Question to Uncle SOME1
what will India do if suddenly there is no Dravid in batting to rescue ???
Anand Vasu - 15 April 2002
Seven ones are seven
Seven twos are fourteen
Seven threes are twenty-one
Seven fours are twenty-eight
Seven fives are thirty-five…
Boring as hell. No one who ever went through middle school thought multiplication tables were fun. Ok, geometry could be inventive, trigonometry fascinating and calculus puzzling. But multiplication by rote? If math was Indian cricket, Rahul Dravid would be those very same multiplication tables. Boring? Yes. Tedious? Yes. Unglamorous? Yes. Yet, without knowing them, you wouldn't have a chance of getting ahead. And forgive me for stating the obvious, without Dravid, India wouldn't have a chance of getting ahead while playing abroad.
Dravid is no Tendulkar. He can't delight Indian fans and enchant cricket lovers with a spanking innings of 79. Yet his true value comes to the fore only when Tendulkar falls. While the little man is at the crease, the runs flow, the bowlers are battered into submission, the field tired and weary. His dismissal, however, makes sure that the very same bowlers perk up, fielders cheer and chirp audibly, and the pressure is on the batsmen.
And then, from an extreme corner of the stage, from where he was staking his claim for best supporting actor, emerges Dravid. It is his responsibility to see India through to safety.
Test cricket is hard enough for batsmen seeking to make big runs. Ask the Prince, Brian Lara, who was adjudged caught behind for a duck on a wicket where he might have had 200 on a different day, or with a different umpire. Ask Sourav Ganguly who made five before a short delivery on a flat track cost him everything.
Better still, ask Dravid. He knows how hard it is, what it takes, and makes sure the job is done. No, for all his hard-fought innings of character abroad, he won't attract one extra television commercial or one more fan. He will remain, however, a shining example of why it's important to learn the fundamental things well.
seven sixes are forty-two
seven sevens are forty-nine…
After all, without the basics how far could you possibly go?
Never mind mate but these are the facts ....
CONVICTIONS are a greater threat to the TRUTH than LIES