Rahul Dravid – ‘Indian cricket is very strong because the talent comes from all over the country’

Dravid, who coached India at the T20 World Cup in June, said the club’s strong culture of cricket had a lot to do with breaking the old trend of city cricketers passing up a chance to make it to the national team.

“If you look at Indian cricket today, Indian cricket is extremely strong, extremely strong,” Dravid said at the Mount Joy Cricket Club’s 50th anniversary celebrations. “One of the biggest reasons for that is that the talent comes from everywhere, all over the country.”

“If you go back to GR Vishwanath’s time or when I was starting out, most of the talent came from big cities or a few states.

“Even if there were talented boys in small places, they had to come to big cities to play cricket. But today I think you can see in Indian cricket that boys come from all over.”

Dravid said it is reflected in the standards of domestic cricket in India.

“You just look at the level of the Ranji Trophy. In the old days when you played in the South Zone, without playing Hyderabad or Tamil Nadu, I think it’s fair to say, without being disrespectful, that a lot of other teams. you can take it for granted but you can certainly take it slowly.

“I don’t think there is a team today in the South Zone that you can go into and say you will beat them freely.”

Lauding the structure of club cricket in the country, especially in Karnataka, Dravid said the system has allowed the sport to remain accessible to all.

“We need strong clubs, cricket is not concentrated in the hands of a few people, cricket is equal, perfect everywhere.

“You can’t have talent or resources concentrated in just one or two areas. To get the best out of talent, we need to make sure that young boys and girls get access to good infrastructure in all areas.”

Dravid briefly reviewed his team’s work to emphasize the need for that plan to succeed.

“After the ritual, HAL [Hindustan Aeronautics Limited] he can give us two eggs and one glass of milk. I was always waiting for that glass of milk and those eggs. Not because I want milk and eggs. But because I wanted to sit and listen to people like BK Kumar or Nandan talking about cricket. And it was really fun listening to them and learning a lot from them.”