India coach Rahul Dravid The recent Olympic gold medalist was a guest on shooter Abhinav Bindra’s “In the Zone” podcast, where he shared a never-before-heard anecdote from his school life.
Bindra asked Dravid about the time when he scored a century in school cricket and his name appeared in the newspaper but his name was wrong in the paper and they called him Rahul David.
“The editor clearly thought that there was a spelling mistake and there could be no one like Dravid. So, it had to be David, right?” Dravid said.
“Because it’s a much more generic name. So, I think it was a good lesson for me as well that I can be really happy and excited about scoring 100 runs in school cricket but I’m still well known. No. And people don’t even know my name.
They can’t even trust my name to be correct and they have to change it,” Dravid said.
Rahul ‘David’ recalls an important lesson he learned after scoring his maiden century in school cricket. Tune in to my podcast ‘In the Zone’ to learn how to separate the gentleman’s mind from the gentleman’s game.@under25universe https://t.co/A9iUknxEMu #InTheZoneWithAB #under25original pic.twitter.com/v2CAvNAPRB
— Abhinav A. Bindra OLY (@Abhinav_Bindra) 25 July 2022
A few years ago, Dravid shared how he took inspiration from Bindra when he won the Olympics and how he encouraged him to ‘make the last push’ with his career.
“In 2008, I was in the middle of a lean patch. The runs had dried up and I was in the wrong direction in my 30s. This is not a good area in Indian cricket. I needed to lift myself, I wanted to. I knew I had at least two years of cricket left in me. Around this time, I watched with glee as Abhinav Bindra steered to Olympic gold in Beijing. I still remember the adrenaline rush I felt at that time. It was fascinating for me to read Abhinav’s autobiography. I think anyone in search of excellence should read his story,” Dravid had said.
“The achievement of innovation encouraged me to dig deep again with my career and give in to whatever I found difficult to do, whatever it was. His no-shortcut, no-excuse approach was a That is something we can all aspire to, no matter what big or small tasks we do,” he said.