Skip to main content

On Sprezzatura and Rahul Dravid

There is a word that I recently read in Nicholas Naseem Taleb's The bed of Procrustes. They call it Sprezzatura. The oxford dictionary defines it as studied nonchalance. All admired athletes have this quality. They make what they do look exceedingly simple. Sachin, Laxman and Federer all possess this is in spades. They have a languid grace that belies the effort they put into their game.
This is precisely the problem with Rahul Dravid. You can see exactly how much effort he has put into his game. Every single knock he plays, the effort is palpable. He drips buckets of sweat, seldom looks to be effortless hitting the ball and he never takes it easy. His batting is graceful yes but never does it look effortless. When he plays a cover drive it is plain to see that he has practiced the same shot in the net on countless occasions.
Dravid it seems has always been destined to be the sidekick and the hero. In every single partnership he has been overshadowed by his partner at the other end. Think of match turning partnerships in test matches and Rahul Dravid has usually had a hand in them. The majestic 281 that Laxman scored had Dravid at the other end scoring 180 priceless runs, dripping sweat. He was not even remotely in the best of form but he stuck around. A vivid memory from that knock is a drive he hit through mid wicket stepping out to Shane Warne. At taunton when Saurav Ganguly plundered 181 against Sri Lanka he was the one with 145. What even fewer people remember is the fact that he was the aggressor when the innings began and Ganguly only stepped it up later on. Incidentally when Sachin scored a century against Kenya Dravid was again the sidekick.
Dravid deserves to be admired as one of the greats of the game. A recognition he seldom receives and I suppose this is because we like our geniuses born not made.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

An ode to Hall 1

This goes out to Hall 1, the hostel where all the 4th year students of IIT Kanpur live. Indeed this hostel serves as a meeting ground between familiar foes some of who go on to become friends. A lot of factors make Hall 1 what it is. It acquires a mythic quality right from the first year when juniors are often threatened with “Aaj raat hall 1 main chal”. The seniors who live in Hall 1 seem to have a totally different existence as compared to the rest of the campus. On a visit to the hostel in the first year all one hears is the constant swearing, and sees everyone in shorts or in suits. Legends surround Hall 1 and in our first year the stories we hear are of Hall 1 and none other. Indeed Hall 1 residents perpetuate this myth as well acting as if they are the scariest beings on the campus. Indeed the fear is such that if a fresher goes to Hall 1 they are not expected to come back. There is something about Hall 1 that separates it from the rest of the Halls. For starters, Hall 1 has

The Broken Empire by Mark Lawrence

What a great read this turned out to be.  I was completely engrossed and fascinated. Jorg Ancrath starts of as a young prince who wants to get his throne back, get back everything he has lost and most importantly get revenge and he is prepared to do anything to achieve his aims. The thing is that Jorg Ancrath is a despicable violent bastard. He does things that should curdle your blood. But despite all of it, Jorg's voice is compelling. I couldn't help but put myself in his shoes. For most of the trilogy I was Jorg Ancrath even through his dastardly deeds(especially through his dastardly deeds). There was a part of me that couldn't help identifying with his ruthless streak of getting what he wants no matter what the cost. I have yet to find another character who embodies "The end justifies the means" more than Jorg Ancrath. The world itself set on an Earth of the far future. (Similar to the dying earth series by Jack Vance and Book of the new sun by Gene

The best of Paul Graham

Paul Graham is a startup incubator. He also happens to write essays which are really really good. In general I wish I had them read them a lot earlier. I have been reading his essays for a while now. Here are some extracts which I liked and so it begins. Addictive things have to be treated as if they were sentient adversaries—as if there were a little man in your head always cooking up the most plausible arguments for doing whatever you're trying to stop doing. If you leave a path to it, he'll find it. And my main computer is now freed for work. If you try this trick, you'll probably be struck by how different it feels when your computer is disconnected from the Internet. It was alarming to me how foreign it felt to sit in front of a computer that could only be used for work, because that showed how much time I must have been wasting. From Disconnecting Distraction How do you avoid copying the wrong things? Copy only what you genuinely like. That would have sav