Dravid

Rahul Dravid's name is dominating the cricinfo and other Indian news sites today. For unknown reasons, its hard for me to still believe that Rahul Dravid was a modern day cricketer. For me he is more like a stereotypical nerdy Chess grandmaster. In a team which is full of macho men Dravid was the humble human being who went about his work in a very professional and simple manner. He was the purist test cricketer, I have this eerie feeling that he is one of the last of that breed.

In an era of modern day mayhem in the form of 20-20 the purist like Dravid might disappear. If you love cricket , I mean the longer version of it, you start admiring how well simplicity can work when you watch Dravid play. In two of the miracle matches ever played, Dravid had his own share but as part of his fate in both instance he was overshadowed by VVS Luxman and credit is reserved for VVS Luxman for performing those miracle and Dravid's performance are somewhere in the foot note.

I always felt that he played for the Indian team at the wrong phase of time. He might be the all time second highest run getter in tests, but unfortunately he was overshadowed by the Indian god of cricket playing at the same time.

What I most liked about him was this next door guy kind of image, and not trying to be like the younger generation of Indian cricketers who pretend like a gangster who had just broken out of Jail and walk around flaunting their stardom.