2024-09-08 21:35:52
New Delhi: Legendary player Rahul Dravid on Sunday said Indian cricket has evolved into a “very powerful” force thanks to a growing talent pool and it has now spread to the farthest corners of the country. Dravid, who was the architect of India’s victory in the T20 World Cup, said a strong club cricket culture has contributed a lot to ending the old trend of city cricketers dominating the national team. “If you look at Indian cricket today, Indian cricket is very strong, it is very powerful. A big reason for this is that talent comes from everywhere, from every corner of the country,” the former India coach said during the 50th year celebrations of Mount Joy Club.
He said, ‘I think if you go back to the time of GR Vishwanath or when I was starting my career, even then most of the talent used to come from big cities or a few select states.’ He said, ‘Even talented players from smaller places had to come to big cities to play cricket. I believe that in the current era you are seeing that players from everywhere are coming to Indian cricket.’
Dravid gave the example of the increased level of Indian cricket from domestic cricket. He said, ‘Now you see the level of Ranji Trophy, you cannot take any team lightly.’ He said, ‘I am not disrespecting anyone but when I started playing, in the South Zone, except Tamil Nadu and Hyderabad, we used to play with a little confidence towards other teams but now you cannot do that. Every team is strong.’
Rahul Dravid’s career
51-year-old Rahul Dravid has played a total of 164 Tests, 344 ODIs and one T20 in his career for India. Dravid has scored 13288 runs in Tests, 10889 runs in ODIs and 32 runs in T20s.