When the wall becomes dependable, no one can move an inch of an edifice. This is the small and accurate introductory line of Rahul Dravid, the head coach of the Indian cricket team who retired after the win of the T20 World Cup 2024 held in Barbados in the West Indies.
As a cricketer, he played along with many modern greats like Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Saurabh Ganguli, Anil Kumble, and many more. He has earned his reputation as a ‘Wall’ and ‘Mr. Dependable’ playing cricket over the years. Moreover, he also enjoys many identities in the cricket fraternity, like Bhai, Wall, Legend, Gentleman, and an and an honest and gritty batsman to negotiate the pace of Shoaib Akhtar, Bret Lee, Wasim Akram, McGrath, Donald, and so on. He appeared to be a very selfless cricketer who rose to the occasion whenever needed by the team.
He has never been a flamboyant sort of cricketer—a humble man with feet on the ground and a balanced head on his shoulder—without bothering about the history and legacy of cricket. He has basically excelled in every department of cricket. As a batsman, he scored 24,177 runs in international cricket and won Champions Trophy in 2002.
After retiring from playing eleven on the national team, he became the Head of Cricket at the National Cricket Academy (NCA). He learned every nuance of cricketing skills from the finest cricket academy in India. Then, he moved ahead in his journey as the head coach of the India Under-19 and India A teams from 2015 to 2021. His leadership qualities came into the limelight as the Under-19 team finished as runners-up at the 2016 U-19 Cricket World Cup and won the 2018 U-19 Cricket World Cup. Hereafter, he joined the national team of India in 2021 as the head coach, and the previous story got rewritten in 2024 with a T20 World Cup win.
No other CVs of cricket greats from India appear to be closer to Rahul Dravid. Many cricketing legends are proposing his name for the highest civilian award, Bharat Ratna. Of course! He deserves it, at least from the cricketers' point of view, but India will benefit more if he gets elevated to the position of sports minister. He is an honest and well-trained person to look after the sports infrastructure in India. His Midas touch may take the sports culture to a new height in the coming years.