adieu Dravid

Though india was battling against a inevitable loss against the mighty australians , first thing i did after reaching home from school was to run towards the tv. Seeing laxman and dravid bat ,My first impression is why the match got abandoned suddenly- in a positive sense – or What was our score in the 2 nd innings – obviously in a negative sense -, but it took me few seconds to realize that i’m witnessing one of the greatest comebacks ever staged and making of 2 modern day greats . Dravid played the second fiddle to laxman in that innings and he always seem play that role to perfection in many occasions.
I was never a big dravid fan but always a big admirer.Sometimes,You can only admire but not love a person who is almost perfect – without faults – .He always resembled a textbook player , someone know all the pages in a book and recite bottom to top.He never had the flair of lara, elegance of laxman , cover drive of ganguly or charisma of dhoni but he showed us with his humanly qualities combined with uncompromising hard work it is possible to reach godly status.He is a case study for not only budding crickets but also for people who want to make best use of their abilities.He never really got the due respect among the media and fans , he deserved .He was made to keep wickets, shuffle his best batting position, dropped & recalled from international arena without either much thought or any hesitation from selectors , ridiculed in public for his slow pacing of the innings.But He never allowed these distractions to affect his game or his character ,he was always committed to the cause . Like a able & loyal soldier , he always held his fort -and his head high – abide all those rubbles and murmours.
During the good times ,he always comes between the angst of sehwag’s wicket and the impatient wait for the impending sachin’s arrival as a filler. As a saying goes, ‘true value of the man is known during the bad times’, Dravid’s service to the indian cricket is measured during the toughest of tough battles we have faced.Many of those battles were now a pleasant memory, thanks only to some of the brilliant innings of Dravid.
Though he went to hit a 22 ball 50 , had a good IPL career and bowed out from 20-20 with a hatrick of sixes, world would only remember – want to remember – Dravid jumping to Block a head high bouncer to the ground to make the ball stop as a dead log.Though Dravid batted as if , he has all the time in the world ,his time as one of the greatest batsman – if not, the greatest – has come to a end but his legacy as one of the finest gentlemen and ardent student of the game is there to continue for generations to come. We admire you !