India head coach Rahul Dravid isn’t someone who likes to be in the spotlight. However, spotlight inevitably follows him and he hasn’t been able to avoid the glare either – neither during his playing career that saw him become one of the greatest batters in cricket history nor in his post-retirement career that has seen him coach Indian teams at both the junior and senior levels.
Having not win a world cup as a player, Dravid went on to fulfill his desire by guiding an India U19 team to the trophy in 2018 and came close to replicating the feat with the senior team at the 2023 ODI World Cup last year when they lost in the final.
On Saturday, he will again hope to lay hands on a world cup trophy when India face South Africa in the final of the ongoing T20 World Cup in Barbados.
The tournament is Dravid’s final assignment as the head coach of the men’s cricket team post which he will step away. And therefore a trend has been gathering pace on social media – #DoItForDravid – as a farewell gift to one of the legends of the game.
True to his nature, Dravid isn’t a fan of the trend.
“I just want to play good cricket and yeah, doing it for someone is totally against who I am as a person and what I believe in. So, I don’t want to talk about it and discuss it,” Dravid told Star Sports.
Dravid’s answer to why he wants to win the world cup is simple: because it’s there to win.
“I don’t really believe in this ‘Do it for somebody’. I love that quote about somebody asking somebody else, ‘Why do you want to climb Mount Everest?’ and he says ‘I want to climb Mount Everest because it’s there’,” he said.
