Nice guy who finished first

This has originated coz of late, I’ve been debating with a lot of cricket fanatics bout the greatest test batsman India has ever had- Rahul Dravid, who was recently acknowledged so by Wisden. The criterion was the number of times he has won a test match or saved one. The stat for Dravid far exceeds that of any of the greats India has produced. (For ardent Sachin fans, he was a distant 4th behind Sunny and Vishy; c’mon he has rarely won a test for India. As for saving one, he only came tantalizingly close at Chennai against Pakistan.)
The recent lean patch that Dravid has gone through and his subsequent fightback, flared this debate. Also, due to his featuring in Gilette ad alongside sporting greats, Tiger Woods, Thiery Henry and His Highness Roger Federer! I totally dig that ad campaign. For me he’s up there with these guys, in the way that he has reformed India’s spineless middle order into a rock solid backbone. His enormous amount of concentration is comparable to that of Woods; his dedications to that of Henry’s and finesse like that of Federer’s! It all bloody fits!
My most cherished memory- His winning shot at Adelaide, a beautiful cover drive off Stuart McGill, which sealed India’s resurgence in Test cricket! His kissing the emblem, the blazing sun, on his cap thereafter marked Indian sun coming out of the clouds and shining brightly on the world cricket. Dravid choked while talking to Sunny Gavaskar after the match. That is the testimony of a true team man and a legend.
As his biography is aptly titled, ‘Nice guy who finished first’, by Devendra Prabhudesai, it is an awesome read! He has also penned a beautiful foreword to Steve Waugh’s autobiography, ‘Out of my comfort zone’.
He might not have Sachin’s charisma or Lara’s flamboyance, but when it comes to playing cricket, he’s bloody best! As Pele once said about football, “It’s not a matter of life and death, it’s more than that!” I think Rahul Sharad Dravid also believe these words and keeping class, elegance and charisma aside, he jolly plays with sheer grit for the country which matters the most!