was Arjuna; he would go on to become one of the greatest archers, if not the most accomplished warrior in mythology. Dravid’s rise to legendary proportions also rode on similar traits: unflinching focus and unyielding dedication for his skill. Like the Pandava, he too had been marked out for greatness at an early stage; but he traversed the horizons and reached that destination by tangoing with perfection, all along the way.

Being intelligent, charming and good-looking, he could easily have succumbed to any of the vices, or all the temptations; but he rarely looked beyond the eye, he never really saw the bird. He could shut himself from the world, or simply shut the world to find solace in a book, in his hotel room. Sunil Gavaskar’s preparation, famously, started about 30 minutes before he went out to bat; for Dravid, though, the exercise would begin almost 30 days earlier. Like an earnest student preparing for a big exam, he would study the itinerary carefully; he would dig into the background of the pitches and analyse the bowlers he was going to face. If it was South Africa or Australia, he would work on his hook and pull shots, with wet tennis balls; if it was England, he would hone his forward defensive leaves, making sure his head was over the ball or was ready to weave in or out of its line. It didn’t end there though: once he landed, he would find time to grasp the history of the city, just to feel its air and catch its spirit. It has a liberating effect on Dravid. On the eve of the match too, he has a different routine: with a bat in hand, often without it too, he would spend close to 30 minutes by the pitch. It’s almost like he was trying to unravel its mysteries, befriending the devils within; he would meditate and he would indulge in positive visualisation, thinking of all his previous big knocks here. He, then, would close his eyes and play and replay all his strokes.

By the end of it, he seems healed; you can almost sense that he is in a zone of his own. There were, of course, times when his elaborate preparation didn’t yield the desired results; but until the just-concluded Australian tour, it had mostly been to unplayable deliveries, death balls that would materialise from nowhere just for him. At that point, probably, Dravid knew it was time to go: six times bowled out of eight would have broken even Arjuna. It’s ironic that just a few months earlier, in England, he was batting on a different plane. While the rest were collapsing, he was virtually unbeatable; the pitches were difficult, the bowlers fast and aggressive, but nobody could get past him. For all his numbers (13,288 runs. 36 tons. 210 catches and One-dayers), the ride has not always been easy though; he was shunted up and down the order before he commandeered the most pivotal slot: Number 3. In One-dayers, too, he had to make peace with the big gloves merely to keep himself afloat. Yet, he had the courage to walk away from the one thing every player aspires for: India’s captaincy. It wasn’t just that the hype was breaching his sanctum sanctorum, the private space that he so dearly cherished; it was the pressures and politics from within which were leaving him a shattered person. He’d rather lose the coveted prize than lose his faith in people, in friends. So, in a way, he didn’t give up the captaincy; he renounced it. His goal was never to be India’s top captain; he simply wanted to be one of its best batsmen. And he realized quickly enough that this was blurring his target, that he couldn’t shoot well enough; in no time, he was only seeing the bird’s eye again. Yes, it took him almost three years to reach the pinnacle of his batsmanship, at the same place where the journey had begun 16 years ago: England

Farewell to Cricket

[ From the archives of the Times of India]

(As told to Satish Viswanathan)

Exceptional student of the game: By Anil Kumble

Right from the day Rahul Dravid made his debut for Karnataka, we knew he would go on to play for India. In terms of batting technique, he was a genius. Also, his commitment and approach to the game was there for all to see. He had to wait probably for five years before he made his debut for India, although it was in the One-day format. He established himself during England’s tour of 1996. From there on, he never looked back. Dravid had to make a lot of changes in his game, especially in the One-day format, when people questioned his ability to force the pace. Credit must be given to the way he adapted to One-dayers and later the T20 format. Every time questions were asked about him, he would spend extra time preparing himself to counter the new challenges. He was an exceptional student of the game and very committed. He was probably too involved in the game, and maybe that element of enjoyment that you seek when you are not that involved was probably missing, especially in the latter part of his career. I felt he was trying to focus too hard. But he kept working on his game every time he came back from a series. If he got out to someone twice in a similar fashion, he would work in the nets even if he had been dismissed after scoring 150. I remember in the Delhi Test against Pakistan, my first Test as captain, he got out to Shoaib Akhtar in the second innings. We won the game chasing 140. He got out to Shoaib scoring some 40-odd runs to a reverse swinger, bowled: similar to how he got out in Australia a few weeks back. The next two days he was in the nets. That is how he was. Rahul was an exceptional guy to have in the team, you could send him to bat whenever you wanted and he would never complain. He adapted to all these roles very well. He has done everything he could on the cricket field. When he looks back, I’m sure he will look back with a lot of pride and satisfaction at the way he has gone about getting those 13,000 Test runs and 10,000 One-day runs. I’m sure he will be proud of his achievements. Is there anything missing? I am not sure, may be a triple hundred. But he himself said that if he has to get one he has to bat for three days, which is tough since he gets dehydrated very quickly. It is never easy giving up. He just had probably one bad series in 15 years. I think he has done everything one can ask from a cricketer.

