BackIt breaks no new ground
It breaks no new ground
PremiumWriting on The Wall: Rahul Dravid. Photo: Vincent Thian/AP
Book Review | Timeless Steel
At its best, a book on a sportsperson brings out the hidden stories about struggles and sacrifices, relives the greatest victories and defeats, aiming to showcase the human being behind the athlete, the demi-god, the recipient of the adoration of a million fans.
Timeless Steel, the ESPNcricinfo collection of 29 pieces on Rahul Dravid, brings together some of the finest commentators/writers of the game. The book, which includes interviews, a numbers column and Rahul Dravid’s Bradman speech, delivered in December, has essays by Gideon Haigh, Rahul Bhattacharya, Aakash Chopra, Sambit Bal, Mukul Kesavan, Rohit Brijnath, Sharda Ugra and Suresh Menon. Eighteen of these have been published earlier, including in Mint Lounge. The collection has all the usual ingredients—a portrait of Dravid the cricketer, the man, eulogies from his teammates and rivals, and so on.
Indeed, after reading Andre Agassi’s autobiography Open, where the tennis superstar outlines his trysts with drugs, girls and money, Dravid told sports journalist Gideon Haigh that by comparison he had hardly lived at all, Haigh writes in his essay “A Sportsman of Model Decorum". Diplomacy is such a part of his life that Vijeta, Dravid’s wife, recalls in her essay that once she had to tell him: “Hello, I am your wife. Don’t speak as if this is a press conference."
Equally absorbing is an excerpt from Aakash Chopra’s essay, “A Cricketer Most Evolved", where he describes how Dravid added a repertoire of strokes. A predominantly on-side player at the beginning of his career, but with good pull and cut strokes—having played on jute mat wickets—Dravid tweaked his style to be able to play front-foot drives by going back and back instead of back and across, thus allowing his top hand more freedom.
For cricket fans, especially for Indian cricket fanatics, one of the best sections of the book would be the reportage on Dravid’s epic innings, such as Kolkata 2001 or Leeds 2002. The reporters on those matches do a good job here, though Sanjay Bangar’s essay, “Leeds 2002: The Monk of Headingley", on the Headingley century in 2002 is a little disappointing, given that he had the best view as Dravid’s partner for a good part of that innings.
Ultimately, it’s for innings such as these that Rahul Dravid will be remembered. For those of us inclined to such interests, there’s no greater pleasure than reliving some of those memorable innings long after the excitement of watching them live has passed.
ravi.k@livemint.com
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