Goodbye Dravid – you went as you played. Minimum fuss, maximum impact.
I no longer follow cricket though I was once a huge fan. This brings the curtains down on an age for the game. Dravid was the last man with the ethic of the ‘gentleman amateur’ (yes I know he made a lot of money – I am talking about the ethic). From now it will be all crass, vulgar commercialism – mechanised Cricket – no thought for elegance. This oration that he delivered in Australia goes to explain why he no longer fits in with the ‘structure’ - http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/archive/00864/rahul_dravid_oratio_864883a.pdf.
You have to admire the way the man refused to make his retirement a ‘made of TV’ event- no ticker tape, no last hurrah. Unlike some other famous people who will no doubt retire in the near (or distant) future?
In many ways Dravid is like my favourite cricket player of all time – Jimmy Amarnath. A man who was as selfless in his devotion as he was committed to not hogging the limelight (remember Jimmy’s back to back ‘Man of the Match’ to win India the 1983 world cup?). But Jimmy was more guts and passion – while Dravid was the cold calculus of reason. Yet, they both gave the impression of being very rooted men – unlike the ‘cosmopolitan’ crowd that now plays for India. Each is the best representative of two Indian traditions – northern cow-belt and southern computer-belt.
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