Running from pillar to post

I was just imagining Rahul Dravid's life when one-dayers are on. Maybe it reads something like - travel, practice, press conference, team-meeting, gym, warm-up, game, press conference, travel ...

In between all this, he has to entertain thousand requests from the media, tens of thousands of requests from fans. At some point, he will need to stop and formulate team strategies; sometime during this jet-setting routine he may need to think about where his team is heading.

Surely, he must be required to give his players some individual attention. Undoubtably there will be a few problems to sort out within the team. Who's fallen ill? Who's feeling lonely? How many bowlers will play tomorrow?

Amid all this, he will need to think about his batting, the pitch, the opposition bowlers and set out his own tactics. For a man given to immaculate preparation, he may need to visualise himself in the middle, leaving balls outside off stump, driving bowlers through the covers.

And then there's a small matter of his wife and recently-born son back home and the pressures of staying away from them for an extended period of time. He's probably the most hassled captain of all, with India's millions bringing an added pressure, but he rarely shows it.

Yet, despite all this he takes every single press conference mighty seriously, thinking about every question and giving elaborate answers that cover all angles.

He rarely gets angry, almost never slips up and will not stumble even when posed with a clever question. He often slips into cliched territory, repeating himself over and over again and trying to get his point across, but he rarely behaves aloof or abrupt. He probably understands that every word he says is a potential headline, every sentence he utters can be easily twisted.

And what does he do after scoring a hundred? Press conference, travel, practice, team-meeting ...