Waiting for Dravid
In this age of instant gratification, waiting for anything has become a strange, outdated notion for most of us
Tariq Engineer
25-Feb-2013
In this age of instant gratification, waiting for anything has become a strange, outdated notion for most of us. Test cricket, however, requires a lot of waiting, which has its own joys, as Rohit Brijnath elegantly explains in Mint.
Waiting is Test cricket’s separation point. Waiting for openers to settle in, the shine to wear off and Warney to come in. Waiting for tea when Laxman the fencer might walk in, waiting for the pitch to turn and Tendulkar to elevate on tiptoe and drive straight. Waiting as a partnership drones on for eventually a wicket or many will fall. All this I cherish. But I am only a spectator, I need a player to understand the viscera of waiting, so I call Dravid because no one waits like Dravid.
In the Guardian, Mike Selvey argues that Rahul Dravid deserves just as much credit as Sachin Tendulkar.
And yet Dravid, in his own way, has been every bit as important to Indian batting as has been Tendulkar. Some of the statistics that have been unearthed in the past week or so tell their story in a way that such figures often fail to do. Of Tendulkar's 51 centuries 11 have come in a losing cause. By contrast, before this last match Dravid's 128, made against Zimbabwe 13 years ago in Harare, was the only one of what is now 34 hundreds that has resulted in defeat for India. Dravid represents security.
Tariq Engineer is a former senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo