Nice guy finishes

Still,a few of us in the neighbourhood hadn’t taken him seriously. It was because,one,there seemed to be an air of sophistication and aloofness about Dravid that we couldn’t grasp and two,a friend had gotten him out for duck in a tennis ball match.

Unannounced I landed up at Dravid’s doorstep one evening. Although caught a bit unawares,he was nevertheless courteous and polite,and agreed for the interview. Even in that conversation,it was apparent that he was not going to be a shooting star that blazes momentarily across the sky. Such was his focus and dedication.

In fact,if you talk to his friends and family members about Dravid,“dedication” is one word that crops up time and again. Over the years,Rahul Dravid’s work ethic has become a stuff of legends. Those in the know say it has been the same for as long as they can remember. He used to be a regular long-distance road runner,and practice,practice and more practice has been his credo even after all these years.

A trainer at his former IPL team,the Royal Challengers Bangalore,Shankar Basu says Rahul Dravid was almost always among the first ones to turn out for training at the gym.

Dravid has,in the past,spoken about his obsession with practice,saying that he enjoys it more than anything else. It transports him,as he revealed in a recent interaction with Abhinav Bindra,the 2008 Olympic gold medal-winning shooter,to the place which is called ‘the zone’ in sporting parlance.

‘Apolitical person’

Being in love with that isolated mental space also means that he is seen as someone who is difficult to speak to or mingle with.

Says his long-time friend Arjun Unnikrishnan: “Rahul Dravid is a very apolitical person,he does not take sides and does not put one against the other. He shies away from adulation. This has tended to work against him as well. He is an introvert and has never been very sociable.

“On a road trip when he was in Scotland,we drove for six hours and didn’t speak a word,and people ask us how can we be best friends,’’ he says.

But that doesn’t mean he is not willing to share or help anyone who asks. Many cricketers recount instances when he surprised them by gifting equipment.

Dwiref Desai,a former cricketer,says: “I was bowling in the nets for the Karnataka Ranji team and Dravid asked me why I was not wearing spikes. I told him I only had rubber shoes. The next day he asked me to contact a friend. He had dropped off a brand new pair of spikes.”

Now that he has hung up his boots,will he still be found knocking about in the backyard? “Probably very quiet,probably at night,’’ he joked at the press conference.