'Indians tend to overreact'

Source: The Week     Date: May 11, 2003

By C. Sujit Chandra Kumar  Let us talk nothing but cricket, says cricketer Rahul Dravid, days before his marriage to a doctor from Nagpur, Vijeta Pendharkar. Knot so lucky, you mutter to yourself.

I remember the calls from his female fans asking for his address and phone numbers after I had published an interview with him. Was it all right to give the details, I had checked with him then. "Give them the Chinnaswamy Stadium address," he had said with a chuckle, the way he would leave a delivery that was moving away from the off-stump. To be sure, there would be a collective sigh from his admirers, as he settles down in life.

However hard he may try to separate the professional from the personal, it is a combination of factors that has made him the most acceptable face of Indian cricket. I once asked former Indian captain Mohammed Azharuddin who his favourite cricketer was. "Dravid," he had said. Pakistan coach Javed Miandad once said what his team lacked was somebody like Dravid.

Why is he so popular both among experts and casual fans? It is not just his physical charm. He is technically compact but not as flamboyant as Sachin Tendulkar or Virender Sehwag. He is mentally tough but not as aggressive as his captain, Sourav Ganguly. But he combines talent, looks, grit and, above all, discipline. As commentator Harsha Bhogle once wrote, he is like your blue chip stock.

He symbolises the attainable. His technique was not "gifted" but developed the hard way as a boy under the watchful eyes of former Test cricketer G.R. Vishwanath and coach Keki Tarapore. He may not attempt those inside out strokes but has the best average abroad.

New partnership: Vijeta Pendharkar

The Wall is not the most glamorous of symbols. But it is palpable and made of concrete. Scale it and you find a simple, fun-loving boy, er... man. But leave him alone if he is listening to Lata Mangeshkar or chilling out with his mango milkshake.
Excerpts from an exclusive interview:

The World Cup for India was a mixture of pride and disappointment. How was it for the players?
Definitely, we were disappointed that we couldn't win the World Cup. But it was a good performance all around and there were a lot of lessons that we learnt from it. There are plus points that will help us in the future. While the disappointment will remain with us, at least there is the hope that we are playing well as a team. Using what we have learnt, maybe in four years' time, we can win the Cup.

The two matches against Australia showed they are way above us.
They have definitely shown that they are the best cricket team in the world. They have won every single game in the tournament. On both the days we played them, they played better than us and deserved to win.

Why are they unbeatable?
In all departments of the game, they were very strong. Even when they missed a few senior players at various intervals, they seemed to have very good reserve strength which saw them out of trouble in crucial games. They had people in form at the right time. They have very few weaknesses and whichever team is going to beat them will have to play really well.

Coming to India, which are the areas where we have improved?
Fast bowling has been an area of big success. It was good throughout the World Cup. With batting, we showed that we can chase big totals. Our ground fielding was good. Having said that, Australia is way ahead of the rest of the world, and it is up to the rest to catch up with them.

Not long ago, you along with Sachin and Sourav were projected as the nucleus of the future. Now, there is the new triumvirate of Yuvraj Singh, Mohammed Kaif and Virender Sehwag. Are we one of the best batting line-ups in the business?
To be honest, I don't go by these ratings of 'best in the world'. What matters more is the performance that you produce on the day. When we struggled in New Zealand on those terrible tracks, everyone dubbed us a bad team. A few matches later, they said we were the best.

I think we have a very exciting, talented batting line-up. We've got a blend of experience and youth. But I wouldn't like to make any claims of ours being the best. There are other teams also which have very, very good batting line-ups.

What went wrong in New Zealand?
Wickets weren't good. And in those conditions, we didn't play as well as we could have. But the good thing is, we showed character and stayed united during those tough times.

In the beginning of your international career, you were not keen on wicket-keeping. But you had to don the role.
Wicket-keeping was a challenge, mainly physically. I knew that keeping for 50 overs and then batting was going to be hard on me physically. Skill-wise, I realised that I was never ever going to be as good as a regular wicket-keeper. But my idea was to work hard, do my best and ensure that I make a contribution to the team. And, not make too many mistakes. I probably achieved that.

Have you started enjoying that role?
I enjoyed winning and being part of a very successful World Cup side. I enjoyed performing whatever was needed to help the team win, whether it was keeping or batting at no. 5.

Your batting average shot up by 10 per cent after you started keeping. Did the challenge bring out the best in you?
It was mere coincidence more than anything else. I don't know if the two are interconnected and even if they are, not very consciously. Probably at the subconscious level.

How would you analyse Sourav Ganguly's captaincy?
He has grown very well with the job. He has done a good job. It is never easy being the Indian captain, given the amount of pressure and the kind of following the game has in the country. He has handled it very well. He has learnt the value of having good people around him. People whom he can trust and get good advice from. He is on his way to be one of India's most successful captains.

After New Zealand, the team came in for sharp criticism, especially from the commentators.
In India, people tend to overreact to success or failure. People overreacted when we did badly. And they overreacted when we did well by saying that we suddenly discovered this great killer instinct, etc. We are a nation prone to overreaction and emotional swings. It is important that people connected with the game-be it players, commentators or anybody else-show more maturity and be more responsible in what they are doing. Also, as players, we need to accept that it is the nature of the job we are doing that we come under public scrutiny and we should be able to accept criticism.

You had to make an appeal to the people to show more patience. Tendulkar had to address the nation. These were extraordinary gestures.
We were not disappointed. Everyone in the team realises and accepts the fact that there are millions of people in this country who love the game and there are going to be a few who would do silly things. But these silly things are not indicative of those millions who love and support the game and the cricketers.

We know that we are the best-supported cricket team in the world. And we want to do well for our supporters. But all that we can do is to do our best. But results don't go your way always. Then you can't complain. But the team was never disappointed. We knew that we were only a few good performances away from reaching some sort of form.

How was it to watch from your drawing-room the Indian team play in Bangladesh?
To be honest, I didn't watch much of the cricket. I am not a great watcher of cricket and had decided to take a complete break from the game. The one match that I was probably going to watch was the final and it started raining. So, probably I shouldn't have watched that and it would have been a good game. My finger was not in the best of shape and it is a lot better now. I have some time now to get ready for the next season.