"I am ready for the second innings" - Dravid

[rkt.india]

Your last few days of competitive cricket. Has anything changed in your thought process before a match or in the celebrations after a match? Clearly, the approach to training hasn’t changed, you’re still at every optional practice session. It’s not really changed too much at all. I have the kind of personality that I always look ahead than look at what’s happened. It does help a lot, especially when you’ve done badly or you’ve failed. It’s instinctive of me that I look at what’s next, I look ahead a lot, and start preparing for that, in victory and in defeat. That hasn’t changed on a personal level. Maybe I cherish it more. I’ve never been one to have big parties and wild nights after we win. That hasn’t changed, I don’t do that now. But I think I’ve relaxed a lot more and I cherish the conversations and the time that we spend after games a lot more, whether it’s in someone’s room having a few drinks or down at the bar or the restaurant. I’m cherishing some of the friendships and the environment that we’ve created here, which is a pretty good one. Looking back at the IPL from its start in 2008, how do you see the evolution of franchise cricket in India? There’s no doubt it’s growing all the time. You must remember that when you compare the IPL with say some of the English Premier League sides, they’ve been around for close to 100 years. But it’s remarkable how much people have started identifying with some of the teams they support in six years, especially in the cities you play in. You can sense that there is a fan following and it’s growing. There are people who are not in the cities that have teams, and they too pick a particular team to support. It is still a little bit based on individuals also. So a lot of MS Dhoni fans will support his team, irrespective of where they are. People in Chennai will of course support Chennai Super Kings, but I’m talking of people outside the city. It is a little bit player based, but it’s slowly moving from that to being a lot more about the franchise, and I think that will keep growing. It’s still early days yet, and six years is not a very long period. But in time, I truly believe that if the IPL stays relevant and keeps providing good cricket, you will soon find that irrespective of where players play, people will start supporting particular franchises. Once they start understanding the culture of a franchise and what it stands for, you will start seeing a shift. It may take a bit of time, but I can already see it’s moving in that direction. Do you think every franchise has started developing its own unique identity? There is uniqueness, definitely. Whether they’re trying to develop it or whether it happens spontaneously, sometimes without thinking about it… Each one develops a certain kind of image or culture, or a brand so to speak, and it’s slowly happening. You’re finding that people are supporting that, outside of the cities that are playing. Obviously, a person from Mumbai will support Mumbai Indians, but this is more for those outside India and in the other cities. The IPL is only eight or nine teams and there are so many other cities and towns in the country. At the start of the IPL in 2008, you had said ‘If this was ten years ago, I’d have cracked it’. Six years on, you seem to have cracked it. How do you view your own evolution as a Twenty20 batsman? The point I was trying to make about ‘cracking’ the format was that I was trying to tell people it’s an important thing to have these multi-dimensional skills. There are three formats in the game now and a youngster coming up has to learn how to play in all three formats, to almost stay relevant. If Twenty20 was as important when I was a kid as it’s becoming now, I would have spent time focusing on trying to be good at all three formats. I’ve played it for six years now, with some good years, some bad years, some good games. Overall, I’ve enjoyed playing it. The IPL is quite a tournament. It captures the imagination of India for two months. It’s tough and intense. I mean, nothing can ever take away the satisfaction and joy I got from playing Test cricket. That will always be No. 1 for me. But I’ve really enjoyed being part of the first six years of the IPL and seeing it evolve. What do you think is the role of an anchor in a Twenty20 match? It’s not so much an anchor, it’s about a quality player being able to play quality bowling. If you look at the bowling attacks in most IPL teams, they have the likes of Morne Morkel, Dale Steyn, Mitchell Johnson playing for them. We have Jimmy Faulkner. You need to have a certain level of skill to be able to play that kind of bowling upfront. Just because you are a kind of big hitter in domestic cricket against domestic bowling doesn’t guarantee you’ll be able to do it at this level against that quality of bowling. It is a step up, without a doubt, from domestic cricket. It’s a step below international cricket, but it’s above domestic cricket. So you need players who have a bit of quality. I won’t call it an anchor, but a player who has an ability to play some good fast bowling, good spinners and also play his shots. I also think there are different roles for each person. The skills that you need in people who need to play the first six overs against the new ball might be a little different from the type of guys you need at the back end of an innings. Even though it’s a shortened format of the game, Twenty20 allows people with different skills to play in a team and play their specific roles. Obviously there’s not too much time to