5 players who used their lucky break to carve a great career
It is said that “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”. It’s almost as if the quote was coined for Cricket. Such is the nature of circumstances that govern the sport that without an opportunity, all the skill a cricketer possesses is rendered futile.Padmakar Shivalkar waited 20 years for an international cap but was denied one despite a stellar career that reaped 589 First Class wickets. There were others however, who weren’t as brutally unlucky as him. These were individuals who waited at the cusp - trained and ready – waiting for that elusive stroke of luck to launch themselves upon the grand stage. Here are five, who when presented with an unexpected break, went on to carve out great careers.
#1 Rahul Dravid
While he surely was gifted, it would be a myth to conclude that the path to glory was easy for Dravid. The “Wall” certainly didn’t take shape overnight. It took five years of consistent big-scoring in domestic cricket for Dravid to earn his coveted India cap.
While it did earn him a spot in the Test team that toured England in 1996, he wasn’t guaranteed a game. Batting in the classical mould, Sanjay Manjrekar was India’s preferred “number-three” and was set to hold fort through the series. But in the first Test at Edgbaston, Manjrekar hurt his ankle in the first innings. He batted at number seven in the second innings but failed to recover in time for the second Test. Enter Dravid.
The soft-spoken Bangalorean was handed a debut in the second Test at Lords - one that was to be Dickie Bird’s last. Dravid accepted the offer with glee and scored a memorable 95 followed by an 84 in the third Test at Nottingham.
Early next year, he would tour South Africa and score a pulsating 148 and 81 in the 1997 Johannesburg Test match to cement his place. He would retire as a legend of the game, with 13,288 Test and 10,889 ODI runs respectively.