The Hindu : Sport : It's been an enjoyable ten years, says Dravid

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 22, 2006

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It's been an enjoyable ten years, says Dravid

Special Correspondent

Basseterre: Rahul Dravid completed ten years as an international cricketer on Tuesday, June 20. Since making his Test debut at Lords' in 1996, the current Indian captain has willed himself to greatness. His mental strength and courage under fire aren't the hollow epithets one finds a preponderance of in shallow Hall of Fame inductions.

Dravid has earned every bit of the success he has enjoyed. The 33-year-old looked back on an extra-ordinary career thus far.

Excerpts:

On the journey: I have changed as a person and as a cricketer. Just the experiences I have gained over ten years — played in different conditions, travelled the world, met different people. I have experienced so many things in these ten years; I have experienced success, I have experienced failure. All that has obviously had an impact on me as a person and as a cricketer. I hope it has been in a positive way but more importantly fit has been an enjoyable ten years.

On the early one-day glitch: I have probably been a good one-day player except for a phase in 1998 when I was not in the team. After that I have been pretty consistent, I have been pretty successful. Everything is a learning process. Even with the one-day game, I needed to learn, I needed to improve and get better. I kept improving on my game and that really helped me. I understood there are areas I needed to work on, and the one-day game didn't come as naturally to me as probably Test game came. So I had to work harder on it and get better at it. Hopefully I have done that, but I need to keep improving at it and keep getting better at it.

On special moments: The whole thing has been special, the whole ten years every part of it. My first Test match was special, making my debut. But yes, over the last five or six years, since 2000, from when I became the vice-captain and the responsibility came my way, I was doing successfully as a batsman, and now being the captain. The last five or six years have been the period when I have been the most involved and the most enjoyable part of it.

On how he celebrated it: Nothing special. Just concentrating on the next game. I didn't even know until someone reminded me of it.

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