waste balls, but if you look at guys who play well in the top six, they have a fairly decent amount of good cricketing ability. One of the things that made IPL such a level playing field was the salary cap. Do you think player retention would hurt that? There’s also the fact that franchises have spent years investing in players and fans have identified with them… There has got to be a balance between the two. I think the salary cap is really important. It’s vital to this league to have the cap and be strict about it. The beauty of the IPL, vis-à-vis the English Premier League, is that any one of the eight or nine teams can actually win the competition if you give them a level playing field. In the EPL, we’re seeing the richer clubs and teams that can buy the biggest players are constantly remaining in the top three or four. Also in football, the pool is much larger. There are no restrictions on domestic talent, and you don’t have to play seven English players. You can pick players from Brazil, Argentina, anywhere. I think it’s a good thing that we have the seven Indian players rule. The world of cricket is a small one and when you have those restrictions, it’s really important to have that salary cap in place. That gives everyone a chance, and makes every game competitive. Every evening people want to turn up, switch on the TV, and know that both teams have a decent chance of winning. That for me is exciting. If you knew which four teams are going to be in the semifinals, why would you wait for the league phase? It will lose its importance, because you’ll say ‘Let me just focus on the qualifiers, the semifinals and the final.’ I do understand that there should be a certain amount of retention. We have to strike that balance between having that retention, but also ensuring that then you have a strict salary cap and a level playing field. That means that for teams to succeed, they will not only have to rely on going out and buying just the best players, but also have to work on things like improving the skills of the players that they have, ensuring that they give domestic talent a chance. If a team can go out and buy 11 international players, how is a domestic player ever going to get a chance to play? And that was the beauty of it in the first year. Because of the strict salary cap, most teams had to play domestic talent. And that’s where you will really see the growth of Indian cricket – when domestic talent plays with international players. If some teams have only domestic players and some teams have only international players, I personally feel it will not be as exciting for fans. And you won’t find the great stories that you find in a Pravin Tambe, a Rahul Shukla, a Mandeep Singh, or a Sanju Samson. There are so many stories, but they’re all based on domestic talent which has been given an opportunity to play with international players. Rajasthan have been known to make a lot of unconventional picks. When you’re sitting at that auction table, what are you looking for in a player? That he’s cheap (laughs loudly). I said that in jest of course, I don’t think any player is cheap. I think there’s a culture in Rajasthan Royals that has been there before I got here, so I’ve come into it. I’ve enjoyed being part of it and embraced it. They are quite clear about the fact that bottom lines are important, and there is a certain limit on what you can spend. You have to go out and then look for players who are slightly under the radar, not well noticed and bring them into this environment. The challenge is then to make them perform, to create an environment around these guys so that they can do well. Even if you take a lot of our domestic players, they are not new players – other than Pravin who has come out of nowhere and was someone we picked based on his skills. But the others have been at other franchises. We’ve picked them up, seen some potential and that’s what we focus on. So when we’re sitting there, we’re looking at people who can come into this culture and bring something into it. We’re looking at their personalities also, not just skills. Are they good for a team environment? Will they struggle staying in India for eight weeks? I mean, let’s face it, it’s not an easy time and a lot of international players are away from home. We have to balance all these things out. And I guess in some ways we do recognise that we probably will not be able to go for the high profile players, because we’ll always be outbid. So then, the thinking and focus really shifts to looking for hidden value in players, who we know have potential, but probably need the right platform to do well. It doesn’t matter what a player is valued at, in the end it’s his performance that matters. The focus is on how we get players to perform. Whatever we’ve got, we’ve got, but are we smart in other things around the group in terms of strategy, tactics? Are we going to be clever, be the kind of players who can surprise people? Because we have to be. And there’s a challenge and excitement in that, and that’s brilliant. That’s possibly why we see some of the biggest stories emerging from Rajasthan Royals. We are forced to put some of these young domestic talents in, and now it’s really up to us to help them perform. It’s not just about pushing someone in there. You’ve said the team has gotten over the spot-fixing scandal and has no hangover of it. But personally, do you still feel a sense of betrayal? I think that it was a great learning experience. It was a disappointing period. You feel a sense of sadness, not a personal sadness but for the franchise and at