‘The Wall’ nickname was manufactured for making headlines about him, feels Rahul Dravid

He played his last game for India in 2012 and has made a name for himself as a coach thereafter. But former India captain Rahul Dravid still rules the hearts of millions of fans. The 46-year-old was once the anchor of the Indian batting line-up and his solid stance and defence had earned him the nickname of ‘The Wall’. Dravid himself, however, did not like it too much as he revealed in an interview recently.

Dravid made his Test debut against England in 1996 and played a classy knock of 95 at Lord’s. It though was overshadowed by his co-debutant Sourav Ganguly’s 131 in the same innings but his 148 in Johannesburg against a fierce South African pace attack early next year announced the arrival of the talent in him. When he finished, Dravid had accumulated 13,288 runs in 164 Tests at an average of 52.31 and 36 hundreds.

Add with that another 10,889 runs in 344 ODIs at an average of 39 plus and 12 hundreds. Besides, he also did wicket-keeping for quite a few games. And not speak, he took five wickets in international cricket as well. But when it comes to his famed nickname ‘The Wall’, Dravid isn’t too convinced. “I don’t know where a wall came to be from?” the former batsman said when the interviewer on Breakfast with Champions, Gaurav Kapur, told him that because he loved batting, he came to be known as ‘The Wall’.

‘Cracks in the wall’

According to Dravid, the nickname took birth in the mind of a reporter or editor for they were looking for a future headline when he faced an off day. “Let’s call him ‘The Wall’ now because we have a future headline,” Dravid said jokingly about mediapersons according him the nickname. “When I don’t do well, it will be like ‘cracks in the wall’, ‘another brick in the wall crumbles’. And there were those when I went through a tough patch or wasn’t scoring runs,” the former Karnataka cricketer said.

He said it is not about feeling comfortable or uncomfortable with ‘The Wall’ but rather would prefer being called Rahul than people shouting at him “Wall, Wall!”

Here is the video of the show: