My picture of The Wall

I was 8-9 years old. Getting together with all cousins at the ancestral house was the most enjoyable part of life then. And even then a cricket match on TV was the only thing that could keep this bunch of kids inside one room without much noise. Sachin Tendulkar was already everyone's hero. Even my mom who used to scold me while I watched cricket knew him. The whole nation respected him. I barely knew others in the team that much. But since I used to love cricket I made it a point to at least identify everyone by face.

It was another day like that. India were playing Kenya. For some reason Sachin wasn't playing. Suddenly the oldest one among us said, "we will all pick one player and support him. You cannot pick a player someone else has picked. Let us see who's player performs the best. Since I am the oldest I shall go first", and he picked Sachin. I was disappointed. That was unfair. My age wasn't in my hands. I was just 3 years younger to him. But all these never worked that day. So next was my chance. I just saw some Gagan Khoda hit 89 in his first match. But he was a new guy. Next person who came to my mind was Azharuddin. But the way he and Jadeja stooped at the crease was ugly. That left me with two other batsmen I knew in the team. Both of them I had seen play nice shots. But I had to choose. I chose Rahul Dravid because Ganguly was left-handed and I was a right-hander. My younger cousins were fighting over the ones I had discarded. But from that moment I hoped someday Dravid would out-perform Sachin so that I could get back at my brother for giving me an unfair deal. Game on.

Few more years down the lane, I realized my hope would never materialize, because Sachin dominated one-day cricket. And I was beginning to think I could have chosen Ganguly as he was the next in line to Sachin. It was then that I started watching test cricket properly. At Hamilton, Dravid scored brilliant centuries in both the innings of the match to draw it. I was beginning to like my choice. My passion for cricket increased. I started picking up the newspaper the next day after a match, turn it to the end and read only the statistics of the match the previous day. And I learnt Dravid's feat of twin centuries was a rarity. And all his 4 centuries so far have been outside the Indian sub-continent where Indians are generally not expected to bat well. Yes Dravid's name is somewhere where Sachin's name isn't. First glimpse of success for me!

Then came the World Cup of 1999. I have never watched one live. It was all exciting. I bought a pack of pens in which each was of a different color and had a participating team's name written on it along with their flag drawn. It seemed like India was in a festival crazy mood. India lost its first two matches and one without Sachin because his father had passed away. Though I was a die-hard Dravid fan by then, I wanted Sachin to be back in the squad as early as possible because without him the team did not have confidence. And such was the patriotism of the little master that he did come after missing just one match despite of his father's death and along with Dravid won the first match for India in the WC. Both scored centuries. Next day's papers told me their partnership was the highest in WC. But the record stayed only until the next India match. Dravid and Ganguly (each scoring centuries) combined in a mammoth partnership to rock the Sri lankans. And just as I was thinking about how India will win the WC they exited it in the second round itself. But Dravid was already the top run-getter and remained so till the end. Dravid just did something that Sachin had already done and I took it as another success for me.

The years to come were stunning for Dravid. Teaming up with Sachin, he broke the world record for the highest partnership once again. In tests, he scored his first double century soon after Sachin did. After Ganguly and Sachin in ODI's he found a similar partner in tests in Laxman. The duo pulled off a coup on the mighty Australians in 2001 at Eden Gardens. And in 2003 repeated it in Adelaide when the newspapers read - 'Dravid & Laxman turn Adelaide Oval into Garden of Eden'. In between these two were perhaps Dravid's best years as a test cricketer. A century in the West Indies followed by 4 centuries in consecutive innings, three of them in England and a double-hundred against New Zealand. 

After almost a decade since the Adelaide brilliance, Dravid and Sachin still continue to be India's mainstay. The above-mentioned are just a few examples of Dravid's masterclass which I lived through. Any statistic page on Dravid will give more of them. And yes Sachin's page would have lots more. Sachin is truly a legend. And growing up watching cricket I realize no one can beat Sachin and succeed. But now I don't feel my choice of Dravid was a poor one just because he cannot beat Sachin. Dravid has certainly challenged Sachin in Hamilton, Kolkata, The Oval, Georgetown, Adelaide, Rawalpindi, Kingston and at Lords recently. Perhaps if Dravid wasn't there who knows what would have come of Sachin. 

Rahul Dravid is perhaps more innocent than the one who used to come on the Jammy ad during the 1999 WC. Always a team man, he unwaveringly agreed to whatever the team asked him to do. He kept wickets when India needed to balance the side. He agreed to open when there were no other fit openers left in the squad. He agreed to move to No. 5 because of poor performance and yet delivered from there in Kolkata. He even agreed to bowl when Saeed Anwar, on 95, was taking all other bowlers apart and even got Anwar out. He agreed to take up captaincy when Ganguly was dropped. He quietly moved out when he was dropped because his style of playing was too slow for the present day ODI. He agreed to play again when recalled to the side because the supposed hard-hitting team cannot cope up with the South African pitches. He again quietly moved out when matches were shifted back to batting friendly tracks. Now again he has been recalled because the juniors can't play in England pitches. This is where I feel Dravid stands far apart from Sachin. Not that Sachin would not have done all this. But he was never asked to. Sachin was perhaps the only player that the BCCI respected and hence the team revolved around him. The team followed Sachin. But Dravid had to follow the team. And he did so with utmost faithfulness and dedication.

Moreover, Dravid has lived with the awkward nickname 'The Wall'. A Wall is an emotionless construction that is just built around the house. Dravid doesn't suit that. He is much much more. He has his emotions. He is not merely a construction around the team. He plays for them. He wins matches. He saves matches. He is not a wall. He should be called a fortress with an arsenal of classical weapons. But then only I have this complaint. Dravid doesn't. And that's why I adore him.

Someone had once said, even when Dravid scores his runs for India, he is soon forgotten or overshadowed by others - Ganguly at Lords ('96) and Taunton, Laxman at Kolkata, Sachin at Headingley and Sehwag at Lahore. Had these been recognized in the right manner, I would have seen at least half the number of articles that Sachin got when he completed 20 years in cricket, on Dravid for retiring from ODIs.. 

Now at 38 he is being asked to do the same stuff again - keep wickets, open the innings and comeback to ODI. His retirement at the end of the ODI series looks as a move to avoid further embarrassment from our perspective but from Dravid's  - its just his way of contributing more to tests so that age doesn't affect his fitness. I might not miss him much from the ODI side probably because I like him have gotten used to the fact. But when the day comes in tests, I and India will weep. I, because he won't be playing again and India because they cannot find a replacement!

P.S: For those reading, there is a high chance that you might be a Sachin fan. In case you find any part of this article offensive pardon me. Even am a Sachin fan but whatever is written is whatever I have felt. No offence to Sachin. Even today if someone asks me 'who my favorite player is' I take that question as 'who my favorite player is after Sachin Tendulkar'! Cheers!!