some level for the people who got themselves involved. They made some wrong choices, and it is sad. You feel bad for people who you know had great talent and great ability and could have had great careers, but because of some of the choices they made, they are finding themselves in difficult situations. I guess there are lessons to be learned. You’ve got to learn from things and really hope that other people are learning from it and things are being done so that these mistakes don’t occur again. Several people on the street have said the scandal shook them, but because Rahul Dravid is there at the helm, they have not lost faith in the franchise. While that must be nice to hear, does it sometimes become a burden to live up to the expectations? While it’s nice to hear, I don’t actually walk around trying to be a paragon of virtue. I’m not saying to myself ‘I have to do this and that’. Honestly, it’s added no pressure on me. I haven’t changed what I am and I just try and be what I am. There are certain things you do and certain values you have. But I don’t feel any pressure of trying to live up to anyone else’s expectations. I have to live up to my own standards and my own expectations. And I’ll make mistakes, but I hope over the course of my career and life, I won’t make that many mistakes. We’re all going to look at things we’ve done in our career and think ‘I wish I had done that differently or behaved differently’. I just hope that over the length of a career, there are few of those moments and lots more of things that I can look back and say, ‘I was actually quite okay there. What I did there was quite good.’ It’s also not only about me. I think people have bounced back and supported Rajasthan Royals also because there are other people on this team who they will not doubt. There is a good culture in the team, and there are some good people around the group. While there have been certain people who have let themselves and everyone down, there are others who you know will stand up for what’s right. In your Bradman Oration, you mentioned the need to put the fans first. How do you think that should be done? We need to ensure that the fans get to see good quality cricket in good quality conditions. If you prepare good wickets, and play in good conditions, the quality of cricket improves. And fans deserve to see a high standard of cricket being maintained. We need to look at facilities around the fans at stadiums and viewing facilities through television, media, internet. You need to ensure that people who love this game feel a part of the game, and enjoy the experience. That is really important. All three forms have different fans, and they need to know that we cater to each one of them. I mean, the fans of Test cricket should never feel that we are neglecting them to support another form of the game. There are fans of Twenty20 cricket and we need to ensure that we give them the cricket they want to see. We need to keep Test cricket alive, because there is a section of fans who love and worship Test cricket and have basically helped this game grow, and they are as important as anybody else. Touching on the current Indian team, it is a fairly young side coming together. How important is it at this stage for them to go on a tour of South Africa? South Africa is the No.1 team in the world and it’s a privilege to play the No.1 team in the world. And it should be a great challenge for the Indian team. We all want the Indian team to do well, but even if you don’t do well, the things that you learn from a tour like that, playing against opponents like that in a tough three-Test series, will be phenomenal. You cannot count those lessons or the value of what you learn. I know how it is. We went to Australia in 1999-2000 and lost 3-0. I failed badly, but what I learned from the trip made me a much better cricketer, because I knew what I had to improve on, what I had to work on. I think it’s those kind of losses that sometimes help build teams and unite teams. I’m not saying India will lose, I think they probably have a good chance. They’re a pretty good side, and the youngsters are quite experienced at least in international cricket, even if they’re playing one-day cricket. But there’s a lot to be gained from tours like that, and it is a great privilege to play the No.1 team in their own backyard. What next, after cricket? I haven’t really decided. There’s obviously a few options, and I’d love to stay involved in cricket in some capacity. Where it is and in what form it is, I haven’t really had a chance to discuss with people. There’s media. I don’t think I’m going to get into administration at this stage, but media is an option. It’s also got to balance out with time at home and how much I can do. There are a few options and things in the pipeline that I have dipped my toes in a little bit and had some experiences. And I’ve enjoyed it, being on the other side of the fence. In some ways, my role at Rajasthan here has been not only about captaincy, but it’s been about also just strategy, planning, behind the scenes work — some kind of coaching as well. That’s a side I’ve also enjoyed being part of, so let’s see when that happens. Two decades in the game as a player. If you close your eyes, and someone says ‘cricket’, what comes to mind first? Oh, just the joy it gave me. The sheer thrill that this game gave me, and gratitude. The game gave me so much, and I’ve so much to be grateful for. It made me the person I am, it’s given me security as a person, security financially. And I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

