Our Very Own..

Hello all,
After a break , am back.. My last post, last year, I made a resolution that I should continue blogging , but as usual, like all my previous year resolutions, that too went awfully wrong.
A lot of work kept me infact over occupied, the results of which will mostly be in my next blog post , if successful :)

But now, I take the pain to write this in the middle of night, after a tough day at work, is for a man, whom I idolize very much, and hold in high esteem.
Its human nature, that if someone of their own kind achieves something extraordinary, we get inspired by them a lot, we look at them in awe, and follow their footsteps, at least Google about them a lot , and am no exception.
This post is dedicated to the one who brought our country laurels,fame and what not. Am not speaking about his records, cricinfo profile of him will say it all, am just saying what he means to other fellow citizens of this great country..
He made his retirement announcement , after a very tough series down under, but nevertheless his Bradman oration will make sure that his absence is always felt there. Personally , when I was a small kid, I was just going  behind whoever is making runs, whoever the player is. Later slowly, I was attracted to Dada, who bought the fighting spirit in the team, through his aggressiveness. During my early days of seeing the game, I would turn off the tv when Dravid comes to play, he was a very slow player then, typical test player, to put it better the perfect player, as Test Cricket is the best form of Cricket.

But nobody bothers to see Mr.Perfect rite, we get attracted to the ones who play out of the book cricket shots,  who makes the scorecard always tick, not the one who plays the game like the way its to be played. I would feel bored to see him play that time, the most common talk I heard that time was this ball, Shoaib runs in hard, and bowls hard, and Dravid defends the ball, and the ball doesn't even move out of the crease, phew ! what would the bowler feel for such a perfect defense not just once but throughout the day. I feel bad of myself missing all those moments.
But now I always try to catch all the action, and have always respected Dravid more than any one else.

Dravid is not from a cricketing background family, he struggled hard to reach this, and most important , he kept his feet in ground no matter how much he grew, that's a lesson which we all have to learn from him.
He is always composed, and most important Mr.Dependable.
He grew up as a cricketer in the same period as Sachin, Dada,Laxman, the fab4 . He was overshadowed by  performance of  the rest. He deserved more, but never complained, he was not put in ads as much as the others, but he never minded that, stuck to what he intended to , and till the end he did the same.

There was no split in the team when he was around, and always dependable.
You ask him to open at number 1, he does, no 3, okay, no 6 okay, keep wickets, okay, captain the side, okay, now that cant be done by all for sure. I am sure that not every batsman however talented he is, would not have done that, to change position, I can honestly say not even Sachin.
He struck to his principles, his ideology was simple and great. He never bothered about what others did, IPL parties, or world cup parties, any parties, no unnecessary press conferences, as he plays he kept things straight and simple.
But for sure, I can say, not everybody in the team would have agreed to his principles, he might have been criticized a lot, but he always came back hard, proved that his principles is good, never minded what others had got to say about him.
That is really what I look at him at, never minded about what others had to say about him, always did what he felt was good, that I try to follow, sometimes successful sometimes with failure.
The man of principles, would have surely been not welcome by all, but he stood by it, proved them wrong, thats really a tough thing to do, he did not come back at them by attacking them in press conferences, but shut them all by his performance.
His respect for the game never changed, as he said in his last interview , " ..never stopped trying, left no stone unturned .." , that really means a lot.
I have seen many retirement interviews, no one would have mentioned about the fans like the way he did..
"To the Indian Cricket fans,The game is lucky to have you and I have been lucky to play before you.." that really comes from heart, the one who respects us all.
His Bradman Oration too, has many things about the fans, he made a statement to the boards open and direct, that too much of Cricket is not good for the game.
My personal opinion is he should have played a farewell test, but he is not like us who seek this pleasure of standing ovation, he chose the better way, in fact made the way. He made his decision, " not to block a youngster opportunity to establish in the team.. ", now thats the way to call it quit man. Really ! Truly a gentleman, he didn want a farewell test just for the sake of it, that says it all about him, his commitment, his spirit of waging a battle all alone.
I would miss definitely seeing the ball stop in the crease, as if its just kept there, seeing the sweat come out of his helmet, when he bends, the moment when the ball races to the cover boundary, thanks for all the memories, and the lessons to the country. .. The video above, is truly not a staged one, its a real one for sure, now thats gentleman , a true testimonial to the gentleman's game.
I salute !!


Bye till nex,