Ricky Ponting and Rahul Dravid - The brotherhood of empaths when Punjab-Rajasthan face off

Today at Chandigarh, two old friends, Rahul Dravid and Ricky Ponting, will be in rival dug-outs. And, like always, they will fiercely guard the interest of the IPL teams they coach or mentor. But be brave to bet your heirloom, on TVs capturing the eventuality of Ponting walking up to Dravid to check on his fractured leg and the two sharing a laugh.

The coaching corner of the Punjab Kings vs Rajasthan Royals IPL game has a backstory with more grace and gravitas, than any match-plot a T20 game can ever throw up.

A week before this Mohali game, Ponting was a guest at The Indian Express Idea Exchange. It was one Dravid-question that turned the clock back to the era when the two batting greats, both No.3 batsmen, finished their Test careers with incredible, but eerily similar, numbers – 13,000 something runs in about 160 Tests at averages of around 52.

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Reporters usually have a set-up to squeeze in a difficult question, it’s an alleged easier route to walk the celebrity, past a thorny place. So to get Ponting’s view on Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s uncertain future, the Dravid nudge was thought of.

Back in 2008, after a home series against Australia where Dravid had just one 50 in 4 Tests, Ponting reached out to the aging Indian and convinced him to stay on. And thus the question that roughly went as: After the recent BGT disaster, would he have repeated that 2008 Dravid pep talk to Rohit and Virat?

In hindsight, it can be said that with Ponting, the ultimate Aussie straight-talker, the sweetening of the tough question was a waste of effort. Anyways, he would have answered. Though, the Dravid mention did bring to fore that rare and rapidly growing extinct professional quality that the two possess. It’s called mutual respect and it shouldn’t be confused for that in-vogue almost automated reciprocity in ‘liking’ posts of peers.

Here’s Ponting’s version of the events that unfolded at the end of the series where Dravid had just one 50 in 4 Tests and the calls of his ouster in the media were getting louder.

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“Rahul and I have always got along really well. We were fierce competitors, both No.3 batters for our countries for a long time. Both ended up having quite similar Test match records. See for players like him, class and quality don’t leave. It sometimes gets buried under a lot of other stuff, and certain people can’t find their way out of those holes.

“I just had a chat with him (Dravid) and said ‘Look, … forget about all the external stuff, believe in yourself and go back to the things that have made you a good player. If you focus on those things and don’t worry about the little things, I am sure you can finish off your career on a strong note’. That’s all I said. He went away and did that. And guess what when I was at the end of my career, and didn’t make as many runs as I would have liked, he was the first on the phone and made me aware of the things I had told him.”

As compared to the detailed Dravid answer, the one about Rohit and Virat was short. Ponting said the two Indian stalwarts can’t be written off as they have often bounced back from setbacks. “Test cricket is the thing that is becoming harder for them right now. Virat is the best white-ball player ever … he has been able to do it when he gets in a big hole. He is a high-quality player and, maybe Rohit is a bit the same.”

Processing what Ponting said about India’s greatest-ever No.3 and going back to Dravid’s tribute to the Aussie, comes with a realisation. Despite going neck-and-neck during their long journey, Dravid and Ponting didn’t act like petty athletes in a run-race. They acted like dignified fellow-travelers pursuing greatness. The men with a formidable body of work were true believers of cricket being a team sport not some solo search for personal goals. Both valued the brotherhood of batsmanship, they coaxed each other to stay on course. If that meant being pushed back on the run-charts, so be it.

Dravid has said how Ponting’s sensitivity towards his career-crisis came as a surprise. “Coming from someone who was seen as a tough guy, someone we Indians had had so many skirmishes with, this was a revelation. We didn’t know each other well but he took the trouble to talk to me and offer those words of comfort,” Dravid would write in a touching tribute when Ponting retired.

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Ponting and Dravid are contrasting characters that had a lot in common too. (Reuters) Ponting and Dravid are contrasting characters that had a lot in common too. (Reuters)

Contrasting personalities

The cricketing world would understand Dravid’s astonishment. Only a mentalist would have seen the ‘soft side’ of the hard as nails fighter from Tasmania. The gum-chewing ‘take no prisoners’ batsman, known for dismissing anything remotely short in front of square with his trademark pull shot, had a certain ruthlessness about him. He was the captain of an Australian team that was a cricketing galactico. They were the Titans and also the Goodfellas.

Ponting in his youth showed signs of drifting. He loved his drink but later in life had the courage to talk about his battles with alcoholism. He sledged and at times pressured umpires to give decisions he wished.

In comparison, Dravid was cricket’s ultimate good boy. They were equals as batsmen but their captaincy record was very different. Dravid didn’t have results or the team as talented as the one Ponting led.

But these contrasting characters had a lot in common too. They punished themselves at training to feel confident when on field. Cricket meant the world to them, they had deep gratitude for its history and tried to inculcate that in the teams they led and coached. And they also spent a lifetime looking for answers cricket had thrown at them.

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“That core of your nature, to find a way, never leaves you. Which is why retirement is difficult — because your nature doesn’t allow you to give up the game. You end up battling yourself and it is a huge fight. It is frustrating, and I have been through some of it myself,” Dravid would write about himself and Ponting.

There is a line in Dravid’s farewell piece for Ponting that talks about their common dream. “You will miss it for a bit, Ricky, but there’s a plus side. Like we always believed, the commentary box is a much, much easier place to be.”

How wrong he was. Dravid is rarely seen with the microphone in hand and Ponting too isn’t happy being just a pundit. One broke his foot while playing a club game with his son but still wheels to the ground in his chair to help his team find their lost glory. The other these days spends all his waking hours plotting IPL’s perennial under-achievers’ title bid. Like it was the case all through their playing days, they are back in the race. But that wouldn’t stop Ponting walking up to Dravid and asking him about his fractured leg.

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