Raghul

This was told by Dr. Rajdeep Manwani  who happened to be Dravid's classmate.(In a speech he delivered on the occasion of 'Sports Day'(14/2/16) in a nearby hostel. )


"Rahul Dravid never attended classes regularly. He was always seen practising in the nets. One day he came to class and started writing notes with his  gloves on.We were feeling uncomfortable seeing him writing with the gloves. I don't know how he might have felt. Everyone was  laughing, talking, whispering, Rahul Dravid continued writing for that full hour.
After one hour was over, I and Rahul Dravid had a common friend ,Adarsh,
so he came up to Adarsh and said,
''Adarsh, Can I borrow your accounts notes because exams are  nearing and I haven't written many notes. So can I borrow it and xerox it and give it to you back''
Adarsh replied  ''Rahul ,I'll give you the notes but could you tell me why were you wearing gloves on? You came to class wearing gloves and you continued wearing it, you were wearing the gloves even when the teacher was  dictating notes, Is it to impress Anupama?(Anupama was the most beautiful girl in their class!).
Rahul Dravid said ''No...no ,she is already impressed, I don't have to impress her.''

''Then why did you wear the  gloves through all this time?''I asked

Rahul Dravid said to  me something that day which is very interesting.

He replied ''You know something Adarsh ,the last two Ranji matches which I played, I had the old gloves and the old gloves were very loose. So because the gloves were loose, when the bowler bowled , the ball just went past my gloves and it created the snick sound. The wicket keeper caught it, he appealed and both the times even though I didn't touch the ball, I was given caught behind. I thought to myself ' no this can't continue' and  so ,I bought  these  gloves and I want to get accustomed to wearing these new gloves. I want my hands to sweat into these new gloves .  So for the next 48 hours, I  will wear  these gloves continuously because the next Ranji match which is a semifinal, is in two days. I want my hands to sweat in and get adjusted to the gloves. I am not going to remove the gloves even when I am sleeping,even when I am eating,even when I am coming to class because I want to do well in the next match and I want my hands to be comfortable in those gloves".

The very next match, that was their semifinals against Saurashtra  and he scored a century. In the finals,Karnataka played against Delhi that year, he scored another century and based on those two performances he got selected for the Indian cricket team which went to England, and surprisingly in the first test match in England, he scored 90 odd runs(England vs India, 2nd Test ) when Sourav Ganguly scored century and the rest as they say is history.

There are two important lessons I learnt from that incident.

One,  passion , if you want to excel in anything  in life ,there has to be  a passion, Rahul was willing to wear those gloves for 48 hours whether it was uncomfortable or it was hot. He was sweating in those gloves but he was willing to wear those gloves for 48 hours continuously because he wanted to excel in what he wanted to do and the second important thing was responsibility.
He took responsibility on himself for his own performance, I have never seen Rahul complain a single  time neither did  he argue against any Umpire decision. He never said  for one once  that the wicket keeper is so unethical. He knew that he didn't touch the ball,  even then they  appealed and he got out. He took responsibility for his own life. He had a very strong internal locus of control. Internal locus of control simply means that I will not blame the external circumstances for what is there in my life, I will take responsibility for what is happening in my life. He took responsibility, what can I do to change the situation. Forget the  Umpiring decisions that has gone wrong, forget what wicket keeper has done but what can I do to make the situation better and the only thing I can do is to change my gloves and perform to the best of my ability.