Rahul Dravid and Cricket's soul

This article on Rahul Dravid ‘s predicament was published (in Tehelka) immediately after the IPL 20 -20 tournament. Probably Dravid’s not-so-good-times started after the disastrous IPL tournament stint for Bangalore challengers and the humiliating appraisal by his "Employer". With due respect, i wanted to acknowledge that Mallya is someone who has built a big  business empire with some classical shrewd strategies  (Even Sun Tzu would have been proud of!).. He also competes with the likes of Pirelli in dishing out spicy calendars and flying the Tricolor quite high in the sky. .. But it is altogehter a different game to face the likes of Allan Donald, Bret Lee & Shoaib Akthar etc on the fast bouncy pitches and score some 8001 runs @ No. 3. To paraphrase  a famous vernacular expression  "one needs a different kind of kidney" to acheive what Rahul "the Wall" Dravid has achieved.

I am one of those old fashioned  who prefer Test matches compared to the wham-bham variety of Twenty Twenty. One can’t get better thrills than the sight of Tendulkar (& Yuvraj Singh) chasing England total on a fifth day Chennai pitch, a Lara battling alone (almost) in turning tables against an abusive aussie Attack , and Laxman waving his magic wand at those bewildered Kangaroos. These are the memories , which are going to linger in our memory for ever. (Btw how many of us remember Yuvraj Singh's six sixes or Yusuf Pathan's heaves @ IPL. It is like the new Hindi Tunes. We refresh our "RAM"   with the new catchy tune evey second day. But the main memory is reserved for those ever green hits. )
I was (still I am) a big fan of Dravid, even though do believe Rohit Sharma can be groomed to be a good No. 3 batsman.

And I am glad Rahul batted quite resolutely back to form today at Mohali.  Sincere Best Wishes to him. 

Now  the article i was talking about:

Rahul Dravid’s loss of dignity in the IPL tells of a deeper malaise in the cricketing world where talent is judged against the weight of money, says NISSIM MANNATHUKKAREN http://www.tehelka.com/story_main39.asp?filename=hub210608sellingcriket.asp