‘I have lived in a cocoon’

There were no tears shed, but the emotions were overflowing when Rahul Dravid announced his retirement on Friday. Surely, it would have been tempting to carry on for that one more series, that one home Test where the adoring fans could come together to provide the right setting? "I don’t think it is right just to keep playing for the sake of one Test," Dravid said, "I don’t think that was the way I played the game. It was important for me to move on. I needed to play for the right reasons and as much as I respect other people’s feelings that I should have played another Test, I hope they will respect and appreciate my feelings." Understandably, everyone present at the Chinnaswamy Stadium - including Dravid himself - would have had mixed feelings. It must have been a huge decision for Dravid to take. "When you leave something like playing for India - a life that I have lived for close to 16 years and five years before that of firstclass cricket, it is tough. It’s all I had known all my growing life," he started. "From that point of view it was difficult decision. But it also wasn’t a difficult decision for me because I knew in my heart deep down that the time was right. I was very happy and comfortable in what I had achieved and what I had done. It is hard in a way and it’s also easy in a way." Dravid was also at pains to point out that he would have hung up his boots even if the Australia tour had gone India’s and his way. “Irrespective of how it went, I was sure that after the Australia tour I would sit down and look at a lot of things. Now it is easy for me to say but I would like to think that I would have come to the same conclusion." He added: "I truly believe that a little bit of time away from the game will be good for me. I have played this game for 20 years and lived in a cocoon, a surreal world. It has been away from reality in some ways and so many former cricketers have told me that if I get away from the game for me a while, it will give you a better perspective and you will be able to come back and look at things differently. When you play, it is difficult to see things from outside. Whatever decisions I take will be based on the fact that I have a young family.” DRAVID TALK

ON WHAT THE MONIKER ‘WALL’ MEANS TO HIM

“I never really took it seriously. I will be honest with you that when people called me ‘Wall’ I used to joke they were setting up me because after I fail, it is easier for them to say that there is a brick in the wall, the foundations are weak, the wall is missing — I mean for the people who put the headlines and make the copies. So they would say let’s put the ‘Wall’ so that later we can use it. I know that a lot of people call me that very fondly and I respect that. But I never really thought that I was a ‘Wall’ whenever I walked out to the middle.”

WHAT HE WILL MISS THE MOST

“I know what I am going to miss the most is being part of a unit. The joy of bonding together and striving to achieve a goal is what made cricket special for me.” ON TAKING THE RETIREMENT CALL “There was no eureka moment that forced me into taking the decision to retire. A lot of these decisions come to you. I felt it was the right time to move on and for the next generation to come forward.”

ON THE IMPORTANCE OF CATCHES

“Nothing frustrates me more than dropping a catch. When one gets out, one can get over it in 15-20 minutes. But when you drop a catch in the slip cordon, it stays with me for a very long time, that hurts in a lot of ways.”

In the view of others

We never tried to influence each other’s style of batting: By VVS Laxman

[ From the archives of the Times of India]

(As told to Solomon S Kumar)

It’s never easy to see a partnership being broken. That is exactly what Rahul Dravid’s retirement means to me. I’ve been very fortunate and wonderfully privileged to be involved in many match-winning partnerships with him for the last 15 years or so. Rahul has been a true performer and his contribution to Indian cricket is immense. He has been an inspiration to us all. However, I’m not surprised by his call to retire. It was inevitable. All of us are at the fag end of our careers and each one of us has to move into the twilight. Rahul had called me up three days back and told me about his decision. He said that he had been thinking about it since returning from the Australia tour and was very clear in his mind that the time had come for him to walk away. He said he had had enough of all the travel and wanted to move on with life and spend more time with his family. Rahul was a true professional. The way he would prepare and his body language all oozed confidence. He made a big difference to team ethics. He did lay a lot of emphasis on technique, and that is one of the main reasons for his success. The first time I saw him play was at the Under-19 level (I was about 16 or so and he was two years older) and since then to the last Test we played in Adelaide recently, my respect for the man has only grown by leaps and bounds. I’ve always enjoyed batting with him. He was a selfless man whose priority was the team. During the Kolkata Test against Australia in 2001, I was promoted to bat at No.3 in the second innings and Rahul batted at No.6. But he never showed any disappointment or unhappiness on being asked to bat lower down. What was amazing about that knock was the fact that Rahul was unwell and on antibiotics, but still got a century in the most trying circumstances. Rahul has always had a problem with dehydration and so batting in those conditions was heroic. Though we batted so much together, we neither tried to influence the other or change the other’s style of batting. Such respect helped our friendship bloom. Our friendship took wing during the 1994-96 period when we played for South Zone together. From that time till now, we have been the thick of friends. Dravid was by nature a very quiet person. One wouldn’t find him joking too much. But he shared a kind of bonding with Javagal Srinath and they would have a real gala time in the dressing room. In the later years, he became quite close to me and we shared a lot of things. When one fields at slips one needs to be very alert and hence both of us had the chance to share a lot of ideas. We not only spoke about cricket but also a lot of other things, from marriage, kids to other things in life. Just like me, Rahul too had a great passion for domestic cricket and we often bounced off ideas on making domestic cricket stronger. Even when he was captain, he was always receptive to ideas not only from me but even from the juniors.

