Sunday, March 25, 2012

There is a LITTLE more to cricket - I


Perhaps it is a touch late on my part to write this, but as they say “better late than never”. Talking about cricket in a country like ours is like breathing or walking or eating or sleeping as if no one notices, as if it is so common and as if everyone out there is well, well verse with the head and tale of this thing, called cricket.
Why this then? What is the need of writing this?
Essentially, even I myself am not very convinced with the idea of writing a column like this but then deep down somewhere I feel something is missing amidst the hurricane of sixes and fours. Something is not there between the cans of cola. Something that has not to do with as Ravi Shashtri says on TV. Something a cricket lover ought to know. Something that separates us from hola-de-berserk crowd and makes us comfortable in the admirer’s balcony. Something that teaches us to enjoy even the losses, for a game ain’t a war.
Yes, a detonation was required and was fired from someone very dear and here I am with my insight of cricket and how it is getting along. I am bound to be wrong almost every time, but hey! That’s OK to be wrong I suppose!
Just before I start, I would admire and cherish you sincere comments and would try to answer them in my capacity (if there are any at all). I am at will to be active at least once every month and specially during any important series. Feel free to bang me, if you want me to cover something special (not someone and certainly not THE ONE specifically).
                                                      
                                                  *****

This was to come earlier but because I am very late in everything, it has somehow automatically become a fitting tribute to Rahul Dravid, a man who deserved it all but never made it at first choice.
This ain’t going to be a song of praise for he does not require one from someone like me at least. This ain’t an analysis of the work accomplishments at all for this was his job and he had to do it and he was paid, quiet well.
This doesn’t mean that he does not have them, he have them and in abundance. No less than anyone in the sporting world, if not more.
But this is about the poise and calm he brings in. The technique, the composure, the grit and the flow; they are simply matchless. And during all this that could have well been absolutely stupendous he remains totally restrained and by the deference you would only help yourself believe that this was natural and obvious and was effortless- nothing exceptional.
Yes, that’s been a characteristic of the man who never liked the name given to him, The Wall!
He often joked that this makes him easy target for critics; they can easily say that wall is down or cracked if he failed.

Call it a fan obsession or our near sightedness, we have learned to live with this name which to me, does not seem to have done justice to this great cricketer. Yes he has the steeliness yet he has not been just a blocker, for those who have not seen his powerful cuts and purer than the purest drives have missed something for sure. Those who have seen have missed a heartbeat or two. He for sure does not have the flamboyance of a Ponting or the brilliance of a Tendulkar but he has more of it. Both on and off the field.
And cricket is not only about record books.
Ed Smith, a fellow at Kent County and now a columnist say that during his county stint with Kent, the players met a special human being first, an international cricketer second. Such has been his presence that makes things look normal. This does not mean that he does not know the value of his stardom or his success stature but such is the obliviousness that comes inherently in his nature that he looks and makes everyone feel so normal.
There certainly are humble people around, more so lesser these days but they surely have been and are still there, but it can be seen from their faces that they have been trying very very hard to be normal. The sheet of over modesty is palpable on to their face. This is somehow missing from Dravid’s ethics. He surely would not be human if he does not like the charm and the publicity and the glory but no one has ever scented a hint of it for the past 16 years. He has remained normal all through his life.
He is an honest gentleman. Again, gentleman is a misconception we often attach with being good looking, well dressed and charming. Of course he has all these inherently but being a gentleman demands more. It is being constant and restraint in every condition. It is being there for every situation and fulfilling you duties and obligations without a fuss.
And Dravid has it all. He is able to deliver what he thinks and what he does. He knows him quite well and has always been a great student of the game. He is tough as are his in-numerous innings: at the Oval, at Jamaica, at Rawalpindi and the list goes on. But the toughness comes automatically, he never paraded it. It has to come from within, by the job he does, by the process he follows. He has always been social, polite, mentally tough and intellectually curious.
And yes, he has been extremely honest to himself and to his fans and country. Despite being one of the most modest men, he never covered himself with the artificial modesty or macho yobbishness that most of the sportsperson do. On the contrary of the usually myth that they had nothing special and they worked very hard, he has always accepted that very early it was seen that he has this special talent, the ability to do it all and he worked hard to it. He knew he was different. "I was given a talent to play cricket," Dravid explains. "I don't know why I was given it. But I was. I owe it to all those who wish it had been them to give of my best, every day."

