Rahul Dravid turned into an eloquent story teller for twenty-odd minutes. A packed C.K. Nayudu Hall at the Cricket Club of India (CCI) heard him in pin drop silence right through the sixth Dilip Sardesai Memorial Lecture on Thursday.
Dressed in a fine-cut blue suit and red tie, the former India captain and batsman extraordinaire, recognised the relevance of “the great oral traditions in cricket’’ that mentored and guided many a cricketer up to his generation. He probably indicated that this great aspect of Indian cricket may have lost significance with the advent of technology and internet as a source of information for the present generation of cricketers, but pointed out that the IPL has become a “knowledge hub” and that’s proving to be an advantage for all cricketers. Dravid also said that the young Indian cricketer should aspire to excel in all formats of the game.
Dravid cited instances of his conversations with his father about Sunil Gavaskar’s 774 in his Test debut series, coach Keki Tarpore about Gundappa Viswanath scoring a century in his first Test at Kanpur and listening to stories from some fine and great Karnataka cricketers like Viswanath, Syed Kirmani and Roger Binny and also Rajsingh Dungarpur that helped him gain knowledge and advance.
Dravid said that as youngsters, a lot of the advice were more anecdotal than 'technical'.
"Coaches, former players, seniors would tell us stories about cricketers they had played alongside and cricket matches they had played in, which helped us understand and appreciate the game better. There is a great parallel with cricket’s oral tradition and a very Indian tradition of the 'guru-shishya parampara'. Our 'parampara' belongs not just to cricket, but all walks of life, the passing on of stories.’’
Talking of his coach Keki Tarpore, Dravid said: "Mr. Tarapore told me stories about why cricket was called “The Gentlemen’s Game” and instilled in me the values that would help me always try to uphold this ethical gold standard. He was very particular about punctuality and my whites being really white and T-shirt always tucked in and shoes clean. He felt these were essential to a good young cricketer and that if one focused on these things, it was the right kind of beginning. The rest of his coaching was very much about a player’s freedom to express himself. Other than that all he wanted was for us to grow up as good human beings.’’
Elaborating a little more on the oral traditions he said: "I have always had great faith and belief in the oral tradition. It is something I believed in as my career went along too. As much as I loved getting into analytics, video analysis and all that sort of modern technology, I would still make the effort to talk to as many people as possible to gain first-hand information. I know from personal experience that it really means a lot to young cricketers growing up through the system when the seniors, their heroes, have time for them and are willing to have a bit of a chat. It is a different kind of coaching and one that has a huge influence on the youngster."
Dravid also talked about the changing dynamics of club cricket.
"Club secretaries belong to the age they live in and some can be more commercially motivated. When we read about club ownerships changing hands, it is astonishing to see the astronomical figures that clubs are valued these days. Previously, the more committed older club owner passed on his club to a successor, he believed he would run it with the same good intentions. But today, along with cricket academies, club cricket has become a business and hence the quality of that relationship we shared with the old guard has certainly diminished. It needs to be rekindled.’’
