“THE” GENTLEMAN OF THE GENTLEMEN’S GAME

END OF AN ERA:March 9^th 2012, was not just a normal Friday like the usual ones which the corporate or the school kids be eagerly awaiting for. That frenzy Friday and Saturday was spent reading tributes, encomiums as much as to re-realize the value of a true cricketer who had called it quits to the game of cricket which he had been playing for more than 16 odd years for his country. A lump now is present in my throat and I am feeling a slight chill running up my spine as I start typing this. What could have been a rumor till the end came into reality for the very first time in my life. Yes the legendary number ‘3’ batsman of all times, the gentlest cricketer who had ever played the gentlemen’s game, the one who personified the gentlemen’s game, the great wall of India , the second leading run scorer in the test cricket, the man with the safest pair of hands on the earth, the legend who had faced humungous number of red cricket balls, the epitome of patience, the diligent hard worker, the man who has the most efficacious sudoriferous glands alias Jammy alias “sir” Rahul Dravid has bid adieu to his international cricketing career. What ended was more significant, it was not just a press conference for his ardent fans and true cricket lovers, and it was an era which ended.

MY CHILDHOOD PARAGON:

If you were a kid born in India and when cricket is not your favorite sport, then mark me when i say this… there is something wrong with your x and y chromosomes. I am happy and thankful to my dad and mom that i was genetically a perfect Indian kid who loved and who will ever love cricket forever. when you are an ardent cricket fan it won’t take much time to choose your role models and heroes and it was Sachin blindly who stole the show, but this most patient, neat, talented, technically sound, classy, flamboyant, stylish, rhetoric and educated cricketer Rahul Dravid took me some while to like him like how he used to take time for a prolonged match winning innings. it would be inane when you don’t like Dravid. Dravid was one such player who will be loved secretly by all the Indians but the only thing is that many failed to express it till now. You may like sachin and Ganguly more, and you may show it off or boast about them, but somewhere deep inside your heart you will always have a place for Dravid, you would have silently and secretly loved him at some point of time just like the way he silently steals your heart. i still remember and cherish the master class he showed against the new-Zealand bowlers in the Hamilton test series some 14 years back. I still remember watching it happily with my dad in the early morning around 2.45 am. Having said all these things it would not be fair if I don’t confess that i secretly loved Rahul Dravid although sachin was my god.

MORE THAN A HUMAN:

Apart from all the talent, technique and class which Dravid had one thing that stood out for me was he has never been a part of any controversies in his 16 years of illustrious career. This is a perfect example for him being called the most modest and the honest cricketer India and the world has ever given to us. “Becoming a Rahul Dravid fan is not easy, not when you have sachin around, sachin came, he saw, he conquered, Dravid came, he toiled, toiled, toiled and toiled”.

WHY NOT A FAREWELL GAME FOR THIS LEGEND?

A legend like Rahul Dravid knows it very well that cricket is larger than individuals, and it had made his life large. If he had wanted a fitting farewell match, he would have played a test match more, but he knows that happy endings happen only in fairy tales. So as a Dravid fan you can only expect him to have played a farewell but you can’t compel him.

MR.DEPENDABLE @ THE INDIAN WALL:

When sachin bats, we watch it with expectation but not with assurance. Every delivery, we expect him to conjure up a trick, an onside slog against a left arm bowler, even when sachin hits it hard, yet we will fear he will get out any time. But when Dravid bats, we go get a cup of tea or coffee, we go out to send off our friends or relatives, or even when we sleep peacefully for hours together… we can be assured he will be there for a longer time. Life for Dravid was not that easy… not every kid dreaming to play for India plays at the end… sachin is a blessed cricketer… Dravid is the one who showed us what and where those litres and litres and buckets and buckets of sweats he dropped could take a hard worker to. You need to be blessed to become a sachin, you need to toil hard to become a Dravid but it is not easy to emulate both these legends.

THANK YOU RAHUL: “FOR KEEPING THE SPIRITS OF TEST CRICKET ALIVE ALL THESE DAYS”

“FOR SHOWING US WHERE DEDICATION AND HARDWORK CAN TAKE A NORMAL HONEST, VERACIOUS AND A STRAIGHTFORWARD HUMAN”

“FOR SHOWING US HOW AN EDUCATED CRICKETER WILL BEHAVE”

“FOR SHOWING US WHERE SHEER PATIENCE CAN TAKE US”

“FOR PERSONIFYING THE GENTLEMEN’S GAME”

“FOR GIVING US NUMEROUS REASONS TO CELEBRATE”

“FOR MAKING THE WHOLE OF INDIA PROUD ALL THESE DAYS”

“FOR GIVING US THE MOST MEMORABLE AND INDELIBLE ADELAIDE AND EDEN’S TEST VICTORY WHICH WILL ALWAYS BE ETCHED IN OUR MEMORIES”

LAST BUT NOT THE LEAST THANKS A LOT DRAVID FOR ENTERTAINING US ALL THESE 16 YEARS WITH SOME BRILLIANT CRICKETING DISPLAY WHICH WILL EVER BE CHERISHED IN OUR LIFE.

“LIFE IS NOT ABOUT THE BREATHS WE TAKE, IT’S ABOUT THE MOMENT THAT TAKES OUR BREATHS AWAY”
YOU TAUGHT US WHAT LIFE IS. THANKS A LOADS FOR GIVING US SUCH BREATH TAKING MOMENTS WHICH MADE US FEEL AND APPRECIATE A PROUD AND DORMANT PATRIOTIC INDIAN INSIDE EVERYONE!