SK Flashback: Rahul Dravid walks into the sunset

“Any longer and it will be for the wrong reason”

Dravid is the coach of the India U-19 team

Given his talent, a player like Dravid, even playing at 50% of the level he was playing at his peak would easily get selected in the team. But that’s not what nice guys do and he definitely was one. As he had said to Harsha Bhogle, “I know this is the time. Any longer and it will be for the wrong reason.”

One would have thought that he deserved a farewell series or to be carried on the shoulders of his teammates for one last time. But then that would have been so “Un-Dravid”. He gave everything on the cricket field and the moment he realised that he could not do that, he hung up his boots.

For he was a team man in its every sense. He ended his speech by saying, “My approach to cricket has been reasonably simple: it was about giving everything to the team, it was about playing with dignity and it was about upholding the spirit of the game. I hope I have done some of that. I have failed at times, but I have never stopped trying. It is why I leave with sadness but also with pride.”

But like all other good things in life, this too had to come to an end.