Rahul Dravid Biography, career, achievements, controversies

Rahul Sharad Dravid, often known as The Wall, was born on January 11, 1973. The former captain and cricketer from India are currently in charge of the national squad. He was the India U-19 team's head coach at NCA (National Cricket Academy). 

Under his direction, the Under-19 squad won the World Cup in 2018 and placed second in the Under-19 World Cup in 2016. He has long been renowned for his elegant batting style and methods. 

He was regarded as one of the greatest cricket players in history and amassed more than 24,000 runs. He is frequently nicknamed in cricket as "The Wall" due to his defensive tendencies. 

RAHUL DRAVID BIOGRAPHY

Gender	Male
Age	50 years old (in 2023)
Date of Birth	January 11, 1973
Full Name	Rahul Sharad Dravid
Profession	Former Indian Captain, Right-handed batsmen, Right arm off-spin, Wicket-keeper, Coach
Nationality	Indian
Birthplace	Bangalore, India
Zodiac Sign	Capricorn

Rahul Dravid Personal life

Sharad and Pushpa Dravid gave birth to Rahul Dravid. His father, Sharad, was a general manager for the jam-making business Kissan. Pushpa would always offer Rahul a bottle of jam before he went outside to play.

Pushpa, Rahul Dravid's mother, was a professor. She was too anxious to see any of her son's matches. When asked what Rahul Dravid's greatest accomplishment was, Pushpa responded that she would have missed it since, unlike his father, she wouldn't have watched the game ball-by-ball.

Colin Cowdrey, a former England cricketer, had expressed to Pushpa his desire to have a kid similar to Rahul. She started crying at this comment. Rahul Dravid was given the moniker "Jammy" by several of his teammates. Due to the nature of his father's work, Dravid gained popularity as "Jammy" in addition to "The Wall" and Mr. Reliable". Sharad Dravid sadly passed away in July 2013.

Vijay Dravid is the younger brother of Rahul Dravid. Both brothers were always given academic and athletic advice by Pushpa and Sharad. They pushed them to pay close attention to everything they did, and because they did as they were told, they were permitted to play for many hours even before the tests.

In his younger years, Vijay went to cricket matches with Rahul and his father. He failed to make it as a professional cricketer, but he still had a significant impact on Rahul's career. He has had Vijay's backing since the start of his professional career.

On May 4, 2003, Vijeta Pendharkar and Rahul Dravid were married. By occupation, Vijeta is a surgeon. But she gave up her work to support Dravid's cricketing endeavors and to care for their kids. They are parents to two boys. Their younger son is named Anvay, while their older son is named Samit.

In Indore, Madhya Pradesh, Rahul Dravid was born into a Marathi-speaking Brahmin family. He was reared in Bangalore, Karnataka, where his family eventually relocated. He is a Marathi speaker. In order to earn the moniker Jammy, Sharad Dravid, David's father, worked for a firm that produced jams and preserves. At Bangalore's University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE), his mother Pushpa taught architecture. Vijay is Dravid's younger brother.

Rahul Dravid attended St. Joseph's Boys High School in Bangalore and graduated from St. Joseph's College of Commerce in Bangalore with a degree in business. While pursuing an MBA at Bangalore's St Joseph's Institute of Business Administration, he was chosen for the Indian cricket squad. His linguistic proficiency includes Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, and English.

Rahul Dravid Career

Rahul Dravid competed for the Karnataka state squad in the U-15, U-17, and U-19 age groups, earning a position on the state's Ranji Trophy team. He made his Ranji debut for Karnataka in the 1991–1992 season.

In his spectacular first season, he totaled 380 runs with a 63.3 batting average. It contained a few hundred. His selection to represent South Zone in the Duleep Trophy came later.

During the ODI series, Rahul Dravid played in his first international match in Sri Lanka. He participated in his maiden Test match at Lord's against England a few months later and opened the contest with 95 runs.

In ODIs, he was seen as a slow batter and struggled to make the side.

He overcame this criticism, improved his ODI batting, and cemented his place in the ODI team. Three years after his debut, at the 1999 World Cup, he was at his best. He scored 461 runs, more than anybody else in the competition.

In 25 Test matches as India's captain, Rahul had 8 victories and 6 defeats. His 32-win record doesn't exactly reflect his capacity for leadership. His ODI numbers are better. India prevailed in 42 of the 79 ODIs played during his tenure.

One of Dravid's lowest points as captain was when the Indian cricket team failed to qualify for the 2007 World Cup.

Vijay Mallya's franchise team, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), was known for its legendary player, Dravid. He scored the most runs for RCB during the 2008 IPL. He then took part in games with the Rajasthan Royals.

In 89 IPL matches, he has taken part, amassing 2174 runs with a strike rate of 115.52 and an average of 28.23. He scored 11 half-centuries in the IPL.

After announcing his retirement from the limited overs format in 2011, Dravid played his final test match against Australia in January 2012.

