The Wall

A substantial numbers of peoples out there who like to live and die for the sake of their respective religion, the religion preferred to be their main identity. Whenever we have to fill up any official papers, religion is one of the must cite criteria and for ineffective purpose. Hence, the definition of religion stands as, the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, esp. a personal God or gods. In India, majority inhabitants are in general marked as or identified as Hindus but almost billion plus population often forget their own religion to unite when our cricketers slug out on the pitch. Last week a cricket legend decided to retire after sixteen glorious years, so, my tribute to one and only ‘The Wall’, Rahul Dravid.

Rahul Dravid

Dravid was born in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. He belongs to a Maharashtrian family settled in Bangalore, Karnataka. He has a younger brother, Vijay. Dravid's father worked for Kissan, a company known for producing jams and preserves and thus he earned the nickname Jammy from his teammates at St. Joseph's Boys' High School. His mother, Pushpa, was a professor of architecture at Bangalore University. Rahul Dravid has a degree in commerce from St. Joseph's College of Commerce, Bangalore.

Dravid started playing cricket at the age of 12, and represented the state at the under-15, under-17 and under-19 level. Rahul's talents were first spotted by former cricketer Keki Tarapore who was coaching at a summer coaching camp at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. He went on to score a century on debut for his school team. Along with the batting, he was keeping wickets. However, he later stopped keeping wickets on advice from former Test players Gundappa Vishwanath, Roger Binny, Brijesh Patel and Tarapore.

He was selected to make his Ranji Trophy debut in February 1991 against Maharashtra in Pune alongside future Indian teammates Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath. His first full season was in 1991–92, when he scored two centuries to finish with 380 runs at an average of 63.3, and was selected for South Zone in the Duleep Trophy.

Dravid had a disappointing start to his career making his debut in one-dayers against Sri Lankan cricket team in the Singer Cup in Singapore immediately after World Cup in March 1996, replacing Vinod Kambli. Subsequently, he was dropped from the team, until he was picked again for the tour of England. He then made his debut in the Second Test against England along with Sourav Ganguly, when Sanjay Manjrekar got injured after the first Test match on that tour. Dravid scored 95 and held his position on Manjrekar's return for the Third Test and scored 84.

On 4 May 2003, he married Vijeta Pendharkar, a surgeon from Nagpur. They have two children, Samit  and Anvay.

Rahul Dravid announced his retirement from test and domestic cricket on 9 March 2012, although he will be leading Rajasthan Royals in the 2012 Indian Premier League. Dravid was the second highest run scorer and player with the highest number of catches in test cricket at the time of his retirement.

Career statistics

Competition	Test	ODI	FC
Matches	164	344	298
Runs scored	13,288	10,889	23,794
Batting average	52.31	39.16	55.33
100s/50s	36/63	12/83	68/117
Top score	270	153	270
Balls bowled	120	186	617
Wickets	1	4	5
Bowling average	39.00	42.50	54.60
Catches/Stumpings	210/0	196/14	353/1

!!!The journey was tough but he made like as smooth as Jammy!!!