Both of us love books and as such we used to not only talk about them but also go shopping for them when abroad. It was mostly autobiographies, motivational and management books.

The funniest moment that I remember about Rahul is when we won the Adelaide Test against Australia in 2003-04. We finished the game around lunch time but Rahul had his cricket gear on till well after dinner. He was so excited that he didn’t even bother to change his whites! Rahul had that excitement for the game from the first day of his career till the last. That’s what makes the man a true legend. Rahulbhai, you will surely be missed by the team, but mostly by me in the slip cordon.

By retiring, he has sent team a message: By Sourav Ganguly

[ From the archives of the Times of India]

(As told to Devadyuti Das)

Rahul Dravid will remain one of the greatest cricketers I have had the pleasure of playing with. It’ll be very difficult to replace a man with over 10,000 runs in both forms of the game. Indian cricket won’t be the same without Dravid. I can’t say if it’s a good time to quit because there is no such thing! Like other areas of life, when you do something with real passion and devotion, it’s really hard to move away from it. But he has taken a really hard decision and sent a message to the team. I believe Dravid formed one of the four pillars around which revolved India’s efforts to rise to the top of world cricket. The team was going through a rebuilding phase when Dravid and me joined the team and all of us worked really hard to turn out fortunes around. My first encounter with Dravid was way back in 1990-91 during India’s Under-19 tour to England. His talent was already apparent then but we didn’t stay in touch after that. The next time I really got to know him was during our debut series against England in 1996. That Lord’s Test will remain one of our fondest cricketing memories. Both of us were feeling the nerves in the middle but kept egging ourselves on. He was really unlucky not to complete a welldeserved century. Without a shadow of a doubt, he was the best No. 3 batsman in Test cricket of his generation. But to his credit he worked on improving his batting in One-day cricket. He was also a team man to the core. He didn’t blink an eyelid when the team needed his services as a wicketkeeper during the 2003 World Cup. We played as a complete unit, which proved to be one of our strengths. He knows that once again it’s time for a change and he needed to step away. I applaud him for his courage.

Javagal Srinath

[ From the archives of the Times of India]

The one word that truly represents Rahul is ‘dignity’. I think Rahul brought a lot of dignity to everything he did and that to me marked him out. The solidity that he brought to the side will be difficult for Team India to replace.

Ajit Agarkar

[ From the archives of the Times of India]

He is a true legend, a word that we often use loosely. In the next few years, India will realize his true value as the void at the No. 3 position will become really hard to fill. He was one of the most hardworking cricketers I have ever encountered. The most memorable moment for me will be watching him hit the winning runs from the other end in the Adelaide Test in 2003 — a match in which he was just phenomenal.

Wasim Jaffer

[ From the archives of the Times of India]

He was a terrific role model, the way he has conducted his career both on and off the field is great. Sachin (Tendulkar) is the greatest but he was also naturally talented. Dravid has worked to achieve everything in life. He has been a terrific servant for Indian cricket. When I scored my first double century in Test cricket, I shared a century stand with Dravid. We were trailing the Windies by about 130 runs but Dravid kept motivating me to keep batting on and on.

Ashish Nehra

[ From the archives of the Times of India]

He was one of the all-time greats of the game. I consider him to be in the same league as Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar. He was always a big motivator in the team. He was a model cricketer both on and off the field. In the 2003 World Cup when we played together, we were working really well as a group.

‘HE INFORMED EACH TEAMMATE IN ADVANCE’

[ From the archives of the Times of India]

—Arani Basu | TNN

The team has always come first for Rahul Dravid, and it was no different when he made up his mind to retire. One of his long-time India colleagues, Harbhajan Singh, disclosed on Friday how Dravid called up his teammates three days earlier and informed them of his decision. Harbhajan said, “He called up each of the players who had played with him and informed them about his decision, just because he didn’t want us to know from the media. That tells you how great a man he is. If cricket is called a gentleman’s game then he defines that. Dravid is perhaps Indian cricket’s greatest legend. These are the kind of guys who taught us how to play the game the right way.” Recalling the tumultuous time when Dravid took over as captain following the ugly spat between Sourav Ganguly and excoach Greg Chappell, Harbhajan said, “Dravid is an educated and sensible man. Being a student of the game, he knew what he wanted. He was clear in his thoughts.” The off-spinner said he would miss Dravid the slip catcher. “I’ll definitely miss him in the slip cordon. It will be a different experience without him there when I get a chance to play for India again. Even as a wicketkeeper he had been amazing.”