What an insightful truth! What a man!
There can be no greater examples of humbleness and truthfulness.
He could well have carried it a bit longer, as everyone else has been doing and you know who does what.
But it would have been undravid (this deserved to be in the dictionaries now on) to not do the way he has done it, the retirement.
It is no wrong in hoping for a farewell test, where fans stand up and gather in large number or waiting for a fairy last game to happen but as said, he has been a man of no fuss, no individuality, and no stardom tantrums. Nothing!
He stepped down when he felt it is time, and it skipped between the lines, as he always have been. He has been the glue which has not to be seen but seeps through gently and importantly, without creating any news or amusement.
Not many people would know that his retirement was planned, for he was thinking of it for almost 8-9 months, starting the tour of West Indies. He was the first man to vacate seats for new comers, those who deserve to give a run of their money. He chose the English tour to say it last where it started 16 years ago. In a team of old, wounded, injured and talentless folks he fought a war solely and splendidly. Yet, he was not satisfied for he could not help for the cause, win. Dravid and personal milestones never stood together.
On being asked after retirement, if there are any regrets of doing a failed tour of Australia, he simply quips that after a greatly successful tour to England, it would have been unfair not to serve his country. He owed this much to his team, sadly not every story ends like a fair.

Arguably the fittest person having played for such a long time, he never learned to complain as he always says, “There is no end to complaining and learning. I choose to do the second.”  He says that cricket has given him so much that complaining does not suit the bill. And he keeps learning, for learning to not only the adjustment he has to make but a continual process of evolution. Rahul Dravid, the phoenix keeps on evolving come what may.
Done everything for the team, when he could have done the way he would have wanted to, makes him stand out from the greats. Fortunately for the cricket there are few people with whom senses prevail and they know the value of cricket personified. The speech at Bradman’s oration speaks volume about what he thinks and how much how good he thinks about cricket. Leaving hefty ads and going to Abu Dhabi and testing the ICCs idea of Pink ball day and night tests tells the story about this man’s dedication.
More than the Blues, I would miss him in the whites. His humbleness in taking guard and serenity in acknowledging his fans on centuries and not pumping the fists like Kohlis and Rainas, his straight from the book cover drives and his rock solid defense and the mature smile will be missed. More than this I will miss the sportsmanship which drives him to rise and reach to Ponting to congratulate him for his long sought century when other 10 players spend time swearing and crying.

It’s been 15 days of finding salvation and crying and mourning over the last closed book of cricket, the gentlemen’s game it once used to be. Yes I know life never stops, yes I know cricket will move on, yes I know there will be more talent, yes I know that nothing is irreplaceable is a good line to speak. But then I know that playing IPLs and T-20 s will not make a Rahul Dravid. Choosing grit over beauty, humility over arrogance, struggle over rejection and self belief over instinct is what makes one Rahul Dravid.
It hurts while writing these lines as I could not stop the flow of water from my eyes, the riches of which have been flowing through the veins of my cricketing body. My heart does not want me to believe what I have lost 15 days back, yet again there is Dravid calmly, slowly but steadily subsiding down on the floor of my cricketing self.

Thank you my friend for making me rich with these 16 years of yours. In the years to come, perhaps too late we might realize what we have lost; the civility and the craft, the steel attitude and the dignity, the team spirit and the sportsmanship, we have lost cricket, period.
                                                                        
                                                 *****

Before I leave, I would mention the star performer for the last month. And this month it has to be Shakib Al Hasan for his all round heroics for Bangladesh in Asia Cup and preceding BPL. This man can do it all and deserves a place in any team today (yes, even in Aus or Eng) based on his performance. More on him, sometimes later.
 Virat Kohli and Jhoolan Goswami (can she not play for the men’s team?) are missing by a little.

1 comment:

Write if you feel, and feel when you write...your words matter, the true ones...