NEW DELHI: An old video of Rahul Dravid sharing his thoughts on ‘talent’, specifically mentioning Vinod Kambli, has resurfaced on social media, gaining renewed attention after recent footage of Kambli’s public appearance.
Kambli, a childhood friend of cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar, created a stir during his initial cricketing years but struggled to maintain his position at the top level. His international career, which began in 1991, included 104 ODIs and 17 Tests for India but lasted less than a decade.
In the viral video, Dravid praised Kambli’s “incredible ball-striking ability” while reflecting on potential shortcomings in other critical areas needed to succeed at the international level.
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“I think we judge talent wrong. What do we see as talent? And I’ve made the same mistake. We judge talent by people’s ability to strike a cricket ball. The sweetness or the timing of a cricket ball. That’s the only thing we see as talent. Things like determination, courage, discipline, and temperament are also talents. When we judging talent, I think we’ve got to look at the whole package,” Dravid said in the video.
“It’s a hard thing to explain but some people just have the gift of timing and ball-striking. Sourav Ganguly just had that ability to time a cover drive. He just had it. You could see. Sachin has it. And Viru. You wouldn’t say that about someone like Gautam (Gambhir) as much as you would do for some of these other guys. Not that Gautam is less successful. So that’s what we see as talent. We don’t actually look at the other side of talent. We say, a talented player didn’t make it. We always look at this side but maybe he didn’t have the other talents,” Dravid elaborated.
“I hate to use… but Vinod’s probably been one of the nicest guys that I’ve met. Vinod had an incredible ball-striking ability. I remember a game in Rajkot, Vinod got 150 against (Javagal) Srinath and Anil (Kumble). It was incredible. First ball Anil came onto bowl, he hit him straight into the stone wall. In Rajkot, there used to be a stone wall. He hit it bang straight onto it. I mean, we were all shocked, wow it was amazing. How do you do that? But maybe he didn’t have the talent in the other areas to understand what it took to be an international cricketer, to deal with the stress and the pressure. I can only guess but maybe Sachin had that much more. That’s why Sachin is where he is today,” Dravid concluded.
Kambli scored 1084 runs in his 17-Test career at an impressive average of 54.20, which included four centuries and three fifties.
In ODIs, he scored 2477 runs across 104 matches at an average of 32.59, with two centuries and 14 fifties to his name.