Marketers and Kids

http://www.clubmarkup.com/Markezine/pdf/Markezine_%20oct11.pdf

My fitting tribute to Mr Dependable

When Waqar Younis was asked whom he was afraid of bowling, he instinctively and immediately said "it is Rahul Dravid who milks me most. I don't like to see my delivery gone safely to the man behind the sticks." This is enough to project Dravid. he is very rightly called 'the Indian Wall' but branding him as one of the Wall in the history of cricket should not land me in answering those questions 'Why, How', etc. The touch stone to greatness is the capability to stand unswervingly tall in the peril and crisis and take the team out of woods. Whether it is a historic innings in the historic match in Eden Gardens against the mighty Australia or made a blitzkrieg against the Lankans in 1999 World Cup, there is touch of clinical display by this batsman. It is said patience is a God-gifted boon, if it so, fortunately Dravid is one of them whom God smiles upon and equally unfortunate is that people are as much impatient as Dravid is patient. The crowds are right that Dravid may not send them going ecstatic with his power packed gaudy innings but can assuage them to anchor the team to a safe port. It is not his fault but a gross mistake of us who do not adamantly  want to watch the team win but to enjoy giving some clap-pings, whistling and drum-beating but Dravid, on the hand, clandestinely takes the match away from the opponents even before the opposition captain realizes it. Cricket is such a kind of sports where it is played by eleven players and if everybody comes and breathes fire in the batting line-up and send bowlers on leather hunt, it must be a game of sheer power and stroke, no place for elegance and surgical accuracy in this sports but to the utter dismay and consternation, it's not a game of bullish strength, rather a game played by devotion, passion and brain and for Rahul devotion, passion run deep and when it comes to supply the life-saving oxygen then, without any further delay and dillydally he starts to resuscitate the team and very moment this devotion runs deeper. It is for those cricket connoisseurs who believe that he is fit for the longest version of the game and not the shorter one, for them the statistics can be an alarming figure before again booing and panting against his calibre. In Indian cricket history only two batsmen are ahead of dravid-Tendulkar (18111) and Ganguly (11363) and is ahead of Mohammad Azharuddin (9378) and these are all batsmen who have been at the forefront of India's sparkle in the game's shorter version  . Dravid's record book reads -343 matches, Dravid has scored 10820 runs, averaging 39.06 and at a strike-rate of 71.16.  he is always as gentle as his innings. he is the only batsman who partners Sachin nad Ganguly to make 189 and 183 innings and he also score the centuries in both matches. it shows he can also change his style in requirement and an invaluable gem to build up a mammoth total. Add to it, 196 catches and 14 stumpings and you get a player who has served the team selflessly. When the team india became clueless about the glovesman, then it is Dravid who agreed to stand behind the wickets just to further batting depth in the middle order. So my hats-off to this truly spirited team man.

Today the way he was playing it seemed that he was on to make another century and made a heroic finish but all on a sudden he might have thought then what will happen to his critics who have been for years are questioning his playing nature in ODI and who might have lost words to murmur about his innings and feel downcast and like a true gentle man he had spared them only to see his wickets to be rearranged again and started walking to the pavilion with his head held high when the scoreboard read 69 with SR 87.34.

As it is very rightly pointed out by the England team. For Graeme Swann, it is, however, a moment of relief.

“Dravid playing his last game is very good news because we don't have to bowl to him when we tour India. Right from the first ball he faced at Lord's, he looked the in-form player and made me to think different ways to trap him."

“It will be a big loss for India but bowlers around the world will be happy as they will never face Dravid and none will be as irritating to the bowlers as him as Waqar rightly said years back,” the England off-spinner said.

Thankfully for India, Dravid has extended his association with cricket through Tests and the sight of him walking out at No. 3 will continue to offer assurance.