Stay alert and be vigilant: Dravid cautions IPL cricketers

Rahul Dravid is the mentor for the Royals this season

With the 8th season of the IPL approaching fast, here comes a very important advice from Rahul Dravid. The former India captain and Rajasthan Royals mentor has opined that the franchise had put systems in place to prevent a repeat of the 2013 fixing scandal, but it becomes equally important that the players too remain on their guard to avoid any kind of shady approaches.

He said, “We do follow the rules of IPL strictly. The rules laid down by the ACSU (Anti-Corruption and Security Unit of IPL). There are some protocols in place. There is a system in place which tries and prevents a lot of these things from happening again”.

Dravid further added, “The IPL took a lesson from the issues of match-fixing and spot-fixing. RR is alert and on vigil and we will try our best to stop such menace. Also there is responsibility of the individuals and they also have to be (on) vigil and alert against such issues”.

The statement given by Dravid happens to be vital in wake of the fact that three players including the former India pacer S. Sreesanth were arrested for their alleged role in spot-fixing in IPL in 2013. Subsequently, he was banned for life by the BCCI.

Dravid also insisted that the young players should take Ranji Trophy seriously as it will prove to be an opportunity for them to impress the IPL scouts. He said, “When we pick players, we look a lot at their Ranji Trophy performance as well. Of course there are specific T20 skills that we are looking for but we also want to see hunger, we also want to see consistency and we also want to see somebody who can deliver under pressure”.

Tendering a very valuable advice, he said, “My advice to young players is they also (should) take the Ranji Trophy very very seriously, because I think, without playing consistently successful domestic cricket, it is very very unlikely that you will be able to succeed coming to the IPL”.

The legend, also known as the wall, defended Indian team’s performance in the World Cup but emphasized that it has to improve in some areas in the Test format. Dravid said, “I think they are playing very well. When you come up against Australia — who I think is the better team than India. There is no harm in admitting that”.

A rather humble, cool and contented Dravid - when asked whether Indian team needed another ‘wall’ in the World Cup semi-final match against Australia – opined, “In the Australian conditions, Australia were the better team. Not (only) in that match, but right through Australia played better cricket, so there is a lesson to be learnt”.

He concluded, “They (the Indian team) are a young team and lot of these players will be playing in the next World Cup, so I think there is a lot of potential going ahead and I am quite excited... But yes, in Test cricket I think there are couple of areas where they need to work”.