Rahul Dravid senses relief after retirement

Cricket

Rahul Dravid senses relief after retirement

Close

No regret for even a moment, its a great sense of relief, Rahul Dravid said.

22 March,2012 11:21 am

Indias batting great and former skipper Rahul Dravid said he did not regret retiring from international cricket, indeed its a great sense of relief for him.He said this while addressing the audience on stage in an event held in Bangalore city of Indias southern Karnataka state on Wednesday (March 21).The 39-year-old second highest run scorer in test history announced his retirement from international cricket on March 09, saying it was the right time to move on and make way for the next generation of players.However, Dravid will continue to play in the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 tournament, where he will lead the Rajasthan Royals, replacing the retired Shane Warne as captain of the franchise.Dravid added that he had done a lot for Indian cricket and said the decision was taken at the right time.It has been one of relief like a said I have not regretted the decision for one moment, it is a great sense of relief and some way it is, it something I did for such a long time, playing for India for 16 years and five years before the first class cricket and 5-6 years before, a junior level cricket. So it has been a long time, it is a journey I was privileged and lucky to have participated in to be in a part of but I just knew that the time was right and it is the time for me to move on now and look it another stage in my life. Obviously to be honest, with the IPL (Indian Premiere League) coming up in next couple of months, you still be in training, you still be in a bit of fitness work to do. It is only I guess in June, once the IPL is done, I probably have lot more time to think about, said Dravid.Dravid has scored 13,288 runs in 164 tests, including 36 hundreds, and became the first of Indias senior batsmen to retire from the longer format after the team slumped to eight consecutive test defeats away from home.Calling former Australian cricketer Steve Waugh as his role model, Dravid said that Waugh was a roadmap of how to build your career in the cricket even after not having the capability to have all the shots unlike some talented players.The kind of style of batsman that I was, I thought Steve (Waugh) was a perfect in someway a great role model for me to follow. I always said that Steve, who gave great a good name. It was always easy to follow people to admire Tendulkar, the Lara or those kind of attacking batsmanship. The kind of player I was, I saw on Steve in some ways, if I can call it a roadmap of how to go about your career, even though you might not have all the shots that some of the other players have. I remember couple of very good conversations with him, early on my career, just talking to him like he said about the mental side of the game and the way to approach test matches. I think some of these chats did have a lasting influence on me, said Dravid.Last year, Dravid retired from the limited-over format of the game after Indias disastrous tour of England, where the team failed to win a single match.The stylish right-hander, one of crickets most technically sound batsmen, also has 12 hundreds in one-day internationals and while he will be unable to add to that tally, cricket fans will still be able to see him play in the shortest format.