naveen fcp

It’s always cruel to be the eternal supporting act. When you know, no matter what you do, the guy who’s going to get all the accolades and applause is the other guy. The Hero. The likes of Pranab Mukherjee, Asha Bhosle and Bassino from Merchant of Venice, will testify to that feeling. And that’s been the curse of being Rahul Sharad Dravid. He happened to be playing in the same generation and in the same team as a certain Mr. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.
I am convinced and the numbers prove it too that if Dravid was not playing alongside Tendulkar, we’d all be singing hosannas to the most dependable batsman India has ever produced. In the last week alone, Dravid went past 11,000 Test runs and past Allan Border to become the fourth highest run getter in Tests. But there was no brouhaha. The media didn’t go berserk. No chest-thumping and back-slapping by self-proclaimed cricket pundits. Very unlike the national outpouring of congratulations when Sachin completed 20 years in cricket.

There’s something about Dravid that’s very reassuring. When Tendulkar’s on song, the nation is brought to a halt. He mesmerizes. When Dravid bats, most of us switch off the TV. Not because he’s boring. But because we know that no force on earth can dislodge ‘The Wall’. All’s well, life goes on.
No Indian batsman, and this includes Tendulkar, has saved or won more Test matches than Dravid. He has helped save important Test matches in Port of Spain, Georgetown and Nottingham. He’s won us matches in Kolkata, Headingley, Adelaide, Kandy and Rawalpindi.

Dravid once called Ganguly, the God of the off-side. It’s time Dada returned the compliment. In the 21 Test victories under Ganguly’s captaincy, Dravid has scored a quarter of all the runs. And at an average of over 100. Tell me, your jaw didn’t drop!

Tendulkar has always been hailed as India’s tragic hero. The guy who goes onto get a hundred but the team loses. The towering figure whose astounding contributions make the rest of the team look like chimps. But even he’d be envious of this record. Dravid averages 67 in 44 Test victories. In defeats, he averages 26. Only one of his 28 centuries was in a losing cause. In short, when Dravid makes a hundred, the team, more often than not, goes onto win.

Yet, there’s something extraordinary about the man. It’s not his talent. Dravid, by all reckoning probably has half the talent that a Tendulkar or a Lara or even a Ponting does. God has been unkind to him. But he more than makes up for it by doing the sheer hard grind and with an unflinching resolve. Dravid makes us believe that if he can do it, so can all of us, mortals. He evokes hope, not awe.

It’s time we gave him his due. Take a bow, Rahul Dravid.