It is often believed that former Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid is nicknamed as ‘The Wall’ because of his staunch technique and the patience to spend long hours at the crease, and also a mark of appreciation of his skills as a batsman who was very hard to dismiss from the wicket. But recently Rahul Dravid himself revealed how he got the name ‘The Wall’.
A famous stand-up comedian Vikram Sathaye on his show ‘What the Duck’, asked Dravid, “So when is the first time you heard ‘The Wall’? to which the former legend replied, “I can’t remember exactly the first time but I know where it sort of came out from, where it originated. I think, it probably came out after one of my long, typically, maybe boring innings but when I saw the headline, ‘The Wall’.”
Dravid also said that it was a clever move by one of a person of the media houses of the country.”I think, later on, a reflection after going through my career, I really thought that it was really clever boy or girl sitting on a desk in some newspaper office somewhere. Actually, looking into the future and sort of decided, Okay, let’s name him ‘The Wall’ today in a really positive sense. But also we can flip that around for our future headlines, which could be ‘The Wall’ crumbles or another break in ‘The Wall’, or ‘The Wall’ fell down. As it happened, when I went through a bad patch, later on, I saw those headlines elsewhere in the newspaper. So, I think someone really clever in a newspaper office somewhere sitting there decided you know this is a good one for the future.”
Dravid is currently the coach of India U19 and India A team and is hailed as a great thinker of the game.