'The Wall' Stands Tall

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"I have failed at times, but I will never stop trying...I leave with sadness but also with pride"

"Come watch, Dravid is playing" is what my folks told me all these years and today I realize I shall not be hearing this anymore. It is all the more difficult for people like me who are used to watching this game only because of him. Someone has rightly said “It is always sad when someone leaves home, unless they are simply going around the corner and will return in a few minutes with ice-cream sandwiches.” That is exactly what I am feeling.

As a matter of fact he is all that I know about cricket and I wouldn't be wrong if I say that in my dictionary he is synonymous to the game, and shall always stay so. I do not know much of his catches, centuries or any other records. Cricket to me is as alien as desert to penguins. But whatever cricket that I know today I owe it to this one dependable, and after today I have scary second thoughts about my interest in cricket.

If cricket was really a gentleman's game, we do not have to look up to anyone else but this man. He is among those few men who have always played and lived cricket with dignity. For many genuine reasons other than the game I have always ‘admired’ Dravid. One simple and sensible reason is ’for the person he naturally is’ His persistence and his patience was always evident on the field and scoreboard. We always knew the match shall not be lost if not won, for Rahul was there at the crease which meant the match shall not end any sooner!

The wall always stood tall, and continues to if not on the field but as a living legend of the game. As I type these lines here I see an old visual of him on the television saying "You mess with India, you mess with me" with a wink. Respect.

-R.