Rahul Dravid mentors other teams as well in U-19 World Cup

India secured safe passage to the quarterfinal of the U-19 Cricket World cup with a crushing win over Nepal. No one was happier than current U-19 Indian coach Rahul Dravid. ‘The Wall’, as he is fondly known, is doing a terrific job mentoring the so-called future of Indian cricket. However, that is not all that he is doing at the moment. Reports have suggested that the former Indian batting legend has been seen mentoring other teams as well, especially the associate nations.

Dravid had been seen speaking to the Pakistani and Canadian management during the warm-up matches prior to the World Cup.

Zakir Khan, the manager of the Pakistan side went on to state, “Rahul and I go back to the days when he used to tour Pakistan. He chatted with our coach and shared his views about what needs to be done with the team and how the players should be nurtured. He mingled with the boys as well.”

Rahul Dravid also spoke to the Nepal players following India’s crushing win over them. Aarif Sheikh, one of the more promising of the Nepal players enumerated, “He said that we should have rotated the strike better. Against a good team, 160 or 170 is not a good score. If it was 220 or 225, then they (India) wouldn’t have played like this. The way they attacked in the first 10 overs, they wouldn’t have done that.”

Dravid also consoled the Canadian side as the latter was thrashed out of sight by the Indian colts. “He told them that there was nothing to be ashamed of. He said the Indian boys are professionals. He told our boys to take pride in the fact that they have qualified for this event,” Canada’s manager Mike Sharma told TOI.

Rahul Dravid’s selflessness in grooming the next generation of cricketers seems apparent. The Indians take on Namibia in the quarterfinal of the U-19 World Cup on the 7th of February.