{"id":708,"date":"2012-02-12T18:13:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-13T01:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/?p=708"},"modified":"2021-08-04T18:16:04","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T00:16:04","slug":"the-gentle-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/2012\/02\/12\/the-gentle-wall\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u2018Gentle\u2019 Wall"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you are a cricket fan \u2013 which yours truly is, unashamedly \u2013 reading ESPN cricinfo becomes a daily routine. But yours truly did not open it for an entire day, Friday (9th of March, 2012). The reason, I did not want to read that Rahul Dravid had retired, despite knowing it beforehand that he was scheduled to do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life is such; sometimes we act as if we were an ostrich, the bird which hides its own head in the sand and thinks that it is safe, just because it cannot see danger coming. We pretend that not seeing things means nothing has happened (have you noticed people looking on the other side intentionally while crossing the road, just when you reach them while driving?).
Alas, the hopes were not to materialize. The man, who raised hope against all the odds on a cricket pitch, was not going to backtrack. Turning your face away was not going to help at all. He retired\u2026 wearing an India tie and blazer, he announced that we\u2019d seen last of him in international competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having stayed in Nepal entire life and never met the person, it would sound a little boisterous talking about Dravid\u2019s capabilities, pointing out his weaknesses, strengths\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For yours truly, sports have always been about emotions. Take emotion out of sports and it becomes a tasteless statistic. And reading about Dravid\u2019s retirement, one cannot help but agree with Editor of ESPNcricinfo, Sambit Bal, when he says, \u2018It\u2019s hard not to feel a bit emotional today.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Brought me down to memory lane, about a dozen years back, when Yours Truly used to go through the rigors of attending classes to become a business professional. However, time spent in canteen and computer labs led to what he is today. Interestingly, I was talking cricket to a lady \u2013 a year junior in the same school \u2013 and I happened to ask, \u201cWho is your favorite cricketer?\u201d after being surprised to know that cricket was her favorite sport. And as usual, before even being asked I took the pleasure of announcing that Sachin Tendulkar was my favorite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said, \u201cWould tell if you promise not to laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, I wasn\u2019t going to. Cricket can never be a stuff to laugh upon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRahul Dravid,\u201d she said. Those were the dying years of last Millenium. RD was merely a few years into international cricket. And of course, most girls were happy to drool over Shahid Afridi for his slam bang brand of cricket. Rahul Dravid was anything but flashy. When Tendulkar proudly declared on TV, \u201cBoost is the secret of my energy\u201d, RD was appearing in some ludicrously made adverts, playing Jammie. A total contrast to the character on the field.
On field, and every time he spoke in an interview, RD was serious, articulate in his talks as much as in his cover drives. You never saw him in an argument, even when fast bowlers tried to intimidate him, using unsavory expletives. Equally gentle with the ball, caressing the ball in his flicks, as if he were mindful that the ball might get hurt with a harder shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I watched him first in international cricket, Singer Cup in Singapore (1996), I was a little apprehensive. I had already seen the fate of Mr Perfect, Sanjay Manjrekar, not being selectors\u2019 favorite for being a classical. \u201cWould he be kept in the team long?,\u201d the Test match lover in me feared.
Circa 1997, Rahul Dravit hit a six towards long on, off Alan Donald, the white lightening. Alan Donald was by no means an off-spinner. He should be counted as the second most famous Donald in cricket, after Bradman. For the watchers, it was a simple waft of a bat and no brute force. The result was a furious Donald, hurling words at Dravid with a menace. The words did not sound like praises on TV. Dravid keenly listened to him for some 10 seconds and looked away. No love lost, not a hint of disdain in his face. He had a job to do\u2026 bat for his team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The Wall\u2019 could easily weather storm. It did not need to respond to the winds that may want to blow it off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have been a Sachin Tendulkar fan, probably because we grew together \u2013 he as a cricketer and me as the sport\u2019s fan. But, if my life depended on one player\u2019s batting, I\u2019d want it to be Rahul Dravid \u2013 whether he\u2019s in form or out of form \u2013 and not Sachin Tendulkar. For, he would defend his wicket to the best of his abilities, to the last of his trudging. Sachin plays for the people; the crowd; the common man\u2026 The applause gets his adrenaline going, makes him forever young. He would do his best to please them, entertain them and keep them interested in the game. Rahul has been a player for the team. Rest of the world could wait, for he was always ready to wait for the applause. For him even adrenaline was ready to wait, take a different channel rather than overflow as a rush of blood. Rage tampered, reins in hand, the head in command.
If you watch modern cricket, with the sledging visible on TV and cricketers\u2019 entire life in the limelight, you think that they\u2019re human after all. The slam bang approach to cricket is being aided by the version of cricket that needs \u2018cheerleaders\u2019 for its promotion. In such times, you might think why is cricket is still called a \u2018Gentleman\u2019s Game\u2019. It is called so, because people like Rahul Dravid played the game, brought back sanity in it, made it look serene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the lady who thought I\u2019d laugh knowing her favorite cricketer was RD, she was mistaken. I did not find it funny then, and now he himself \u2013 by his actions \u2013 has made sure that the world also doesn\u2019t find it comical. He set an example and lived by it. He made us believe that the nice guys don\u2019t always finish last.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you are a cricket fan \u2013 which yours truly is, unashamedly \u2013 reading ESPN cricinfo becomes a daily routine. But yours truly did not open it for an entire day, Friday (9th of March, 2012). The reason, I did not want to read that Rahul Dravid had retired, despite knowing it beforehand that he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cricket"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":711,"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708\/revisions\/711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}