The date is remembered: Indian legend Rahul Dravid celebrating with a trophy he always wanted during his cricketing career – The World Cup trophy that was passed over to him by Virat Kohli, who was observing a sad farewell from the job he retained for almost five years having been sacked recently as coach of the team because of poor performance.
Dravid’s appointment as coach came too late for him since it was made just moments away from India’s heartbreaking loss at the 2023 One Day International World Cup where they were consistently called bridesmaids rather than brides.
Dravid’s raised voice did not match that momentous occasion, it was a primal scream that sounded like someone who came from nowhere having just rose from the dead.
Himself in disbelief at how emotions overcame him, Dravid laughed off this embarrassment by stating that he was thankful his children never had to contend with such jokes from him.
“We attempted to reach something together. Such moments arrive at the end. It’s wonderful to commemorate. I usually keep it away from my children, otherwise they may think I am crazy. But still, I was always telling the boys to keep our poise and not be swept by what was happening. Thank god it was my final game otherwise after that they would have said ‘you say something and do something else’,” Dravid stated during CEAT Awards.
For an entire nation and their eleven players this moment was significant because during the T20 WC Final example both ex-skipper Rohit Sharma had also confessed that the feeling was something which “can not come every day.”
“When we won the T20 World Cup, it was important for all of us to enjoy that moment which we did pretty well. In addition, our nation has helped us as much as it meant for us, it meant a lot to the entire nation so that bringing the trophy back home felt good and celebrating with everyone here did too,” Rohit said at CEAT Cricket Awards
With this win, 2024 T20 World Cup brought an end to India’s 11 years wait for ICC trophy. However Rohit is not ready to stop here as he wants his team to “strive for better things”.
He aims at replicating this success in other upcoming ICC events such as Champions Trophy and next World Test Championship (WTC) final if India qualifies.
