The Last Professional?

In the age of IPL and other Big Money tournaments, one would think that cricketers in India would finally become a professional lot.  Unfortunately, it seems that the opposite has occured, and India is down to it's last professional cricketer.

Not the last professional in terms of one who makes a profession out of cricket, but in the deeper sense of one who plays the sport in a truly professional manner.  In that category there seems to be just one survivor:  Rahul Sharad Dravid. 

This writer must admit that not that long ago, he had suggested that Dravid needed to step down as his contributions to the Indian cricket team were starting to fade.  However, like a true professional, Dravid went back to the drawing board and worked on his game, and came back with a vengeance.

In the past six Test matches he has scored four Test centuries, all of them overseas, leading his team in batting average and runs scored.  In fact no other Indian batsman in those six Tests even scored a single century.  The reasons for the failure of players of the caliber of Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Gautam Gambhir, and MS Dhoni to score even one century while Dravid scored four, is based almost exclusively on the fact that Dravid more than the others, approached the job at hand in a truly professional manner.  He did not skip tour games or declare himself fit, when he knew in his heart of heart that was not the case.  He simply prepared meticulously and thoroughly for each and every match, and his success was the natural outcome of such professionalism.

At nearly 40 years old, there is not a lot of cricket left for the man dubbed "The Wall" of Indian cricket, but one can be assured that he will not linger on, unless he feels that he can contribute at the highest level.  His surprise selection in the ODI squad following the Test matches, may have been the result of a panicked reaction among selectors to the lack of class among current players, especially when playing overseas on pitches that offer seam and bounce and in conditions conducive to swing.  But his announced retirement at the end of the series, and his brilliant half century in his last ODI knock were proof of his thorough professionalism.  Like his predecessor, the legendary Sunil Gavaskar, he decided to call it a day, at least in ODIs, when people still ask why instead of why not? And it is almost certain that will also be the case when he calls it a day in the longest format of the game, because we would expect nothing less from India's last true professional.