Rahul Dravid has a long career as a brand ambassador, dating back to his days as a cricket player. Among the businesses he has supported throughout the years are Reebok, Pepsi, Kissan, Castrol, Hutch, Karnataka Tourism, Max Life, Bank of Baroda, Citizen, Skyline Construction, Plaeto, Sansui, Gillette, and Samsung.

Current endorsement deals with David are particularly notable. Dravid declared his retirement from cricket in 2012 and consented to feature in Practo, Piramal Properties, and Orchids advertising. But it was his CRED advertising during the IPL 2021 that truly caught people's notice and made him a household name. Because of the campaign, David is now more well-known than ever in the world of advertising.

Rahul Dravid's career has been covered in four biographies:

Rahul Dravid – A Biography written by Vedam Jaishankar

The Nice Guy Who Finished First written by Devendra Prabhudesai. Publisher: Rupa Publications. Date: November 2005

A collection of articles, testimonials and interviews related to Dravid was released by ESPNcricinfo following his retirement. The book was titled Rahul Dravid: Timeless Steel.

Rahul Dravid’s social work commitments are

Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA)

UNICEF Supporter and AIDS Awareness Campaign

Rahul Dravid Awards and Achievements

National Honours

1998 – Arjuna Award recipient for achievements in cricket

2004 – Padma Shri – India’s fourth-highest civilian award

2013 – Padma Bhushan – India’s third-highest civilian award

Other Honours

1999 – CEAT International Cricketer of the World Cup

2000 – Dravid was one of the five cricketers selected as Wisden Cricketer of the Year.

2004 – ICC Cricketer of the year – Highest award in the ICC listings

2004 – ICC Test Player of The Year, ICC Cricketer of The Year

2004 – MTV Youth Icon of the Year

2006 – Captain of the ICC’s Test Team

2011 – NDTV Indian of the Year’s Lifetime Achievement Award with Dev Anand

2012 – Don Bradman Award with Glenn McGrath

2015 – Wisden India’s Highest Impact Test Batsman

2018 – ICC Hall of Fame

Rahul Dravid Net worth

Dravid is thought to have a net worth of over $23 million, or about 172 crores of Indian rupees. By his involvement in several types of cricket, commentary work, TV commercial appearances, and coaching obligations, he has accumulated this amount of wealth.

Dravid allegedly got payments totaling Rs. 5 crores for his leadership of the India A and India Under-19 teams during the previous two years. He earned INR 60 lakhs every month as the Chief of Operations at the National Cricket Academy. He is anticipated to get a salary of around Rs. 10 crores in the near future as the head coach of the Indian cricket team, which will set a record for any coach of the Indian cricket team.

Rahul Dravid Controversies

Dropped from the ODI team soon after leaving captaincy

During India's historic trip to England in 2007, during which we finally defeated England in a Test series after 21 long years, Rahul Dravid resigned as captain. While India narrowly lost to England in the seven-match ODI series, 3-4, it was a closely contested series. But after a lackluster performance in the home ODI series against Australia, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the new ODI captain, left Dravid out of the team. In ODIs, he was used as a last-minute replacement twice, in 2009 and 2011. However, in late 2011, Dravid ended his career in limited overs, putting a stop to this.

Ball-tampering incident

Rahul Dravid was found guilty of altering the ball's form during a game against Zimbabwe in the 2004 Triangular VB series between Australia, India, and Zimbabwe. While Dravid was not found to have engaged in any suspicious action by the on-field umpires, Steve Davis and Rudi Koertzen, match referee Clive Lloyd punished Dravid with violating ICC code of conduct article 2.10. But, Dravid's then-coach John Wright stood by him, claiming that his behaviour was wholly accidental.

Sourav Ganguly questioned Dravid’s role in the Chappell era

The repercussions from the Sourav Ganguly and Greg Chappell incident was one of the worst days in Indian cricket history. Although Chappell was determined to get Ganguly removed from the Indian squad, Ganguly made a brilliant comeback. After his retirement, Ganguly made it known that the Indian team's dressing room had been divided under Chappell's leadership.

Despite being aware of the discord within the camp, Ganguly recognised that Dravid wanted everything to go according to plan. Nevertheless, after Ganguly claimed that Dravid had refrained from questioning Greg Chappell, the media erupted over this interview. Nonetheless, Ganguly and Dravid have both moved over this episode in order to further Indian cricket.

Rajasthan Royals caught in the spot-fixing scandal

From 2011 to 2013, Rahul Dravid served as the captain of the IPL side Rajasthan Royals. He commanded the group wonderfully and with the utmost sincerity. Under his direction, individuals like Ajinkya Rahane, Sanju Samson, Karun Nair, Steve Smith, and James Faulkner flourished. When the spot-fixing scandal broke in 2013, Dravid led the RR team to the postseason.

The suspects in the spot-fixing scandal were co-owner Raj Kundra, S. Sreesanth, Ankit Chavan, and Ajit Chandila. Dravid was shocked by this occurrence and couldn't believe that such things were going on in the IPL behind his back. The IPL chapter of Dravid's captaincy and cricket career came to a tragic conclusion.