My Idol!

I was watching this talk show the other day. The topic under discussion was Rahul Dravid and his captaincy. People had a lot to say about him, good, bad, and the worst. People had words of praise and disgrace for him.

What wrong has Dravid done? Absolutely nothing. I fully support Dravid in whatever he has done. There were allegations that Dravid had influenced the selectors into dropping Saurav Ganguly. He has been instrumental in cutting short the career of India’s most successful skipper, Ganguly. I completely disagree.

Ganguly has only himself to blame for his downfall. The selectors have done nothing wrong in showing Ganguly the door. His performance showed no sign of improvement. The selectors should have ditched him a long time back. He was a burden on the team. I believe a person leads by example. To be a good leader, you need to show people the right way. Ganguly himself did not have a clue of what he was doing, how on earth could he have lead 13 other people? A leader should be able to command respect. You gain respect by your performance. You cannot rest on the laurels of the past for too long. And, Ganguly was doing exactly that.

I admire Dravid for what he is today. I remember the days when he was dropped from the Indian team due to his performance. But he did not crib. He worked hard. He earned a call back. And he came back a different player. He had adapted himself so well to the shorter version of the game. I remember commentators saying “Dravid is a wonderful player. One day matches are not his cup of tea. Concentrating on test matches can actually make him go down as one of the greatest test cricketer ever to have played.” This did not deter Dravid. He worked hard, fought back hard and now he is where he is. He is today considered to be one of the finest cricketers to have played the game.

I admire him for his fighting abilities, never-say-die attitude, leadership qualities, ability to stay away from controversies.. and lots of other things. When people had written him out, he fought his way back to the top. He leads by example. He commands respect from every member of the team. New, bright prospects have got chances to play, and shine under his reign. These same new players were continuously in and out of the side when Ganguly was leading. These players have now become the backbone of the team in a span of 3 months which is just amazing. Dravid has never allowed himself to be pulled into any kinda controversy.

But, the most impressive part about Dravid is his performance. Nothing, on or off the field, can affect his performance. All the pressure from the media about the Dravid-Ganguly captaincy issue had absolutely no effect on Dravid the player.

I admire Dravid, the player, the leader, the fighter.. Way to go, Dravid!