Former Indian captain Rahul Dravid needs no introduction in cricketing circles. ‘The Wall’, who has been immortalised in cricket folklore, evoked his early playing days and the valuable lessons he learnt as a young, growing cricketer.
Dravid recalled his journey from ‘David’ to Dravid in a recent Cred advertisement. Talking about his formative years and how once a leading daily misspelled his name as ‘Rahul David’ after he scored a ton and how it made him realise that he wasn’t yet well known and recognised among people and he shouldn’t get too far ahead of himself.
“In those days, they put your photograph and they put your name on the paper when you score a hundred and I was excited. I wake up the next morning and I see they have got my name as Rahul David instead of Rahul Dravid. I had a laugh, had to laugh, had to smile a bit but also a good lesson for me to not get too far ahead of myself and realise that maybe I am not that famous and people don’t really know my name at the moment. They still call me ‘David’ instead of ‘Dravid’, recalled ‘The Wall’
Reminiscing about his debut at the iconic Lord’s ground in 1996, the former skipper termed it a ‘special memory’ but said he was disappointed not to get his first international ton on debut at Lord’s. Dravid’s fellow debutant and later his long-term captain Sourav Ganguly went on to smash his maiden ton on debut in the same game.
Dravid finally got his name on the Lord’s honours board after a long wait of fifteen years in 2011. Speaking about his maiden ton at Lord’s, Dravid said,
“A special day and a very special memory (Test hundred at Lord’s in 2011) because I played my first Test match in 1996 at Lord’s. But a little bit disappointed that I could not score the extra five runs to get the century. But in 2011, I was finally able to score a hundred. A really nice memory and a really good lesson for me particularly that if you keep working hard and if you keep believing in your dreams, somewhere along the line hopefully they do come true."
Dravid went on to score two more centuries during the 2011 England tour and then hung up his boots six months later following a poor outing in Australia.
