book review - the nice guy who finished first...

how about a book review...? lets see..

so this is a book about rahul dravid, the india cricket team captain and a quintessential gentleman..i read this one a few days back..or rather am still reading it..this is the second one on the same subject i have read in the last one year...i reckon reading biographies, autobiographies or even authorised biographies for that matter is a very enriching experience for one can get into the mind of the subject and take a different perspective on matters...and was this not an enriching experience..you bet..the guy was not gifted skill in abundance as a sachintendulkar or a brian lara...but he has been able to make a place of his own among such greats...as the author aptly writes in the preface about this...gordon greenidge was a great west indian opener of the 70s and 80s..but he was always overshadowed by sir viv......wally-hammond always trudged behind sir don in matters related to cricket...similar cases with gavaskar and gundappa vishwanath..but rahul has managed to come on his own even in the presence of the prodigy that be-sachin...
i think the success story of rahul has been a case of conviction .. of belief in one's abilities and one's own style..which may be unfashionable...when quizzed by harsha bhogale about the 30 hours he had to spend on the english wickets to score 600+ runs in India's tour in 2003, he aptly replied that this was the length of time he needed to get in his own as he was not a sehwag or a sachin...one must appreciate that this was when he was accepting the ceat cricketer of the year award...he acknowledges that he is a different kind of a batsman and plays to his strength..and guys what a skill-set he possesses...awesome..a cricketer being adjudged by his test record, rahul shall always be remembered for his grace, elegance and strokefullness...

then there is another book by one mr. vedam jaishanker...this one deals more on this life as a whole than just the cricketing feats....another must read...he recalls how rahul was very nervous as a school team captain and how he was superistitious..also about his early aquaintaince with the "possibility-theory" as propounded in the book "tough times......"..the guy read the book when he was 14 and tucked it below his pillow before sleeping...then, he symbolises intelligence, humility and grace even outside the field..he doesen't carry any airs around him and knows that he is looked up-to and conducts himself in a praise-worthy fashion...then he is brave enough, and has a perspective over things as he acknowledges while writing for a leading english daily that cricket was just a sport and did not need a mention on the front covers of news papers..there were other things that beget the nation and needed attention ahead of it...also, he took the blame on the chin and did not make any excuses about the ball tempering issue...he walked-off the pitch in his debut test @ 95 even when the umpire had not still raised his finger after he nick-ed a ball from lewis...well...i realise its a long post already...but given that i had read two books on the topic, this was not unwarranted...infact there is much more to share on the topic still..and yes....apologies for the mess-of-a-post with regards to the punctuations and other stuff...if you read my apology, thanks, for reading this one till the very end...