The Greatest Second Best

A great debate divides the world of cricket and Sachin Tendulkar fans. Always used as the last resort, Tendulkar fans take the recourse of statistics to prove that he is, in fact, the greatest cricketer to walk this earth. Tall as it may be there is no denying that claim but if stats are the tools then they are the very first instruments to augment an equal greatness for someone like Rahul Dravid.

One of the things that define the greatness of any sportsperson is the era they played in. Dravid played his best cricket between 2002 and 2006 when he averaged a staggering 123.8 in Australia against Steve Waugh’s team that could be considered the greatest test side ever. During the same time he averaged 100.3 in England, 82.6 in the West Indies and 80.33 against Pakistan. He sits pretty at the top amongst the Indians who have retied with a better away average than at home; he retired at 53.03 over Sunil Gavaskar’s 52.11 and a notch lower than Sachin Tendulkar at 54.7.

What makes Dravid a better player than the great Sachin Tendulkar is that unlike Tendulkar, Dravid has always put the team before himself. He happily kept the wickets during the 2003 World Cup so that captain Saurav Ganguly could go in with an extra bowler or let go of his favorite number 3 position whenever the team asked him. He batted at number 6 during his great 180 against Australia at Eden Gardens in 2001 along with VVS Laxman, who took the number 3 position in that legendary test where the two scripted one the greatest comebacks in the game. Besides walking in to bat at the early fall of the openers (under 20 runs on more than 40 occasions) Dravid has even opened the innings 18 times compared to the only one instance when Tendulkar opened in Tests for India.

The thing about stats is that no matter how overwhelming they might be they can always be on some context. Dravid’s career has been one where he has forever battled statistics and even though he has beaten them on more instances than he can recall they still cannot quantify his quality. He averages highest in both India’s overseas test wins and draws which translated into simple English simply means that whenever he got the runs we won or drew. He has the faced the highest number of deliveries and has been a part of 88 century partnerships. He has been called a classicist beyond repair, a custodian of traditional cricket and yet he piled up 10,000 runs in One Day Cricket.

The eternal team man Dravid, as a captain, dared to declare an innings much to the shock of a Tendulkar who was nine runs short of a double century in order to win the Multan Test. A few months later he smiled his way back to the pavilion when Ganguly declared while he was on 91, Dravid is the gentleman who stood apart in an era when cricketers behaved like rock stars with bad tattoos and worse attitudes. Rahul Dravid’s cricket and conduct can rest one doubt forever, nice guys don’t always finish last. Sometimes they are doomed to be the second best but then don’t we all know how misleading statistics can be. 

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