India’s current head coach Rahul Dravid shared an interesting incident from his school days. Dravid had scored a century for his St. Joseph Boys High School in his young days and his name came up in the newspaper. However, the editor of the publication got his name wrong and instead of ‘Rahul Dravid’, he wrote ‘Rahul David’.
Dravid feels there was a lesson for him in that small error as he felt his name was still not well known and he had to make a name for himself. The former Indian captain kept rising through the ranks and became one of the World’s best Test batters of all time.
Speaking on Olympic gold medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra’s podcast ‘In the Zone’, Dravid said: “The editor obviously thought that there was a spelling mistake and there could be no one as Dravid. So, it had to be David, right?”
He added: “Because it’s a lot more common name. So, I think it was a good lesson for me as well to realize that while I might be really happy and excited about scoring a 100 in school cricket but I am still not well known. And people don’t even know my name. They can’t even trust my name to be right and have to change it.”
On the other hand, Abhinav Bindra won the Gold medal at the Beijing Olympics 2008 in the 10-m Air Rifle event. Dravid revealed that he was going through a rough patch during the same time and Bindra’s heroics inspired him. Dravid, who was known for his solid batting technique, added one should read Bindra’s autobiography, ‘A shot at history’ in pursuit of excellence.
“In 2008, I was in the middle of a lean patch. The runs had dried up and I was on the wrong side of the 30s. That isn’t good territory in Indian cricket. I needed to pick myself up, I wanted to. I knew I had at least a couple of years of cricket left in me.”
“Around this time, I watched with glee as Abhinav Bindra shot his way towards an Olympic gold in Beijing. I still remember the adrenaline rush that I felt at that time. Reading Abhinav’s autobiography was fascinating for me. I think his story must be read by anyone on the quest for excellence.”
Meanwhile, Rahul Dravid is currently serving as India’s head coach. India has taken a 2-0 lead against the West Indies in the ODI series.
