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Dravid vs Sachin!

Rahul Dravid

Sachin Tendulkar

‘People throw stones at you and you convert them into milestones’’ quoted the little master Sachin Tendulkar himself once. Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar have been the best India has produced as far as Cricket and achieving few milestones are concerned. They took the Indian cricket to whole new level be it on the field or off the field. They have been great ambassadors of Cricket, in fact they still are. Here I would like to shed more light on their respective lives and pit them against each-other as individuals and their choices. Its just #mypointofviewworld though.

Cricket was the only game I loved growing up. So, I have been a enthusiast and a fan of the game since childhood. Without a question Sachin being my favorite of them all. According to me, Dravid’s career came into prominence in late 90′s as late as ‘99 World Cup where he consistently came good for India and off-course who’ll forget his partnership with Sourav Ganguly against Sri Lanka.

I wouldn’t be shedding light on their respective careers as we all know how good they were in their respective roles. Having said that would like to shed some light though of their few respective choices and individuality.  

“Life is a matter of choices and every choice you make makes you” . Let’s get straight to the point. Sachin has always been good with numbers, his picture perfect stats (eg : 100 international centuries , 200 tests) may prove the same while Dravid wasn’t that much. I take nothing away from the great little master for the immense contribution he has made. I feel though Sachin has always been the best when it comes to generating good numbers be it runs, revenues or in that case his own income, a Smart Buisnessman. Dravid on the contrary has been like one of us like a middle - class guy who does his (hard) work (runs in this case) without getting much credibility and still is happy leading his normal life.

“A good example has twice the value of the truth we say” as they say. Let us take few examples. Let’s talk about comfort zone how many times Sachin was ready to go out of his comfort zone when it comes to changing his batting position for the team, not many. Superstition or good numbers, mine is as good a guess as yours. When it comes to Dravid “Ask him to walk on water and he’ll ask ‘how many kilometers?” Harsha Bhogle once quoted about this selfless legend. There was nothing that Dravid didn’t do for the requirement of the team. Let’s talk retirement, Dravid after few failures in Australia decided to hang the boots without waiting for a farewell match and passing on the baton. Sachin on the other hand waited for a picture perfect moment, 200th test at his home ground Mumbai, after string of failures. Remember all we are talking about is choices. Let’s get to their post retirement roles while little master chose a position of a Cricket advisory panel on the other were in Dravid chose to groom the youngsters by choosing to coach and mentor under 19′s and junior level team of India in the process of opting out to be a mentor of a IPL franchise due to ‘Conflict of Interest’ clause which would have yielded him more. While Dravid would have easily been into this so called ‘Advisory Panel’ but he chose a hard path and in the process helped under 19 team of India win the World Cup. Sachin and Dravid played for the same team at the almost same time but certainly their paths were different.

But the stuff that compelled me to write this blog was the decision which Rahul Dravid took post under 19 World Cup. He was awarded Rs.5000,000 where in other staff members were awarded Rs.2500,000 and he requested BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) to make it equal for himself and the other staff members hence making award money reduced to Rs.2500,000 for himself too. How many of us would have had this kind of selflessness when it comes to forgoing this amount just because it wasn’t ethically right or unjust to other staff members.

Sachin, in his career or in his life has achieved everything more than Dravid be it runs, fame, money, glory you name it and he has got it but for me Rahul Dravid has achieved more when it comes to RESPECT than Sachin Tendulkar.

Also, before bidding adieu one incidence where in poor Dravid had to face a lot of unnecessary criticism from the fans and media including me during that time for denying Sachin a double century against Pakistan by declaring when he was mere 6 runs short of a fabulous double century. Few years down the line I realized the decision was wrong BUT not the intention. All he wanted to do is set an example that team always comes first and not the individual performance.

In the end I respect both the individuals one for being a smart businessman and the other for being a hard middle class type worker. In the end its just #mypointofviewworld  

Below is the video :