Rahul Dravid, the embodiment of patience and the symbolic equivalent of a wall, had an unusually wild day yesterday.
The reason was an advertisement, the aim of which was to show something that one just cannot believe. And in a very smart creative decision, the makers of the ad went with the concept of Rahul Dravid expressing anger.
And they went all the way. In fact, at one point, Rahul Dravid, our Rahul Dravid, screams, “Indiranagar ka gunda hun main“. Which, I am not going to lie, single-handedly made my day.
Anyway, seeing as people are utterly and understandably fascinated with his aggression, we decided to look at some instances when he lost cool for real. Don’t know about you, but I find them quite cathartic.
1. When he threw his cap in frustration after Mumbai Indians first leveled and then won a nail-biter against Rajasthan Royals in 2014.
To be honest, the reaction was sort of warranted. Mumbai Indians needed to chase the target of 190 in 14.3 overs. They managed to tie the score and had to score a boundary to move to the play-offs on the basis of net run-rate. That’s exactly what MI’s Aditya Tare did, much to the displeasure of an angry Dravid, who threw his cap on the ground.
It’s been 7 years since that incident and no IPL fan has forgotten it.
2. When he threw a chair after India’s Test loss to England in 2006. Quite apologetic about his behaviour, he told his wife Vijeta that he “shouldn’t have done that”.
In a write-up, Vijeta confessed:
Only once, I remember, he returned from a Test and said, “I got a bit angry today. I lost my temper. Shouldn’t have done that”. He wouldn’t say more. Many months later, Viru told me that he’d actually thrown a chair after a defeat to England in Mumbai. He’d thrown the chair, Viru said, not because the team had lost but because they had lost very badly.
For perspective, she is talking about the third Test of England’s tour of India in 2006. The visitors registered a 212-run victory over the home side and leveled the series 1-1 .
3. When he left a press conference at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi, because it got too chaotic.
If reports from 2006 are to be believed, the argument between still photographers and television cameramen went way out of hand and Rahul Dravid went out of the room. It was a big deal back then.
4. When he had an unexpected altercation with Pakistan’s Shoaib Akhtar during the 2004 Champions Trophy.
Akhtar was notorious for testing batsmen’s patience with his bowling; but sometimes when he wasn’t able to do that, he’d resort to other ways, like obstructing them on the pitch.
He decided to this to Rahul Dravid during Champions Trophy, 2004, and it made the Indian quite angry. As a result, a fight ensued between the two and it only stopped after intervention from Inzamam-ul-Haq.