http://www.wisdenindia.com/interview/dont-paragon-virtue-dravid/79390

[Laaloo]

Of course not

[yoda]

Of course not

Dude, looks like you fell over your head recently.

[SLICKR392]

Dude' date=' looks like you fell over your head recently.[/quote'] SRT fan trying to bring some light into RD fans. :cantstop:

[Laaloo]

Dude' date=' looks like you fell over your head recently.[/quote'] :bigboss: It's the IPL effect.

[FischerTal]

but you are

[rkt.india]

"I am ready for the second innings" - Dravid

Gaurav: We are joined today by former cricketer Rahul Dravid (both laughing). A former cricketer? Dravid: I haven't thought about it until you mentioned it now. Actually, now I will be referred to as the former cricketer. Earlier, I used to be referred as the former Indian cricketer and now as former cricketer. Gaurav: It has been something you have been doing for the last 20-22 years and for the last two seasons since you quit international cricket. You thought like a cricketer, you played like a cricketer, you executed it like a cricketer. And suddenly that cricketer is no longer a part of your life in that way. Dravid: Even though I had quit international cricket, I always knew IPL was there for some period of time. It was there at the back of my mind. There was no way I was practising as much or training as much as I used to when I was an Indian cricketer. I was slowly falling back to a different routine. But at the back of your mind, you always knew that you had to perform as a cricketer at the IPL. So, you can say that, you had that sort of a thought which I don't have any more. So it's nice in a way for me because when you quit international cricket, it's a huge thing to leave. So [i was] having a little bit of it but also getting a chance to experience life outside of cricket, getting into slightly different kind of routine; and I really feel that I am ready to move on. Gaurav: There was a lot of fuss yesterday: Standing ovation, guard of honour. I don't know how many cricketers had got out on one and had guard of honour for them. But obviously all well deserved. What were your emotions then, just knowing the reverence and the respect that you held in Indian cricket? Dravid: Firstly, I don't like the fuss too much. So it's embarrassing a little. I was touched, extremely grateful. This game has given me so much and I keep saying, it's a bit of a cliche, but really the fact is I have received that kind of respect and affection wherever I have gone. And that was the thing with IPL as well that even though I quit international cricket, I got the chance to play the IPL and go back to all the main cities or most of the main cities where I played cricket as an Indian cricketer and go back and meet familiar faces and people, and go back to those grounds through the IPL. The affection and warmth I have received at all these places has really touched me. Yesterday was brilliant from both the teams and the crowd. To get that kind of reception was just brilliant. I am really grateful to my team for getting me that far and getting me an opportunity to finish in a grand final like this. I couldn't have asked for anything more. Gaurav: I am going to ask you about the game in a minute. But I have one other thought. It's quite nice that when sometimes we talk about cricket we romanticise the game and fairly so. But yesterday's finish was quite nice because you were with Sachin Tendulkar, playing his last game in coloured clothes. Here are two of India's greatest batsmen. I know that you don't like epithets and things like that, but here you are with him finishing on the same stage and there was an emotion to the moment. Dravid: It was nice. I think both of us knew that we had a job to do and both of us were trying to win a game of cricket but at the background there was an occasion to it and it was nice that I could share it with Sachin. I have shared a lot in my career with him and have shared so many partnerships with him. So it was really nice to share his moment and his final game in coloured clothing so to speak. I mean, he's still got some more time in Test cricket. The time for his final farewell will come, but in a way it was really nice to share that moment. And for me, just to play in that final and play a side like Mumbai Indians was really nice. Gaurav: Both of you got bowled ironically in your last game. But it would have been a perfect finish had you won, but at the end, quite a big margin of defeat and to the marquee team in the tournament. Dravid: Yeah, I think the fairy-tale finish would be the victory, but there is a lot to be happy about from our point of view, at least from the Rajasthan Royals' point of view, where we have come as a team and what we have achieved. We were a very different team from the Mumbai Indians. Yesterday, I was counting; they have currently eight different international players on the park and we had three. It was completely different formula and a completely different way about looking at building a team. So what we have got and the kind of resources we've had and the way we've built them up, I think it's great in a lot of ways - the whole season and the way we have performed in the Champions League Twenty20. It's been a great victory, not only for me but I feel really proud about being a part of the process. For everyone involved in our team, it's a combination of lot of things, lot of planning, thinking, hard work and strategising that goes into it. There are heart-warming stories of just seeing Sanju Samson develop into a cricketer, seeing Ajinkya Rahane grow as a cricketer in these three years. Stuart Binny has grown, Pravin Tambe's story, Rahul Shukla. That's just to name a few. If you talk about international cricketers, then Kevon Cooper and James Faulkner. These are all young kids. They haven't played a lot of cricket but we got the best out of them, and for me, that's great part of my time here. Gaurav: You talked about strategising, planning and things like that but it's almost become a subject of great management study of a kind. The way Royals have empowered its players and you were seen as a leader or at least main person of that leadership group. Was that a very conscious decision? You used the word 'moneyball' team once. You used the terms finding the player under the radar, looking at the bottom line. You are a cricketer. You suddenly started to talk of this management lingo and put it into effect. Dravid: I will be honest here. It's been a part of the Royals' culture even before I got here. So I don't want to take credit for that. I think the ownership here truly believes that there is a lot of untapped talent in this country which, given the right exposure and environment, can succeed at this level. So I think I came into that kind of environment and tried to make my bit to make it work. We tried to help create that environment. We tried to work with a lot of younger players. It's not easy all the time because when you are always pushed for results and if you are always saying winning is the only criteria, then you are under serious pressure. But I think that's the good thing about the Royals that we all want to win and there is a certain amount of pressure. I am not saying that we play a tournament not to win but there is recognition also that we are slightly different and so far we have always focused trying to get the best out of may be the undervalued and under-utilised players so to speak. Lot of the players coming to us, honestly, other than Pravin, are not the newbies that we pick up. Whether it's Sanju, whether it's Rahane, whether it's Binny, whether it's Rahul Shukla, they all had been at other franchises. They all played with other franchises and not possibly had that sort of opportunity. We saw some potential. We saw they were not getting that sort of opportunities. We got them here and helped them perform. I think that's fantastic. That's a great thing to see the young kids perform the way they do. Gaurav: A couple of aspects I wanted you to touch on Rahul and I am particular about the players that you mentioned: Pravin Tambe and Sanju Samson. Here you are putting an 18-year-old kid to bat at No. 3 in a 200-run chase, in the final and trusting his abilities, and he is repaying that faith. Here is Pravin Tambe who was apparently a bell boy kind of a person with the team. He was helping the logistics of the team until a couple of IPLs ago. What makes you take decisions of this kind? Dravid: Skills. We are not doing charity Gaurav and I am very clear about that. We are not a place where we are giving people chances. If they have the skill, we'll help them and give them the platform. It could be anyone. I remember Sanju Samson came to our trial and I saw three balls and said 'Wow! This kid is something special for an 18-year-old.' He has got something, same with Pravin. I never knew Pravin's age. I never asked his age. We were looking for a legspinner. Most of the legspinners were either taken in the auction or the guys playing Ranji Trophy cricket were already in some team. Then we thought of going to the next level and see whether there are any good legspinners around. We called a lot of them for trials from various places. From Mumbai and some boys from Rajasthan came, and Pravin impressed us the most. He had the most skills. We created match simulations for him and put him under some pressure against some very good batsmen, and he stood up to the test and so we said why not [take this guy]. I think Pravin has also grown as a