Mind before wicket

Scenario two: Dravid holds his end up, while teammates at the other end depart with clockwork regularity. His grit and determination are amplified — against Allan Donald’s hot-tempered run-ins in South Africa 1997, against a suddenly lethal Zimbabwe onslaught at Harare in 1998 — but India lose. It’s Dravid’s turn to revel in lonely glory, but the smiles are darkened by a shadow, the Karnataka batsman’s familiar refrain, “But I wish the team had won.”

Till now Rahul Dravid has been the bridesmaid, though a very honourable bridesmaid.

— Harsha Bhogle

You’d think he would have thrown up his arms in Hamletian despair. But on a humid Bombay evening, the sea breeze carrying with it more noise than coolness as he finishes packing for a midnight flight for the Caribbean, that bedside picture of Sathya Sai Baba left out till the very last, Dravid is the picture of contentment. Over a two-hour introduction to his approach to cricket, the central motif is never left aside for more than a few minutes: team above self, game above self, country above self.

‘‘When you’re playing in the same team, there’s no sense of denial,’’ he says, seeking to banish any notion of envy, of anger at being left out of the frame. “There’s not a certain amount of runs we are both fighting for, where if he gets it I don’t get it. I agree you are competing and there are internal competitions going on with teammates, but they are in a friendly sort of way. If Saurav does well, or Sachin does well, I’d say, shucks, that’s great, I should try to match it. It’s not a feeling that he shouldn’t get it and I should get it. When you put up a good performance and it helps the team win, the magnitude of your performance really gets doubled almost. So if you put up a good performance and team loses, though you have a personal sense of achievement, it’s a lot dulled in the evenings, you can’t enjoy that sense of achievement much.”

It’s too pat, it chimes in too well with his Mr Nice Guy image — which he says he hates, even refutes. So I attempt to play mindgames. Close your eyes. Imagine the ideal day of your career. “Winning the World Cup. That’ll bring me the most joy.” Imagine you’ve been packed off back to the pavilion for a duck. Even then, this is your perfect day? “That’ll be brilliant! It’ll be much better than me scoring a hundred and the team losing. Absolutely no regrets.”

I give up.

I saw a different Rahul Dravid on India’s last tour of South Africa than the one who batted with so much confidence in 1996-97. He seemed under so much pressure this time. Why, what happened? He has been one of India’s best batsmen. Why is he being hassled so much?

— Graeme Pollock

I agree Dravid hasn’t been able to satisfy his critics so they haven’t given him his due.

— E.A.S. Prasanna

This must be a unique burden thrust upon him. It is almost as if Dravid must stake claim to any laurels not on the basis of his performance per se, but on his ability to match perceptions of his immense talent. Spell out the dilemma to him, and the equanimity belies his 29 years, the constant barrage of last-minute phonecalls despite DND instructions, the current struggle to secure three bags with two locks.

“It’s not due to a lack of hard work,” he states. “Okay, people say I have a lot of talent, they have certain expectations of me, whether real or unreal, and they hope I can be something else. But I can only be what I am and I’ve got to learn to live with my expectations — my strengths and my weaknesses. And if I look at myself and can say, at least you’re giving it your best shot, you’re working hard enough, trying your very best to be really good, it’s all I can ask for. I’ve got to do what’s right by the team, what the team expects of me, not what people expect of me… Just because I’m a little intense people feel I feel the pressure more than the others. But that’s not true at all. I can’t just change the way I am just because people feel I feel the pressure more.”

Okay, no expectations.

Rahul is the most accomplished in technique in the Indian team.

— Javagal Srinath

You have to have an element of the unorthodox to break free. Rahul is still very orthodox.

— Harsha Bhogle

Isn’t there anything, any point, on which this man will defer to others’ superior wisdom! Perfection could be a dirty word, listening to him. “I don’t see that all the time in me,” he says, showing the first signs of agitation. “I can see so many things in which others are a lot more perfect than me. I read that I’m technically correct, and then I look at myself and I don’t think so. Others are more stylish than me.” Oh yeah, like who? “Sachin, Lara, some of the young Sri Lankan boys, the Waughs, the Laxmans, the Sehwags. Yeah, I look at them and say, they are more stylish than me. I wouldn’t want people to remember me as being stylish. I would like them to remember me as being a performer, someone who was a consistent, performing matchwinner.”

It’s about the team, remember.

The way he has been handled, I’m amazed he is still there. When conditions are tough, they send him to open or at No. 3. When conditions are for batting, he is told to bat at No. 5 or 6. Hats off to him for not losing his patience with all this politics. He sure has character: anything for the team types.

— Navjot Sidhu

Dravid is himself a part of the team management. In that case we can say he himself volunteers to sacrifice his own interests in the team’s welfare.

— Ashok Malhotra

This is really a very simple question. You’ve got possibly the best record at number 3 since Don Bradman; surely, being shuffled up and down the batting order must rankle? But no: “I’ve carved out a niche for myself in certain spots and not been so successful in others. I’ve had all my success at three, but you’ve gotta accept that sometimes you can’t have things your way. It does not really bother me. It’s nice to have a spot but I also understand you can’t give each one exactly what he wants in a team situation. I think I’ve come to accept that; it doesn’t bother me as much as I think people think it does.”

Hmm, I think I’m finally convinced.

Rahul needs to enjoy himself.

— Harsha Bhogle

If he has to become part of the all-time greats, Dravid will need a very good series in the West Indies.

— E.A.S. Prasanna

“I enjoy my cricket as much today as I did when I started out,” he shrugs as he chomps on an apple, poor substitute for a missed dinner. “I’d definitely like to be able to raise my performance up a level slightly, raise the bar a bit, and probably achieve a litle more with my talent and my potential. So far I think I’ve done a fair job. I feel like I’m 75 per cent satisfied. I’d like to have my 50s to 100s ratio a lot better than it is now. As someone said to me, it’ll be important for me to look 4-5 years down the line. They say for a batsman the best years of his cricket are from 29 to 33. I’m at the stage where I’m probably just beginning to realise my full potential, and probably should go on to achieve it. At least I’ll give it my best shot.”

Beyond doubt.

Dravid stands out as an individual who reads, and though he is a celebrity with a perpetual DND sign on, he stays connected with the world through his laptop.

— Amrit Mathur

Yup, the laptop’s in the corner, the books will probably be snapped up at the airport. So is seeking refuge in the written word a sign of separateness, aloofness? “I do read a lot (mostly autobiographies about sportsmen) but I’m not antisocial or lonely,” he says with just a hint of defensiveness. “I have good friends within the team and outside. Okay, I’m not loud and I don’t go out as much. But I’m definitely not lonely in this team.”

By now I don’t have to be told, I already know even this is about the team, about cricket. “Reading relaxes me more, I find, than TV. I can just switch my mind off and get into someone else’s mind. It’s a good thing on tour to have a few books. You need to learn to switch on and off. You need to know when cricket is your priority and you need to give it your focus and attention. You need to also be able to do things outside of the game which take your mind away from the game.”

Because, I begin, cricket is life… “and the rest is mere detail,” choruses Dravid.

(Additional reporting by Vikrant Gupta)