A file photo of Rahul Dravid, who becomes the sixth batsman to amass 10,000 Test runs.
His seniors have been there. So have his contemporaries and juniors, but ace cricketer Rahul ‘The Wall’ Dravid laughs off his chances on the big screen if a role were to be offered to him, now that he has quit playing one-day cricket.
“I don’t think anyone will ever give me a chance in
films because I think I’m not good enough. I am a very bad actor,” says Dravid. But, he enjoys watching movies. “The last one I saw was that Farhan Akhtar film… Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara.”
Perhaps his focus on the game is what has kept him away from the barrage of endorsements even though most other cricketers do them. “I’ve no interest in these things. I love cricket and everything I ever do will be associated with the game,” says the 38-year-old, who was in Delhi to launch sport label Maxxport’s new collection. He adds, “I try not doing things that I’m not comfortable with. Some of the other guys are a lot more extrovert.”
Ask him if this is affecting their performance and he says, “No. What you do off the field is really your personal life.” And what is his own like, now that he’s said goodbye to ODIs and T20 cricket? “I have very young kids, so I spend a lot of time at home.” Ask him if it hurt that Shoaib Akhtar, in his autobiography, questioned his cricketing ability and he says, “It didn’t shock me or bother me. He is entitled to say what he wants.”