cricketer in this Royals' environment. He had the opportunity of bowling to the likes of Brad Hodge and Shane Watson [in the nets], and for them to keep talking to Pravin, that's what we encourage. And the way they have taken it on has been brilliant. If you talk to Brad Hodge and you tell 'Look, why don't you help and mentor Pravin on how to bowl to a batsman who is going after him, what makes it difficult for you to play.' And these conversations will go during the IPL, and Pravin soaked that in. Not everyone is able to do that. But Pravin has done that beautifully. Gaurav: Final couple of questions Rahul. One in particular about the entire last few months that have been a challenge. You acknowledged that in public and in fact no one has spoken about the challenge of these last few months as you. Now it's over and it's behind you and you are done as Royals' player as well. Tell us was there any stage, when the entire controversy first came to light when the arrests were made, that you thought 'I am not going to continue, I am going to give this up, I want to quit?' Dravid: No, I never thought I wanted to quit. You get this feeling 'what's happening here! What's going on! This is nonsense.' Gaurav: One of the players had his best performance as an international player under you as captain. Dravid: We spent a lot of time and energy on that player [sreesanth]. A lot of time, energy, mental space, conversations right through the time we were India players to here that have been spent on this guy. On Sreesanth, we tried our very best to help him, and in some ways, a lot of what hurt was obviously it came from internal. It was not an external thing. You feel 'May be I could have done something more'. Should we have noticed something? Should we have picked up on something? Could we have done this better?' These are sll thoughts that run in your mind and you start thinking 'it's a lot of stuff.' But then you s;dp look around and see other guys in your team who look up to you for leadership. And they are looking for some guidance and they are looking for a way ahead because they are as confused as you. That's what becomes your motivation. You say 'No, I want to see this thing through'. There are other really good people in this franchise and in this team, and they deserve not to be tarnished by this. They deserve a better chance. Gaurav: Was it a sort of betrayal of being let down? What was your overriding emotion? Dravid: A disappointment I would say. Sadness and disappointment, not so much for myself but for the people involved. I think there is sadness that people have made the wrong choices, and in the end some of them are friends and some of them have been friends to a lot of our players. That's why it was so tough for a lot of our guys in our time. Because until the day before, they were having friendships and conversations with the same people. And now they had to see them in a completely different light. So you feel sad for them as well for the choices they made and the consequences those choices are leading to. And who knows a lot of this is subjudiced, so we will see what happens. Gaurav: Final question. You mentioned commentary as the dark side [laughing]. Moving on to the dark side, there is always that on offer. There is work with Royals perhaps on offer. There is also the small business of bringing up two boys which I am sure your wife would want you to do. So what are your priorities now? Dravid: The priorities at the moment as you said now are spending more time at home. Just weighing up various options. I haven't thought about it too much, but I will start conversations with the Royals. I have enjoyed that. I will do a little bit of work in the media which I have enjoyed parts of. The travel does become a challenge for me. But otherwise I have really enjoyed, so I will see if I can do bits and pieces of that. I would love to work with some of the other young Indian cricketers around. Gaurav: Apparently, there is a job on offer, director of some kind in Indian cricket. There are stories doing rounds on that. Anything on that? Dravid: I haven't thought about that. I haven't had any conversation with people around that. So it would be very unfair for me to talk about that. I have really enjoyed my time here at the Royals and something that we have created and were part of. Everyone acknowledged that there were some emotional scenes in our dressing room and even the party later on in the evening. And I really felt good to be a part of something that was something special and what we were able to do in the last couple of years. Read more at: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/cricketnext/i-am-ready-for-the-second-innings-says-rahul-dravid/427036-78.html?utm_source=ref_article

