The “Ordinary” Guy…

Have you been surrounded by geniuses or naturally talented folks all your life. The ones who had a natural advantage that you were never blessed with.

There was a guy who had a photographic memory, he could never understand why the normal folks needed to reread chapters over and over again.

Another chap had the Midas touch – he topped exams, was an ace football player and a master keyboard player

Then there was the third guy who aced the exams that mattered and he was never a bookworm

And these 3 geniuses thought that their friend who never matched their marks was the more blessed one because that friend had the determination and will to fight battles when all chips were down and always come out winning.

The reason why Rahul Dravid is my favourite player is because he is that 4th person in the story above. He is not a genius like Sachin Tendulkar, not beautiful to watch like VVS Laxman, not the GOD of the offside like Ganguly, and not a bully like Sehwag. He is not a naturally gifted player and he has had to work a lot more hard to achieve all that he has in his cricketing life.

In 15 years of watching him take guard every single time he made me believe that the “ordinary” can succeed, that the average ones will struggle a lot more than the geniuses; the path will never be easy but it will not be impossible to scale the same heights.

The achievements will be forever compared with the genius and you  will still be questioned. Despite your achievements, you will need to prove your worth time and again and yet you will never convince them to place you on an equal pedestal.

rahul_dravid_1207181cDravid’s  biggest win which we all fail to see is that he never wanted us to treat him like a genius, for he is not. He is the simple, hard-working, quintessential cricketing geek. He knows his responsibility and does not deviate from it. His virtue is his determination, his patience, and his self-belief. He knows he can never be like a Tendulkar or Sehwag and he has never tried to be. Many a batsmen have failed in trying to compete with the greats and Rahul succeeded all these years because he did not.

After all these years , Dravid still aspires the same  faith and belief, he is our go-to man, even now how much ever you want to deny him his place – you can’t.

10 years ago I wrote this piece and it holds good even today  -Rahul Sharad Dravid is still the Best Man of Indian Cricket in every sense of the word.

(Image Courtesy: www.telegraph.co.uk)