Rahul Dravid Humbled by Lifetime Achievement Award, Sees Role as Torchbearer

Dravid along with Roger Binny and Mithali Raj were given the Col CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement award in a glittering ceremony in New Delhi on Sunday night. "I think that I've always just seen my role as just carrying a torch. I carried a torch from an earlier generation in whether I was a player or whether as a coach, I have just built on the good work that other people have done.

"I have had my time when I've had the opportunity to contribute and do the best that I can and I'm very proud and grateful to see the way the next generation continues to carry that on and the kind of successes that we have had is a great credit to the current management, the current team and everyone involved with Indian cricket.

"So we all have our time in the game and we have to do our bit and I've tried to do the best that I can and I've been inspired by generations before me and it's just amazing to see that generations ahead of us continue to in fact take it to another level," said Dravid in a video release by the BCCI on Monday.

Dravid, who also has the rare distinction of captaining and coaching India, said getting the award was a moment of pure gratitude for him. "I am very grateful to receive this award. I mean, I follow the earlier recipients of this award who are some of the greatest legends of the game in our country.

"It's really the people I have looked up to and admired and have been great inspirations to me as a player and as a coach and in all the other things that I've been involved in Indian cricket."

Reflecting on a journey that has spanned decades, Dravid, who also headed the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru said he considered himself fortunate to have remained connected to Indian cricket from his earliest days as a schoolboy cricketer to the present.

"So, it's a great privilege. I am very grateful for this honour, very humbled and I think I am very appreciative of the fact that I've been able to be involved with Indian cricket for such a long time - since the time I'm a young boy, probably playing under 15 cricket for the first time to today and very grateful for the opportunities that I've got. So, I think I've been very lucky to be involved in Indian cricket."

- IANS