[rkt.india]

Please edit the title, Mods.

[King Tendulkar]

Do we have to have a thread for every single thing dravid says? Love the bloke but its a bit OTT lol

[India-KXIP fan]

^ but he is the unsung hero

[King Tendulkar]

^ But do we need a thread on every thing he says and every single inteview he does!!

[CoverDrive]

this is a very good interview. i can see he could be a very good coach. Dravid has had to work hard to succeed and those people make the best coaches (Gooch, Kirsten, Wright)

[G_B_]

Do we have to have a thread for every single thing dravid says? Love the bloke but its a bit OTT lol

your moaning about people opening threads? Pot, kettle, black...... On the issue at hand. Dravid IMO needs to get into coaching. Would love it if be became batting coach for India and should IMO become the coach of RR in the IPL.

[SLICKR392]

Do we have to have a thread for every single thing dravid says? Love the bloke but its a bit OTT lol

Oh really, KT?

[Yoda-esque]

Oh really' date=' KT?[/quote'] Lol

[Laaloo]

Do we have to have a thread for every single thing dravid says? Love the bloke but its a bit OTT lol

Seriously Dravid loves giving interviews these days. Every two days, it's either this or that. :facepalm: :hysterical:

[Austin 3:!6]

Both Dravid and Sachin getting OTT reactions for their retirements TBH. Ganguly and Laxman are the 2 unfortunate players who made to force out of the team (both for India and IPL teams) without any hullabaloo farewell. Ganguly and Laxman's contribution to Indian cricket was also immense and desreved a similar treatment like Sachin and Dravid.

[Jersey #10]

Both Dravid and Sachin getting OTT reactions for their retirements TBH. Ganguly and Laxman are the 2 unfortunate players who made to force out of the team (both for India and IPL teams) without any hullabaloo farewell. Ganguly and Laxman's contribution to Indian cricket was also immense and desreved a similar treatment like Dravid.

corrected Sachin is in a different league alltogether

[Austin 3:!6]

corrected Sachin is in a different league alltogether

Purely as a batsman yes...but overall contribution to Indian cricket I would put Ganguly and Dravid on the same pedestal as Sachin. Sachin alone with his supreme batting could not do anything in the mid 90's in terms of teams overall success. Not blaming him, it was other players around him who were pathetic. It was with Ganguly and Dravid's arrival in 96, Indias batting found a new dimension - let it be Independence cup win in Dhaka, Sahara cup win in Toronto. Sachin's contribution as a skipper was a disaster. It was Ganguly and his cricket brains who rescued Indian cricket which was a sinking ship post match fixing calamity. Dravid was more flexible as a cricketer than Sachin. Always willing to bat at any position in test matches, accepted the wicket keeper's role until we found Dhoni. Sachin never batted out of his comfort Zone in test matches. In 2007 world cup when he was made to bat at no.4, he did not like it and accepted he wants to open in ODI's. Agree, Sachin is the best batsman we have ever produced but as an overall cricketer - Dravid, Sachin and Ganguly are all same.

[Jersey #10]

Purely as a batsman yes...but overall contribution to Indian cricket I would put Ganguly and Dravid on the same pedestal as Sachin. Sachin alone with his supreme batting could not do anything in the mid 90's in terms of teams overall success. Not blaming him, it was other players around him who were pathetic. It was with Ganguly and Dravid's arrival in 96, Indias batting found a new dimension - let it be Independence cup win in Dhaka, Sahara cup win in Toronto. Sachin's contribution as a skipper was a disaster. It was Ganguly and his cricket brains who rescued Indian cricket which was a sinking ship post match fixing calamity. Dravid was more flexible as a cricketer than Sachin. Always willing to bat at any position in test matches, accepted the wicket keeper's role until we found Dhoni. Sachin never batted out of his comfort Zone in test matches. In 2007 world cup when he was made to bat at no.4, he did not like it and accepted he wants to open in ODI's. Agree, Sachin is the best batsman we have ever produced but as an overall cricketer - Dravid, Sachin and Ganguly are all same.

In the 90s, the difference between Bangladesh and India was Sachin Tendulkar. Forget the results, he saved the face of Indian cricket and inspired millions. The insane fan following and the rise of BCCI can be purely credited to the promise of Sachin Tendulkar's consistancy that no other batsman in the world has ever achieved. It's even idiotic I would say to compare those two with Sachin. Ganguly and Dravid had their limitations and were quite average in the whole scheme of things. Sachin on the other hand is levels ahead of not only those two but every other batsman around the world. India would have won the 1996 and 2003 world cups had these two been even close to being match winners. Sachin had done his part and then some.