Rahul Dravid explains how he became The Wall – YouTube screengrab pic (Video below) |
January 11, 2016, NewsCrunch
Rahul Dravid played domestic cricket for years, patiently waiting for that elusive call from Team India.
The wait extended for five years.
He faced the question – when will you play for
In a speech to the Bits Pilani students made in 2013, Dravid compares his experience with a Chinese bamboo tree.
After a bamboo seed is sown and nurtured, it shows no sign for life for five years. Then one day a small green shoot pops up and, bang, in just six weeks it grows to 90 feet.
You can see the tree grow 37 inches a day, says Dravid.
For the first five years of its life, the bamboo tree was not wasting its time. It was building a root system that would support its phenomenal future growth.
That is precisely what Dravid did.
In the domestic cricket he got to play fabulous spin bowlers. Knowing that
That gave him the practice.
So, when the Mcgraths and Akrams of the world came charging at him, The Wall was ready.