Former Indian skipper, Rahul Dravid is currently serving as the NCA chief and he recently revealed his vision for youngsters as part of the Under-19 and India A team. He also revealed how Kapil Dev’s advice helped him take coaching as a career. Ever since Dravid has decided to quit his international career, he has taken charge of India’s under-19 and A teams, overseeing the seamless transition of youngsters into the senior side
During a chat with WV Raman, Dravid said, “After I finished [playing career] there were quite a few options and I wasn’t necessarily sure what to do. It was Kapil Dev who gave me this advice actually when I was in coming to the end of my career. I bumped into him somewhere and he said: ‘Rahul don’t commit to doing anything straightaway, go out and spend a few years just exploring and doing different things and see what you really like’.”
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He further added, “I thought it was good advice so I was also a little fortunate that at the back end of my career I was already in a sort of captain’s-coach kind of role with Rajasthan Royals.”
Rahul also revealed he has doubts regarding him being an ODI player when he was dropped from Team India in 1998 mainly due to his strike rate.
Dravid explained, “There have been phases in my international career (when I felt insecure). I was dropped from the ODI team in 1998. There were certain insecurities than about whether I’m a good enough one-day player or not because I always wanted to be a Test player, was coached to be a Test player, hit the ball on the ground, don’t hit the ball in the air, coaching like that. You sort of worry whether you had the skills to be able to do it (in an ODI).”
Rahul Dravid also highlighted the phases of insecurities he was in aspiring cricketer in India.
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Former Indian skipper explained, “I have gone through many phases of insecurities. Growing up as a young cricketer in India is not easy, there’s a lot of competition and especially in the times I grew up there was only the Ranji Trophy and the Indian team, there was no IPL.You’ve given up a career in studies, I was not bad in it, so I could’ve easily done an MBA or something. I forego that for a career in cricket and if the cricket didn’t work out there was nothing much to fall back on.”
