GALLE: There's a beautiful story that
Roy Dias, a stylish batsman, who played 20 Tests and 58 ODIs for Sri Lanka, when they were still taking baby steps in international cricket, and who is now coaching the Sri Lankan Under-19 team, tells you about his interactions, spread over 24 years, with batting legend
Rahul Dravid.
"I caught up with Dravid during the U-19
Asia Cup last year. I remember meeting him first when he was just a 12-year-old who'd accompanied his father to a dinner at my friend's place when we were touring India (in 1986). He has a photograph with me of that time, and he took my autograph too. When I met him in Bangalore as the coach of the Nepal U-19 team, I requested him to have a word with my boys. I also told him that 24 years earlier, you took my autograph, and now I want yours! That's the kind of friendship I've with Dravid and most of your cricketers," Dias tells TOI from Colombo.
(Getty Images)During his playing days, Dias, who was a top batsman for Sri Lanka, along with skipper
Duleep Mendis, earned the respect of greats like
Sunil Gavaskar and
Kapil Dev for being a thorn in the flesh for India on many occasions. Whether it was the ODIs, where he slammed two back-to-back hundreds (102 & 121) at Delhi and then Bangalore in 1982, or the Tests, where his 273 runs in three Tests@54.60, including a match-saving hundred at Kandy in the third Test, helped Sri Lanka record their maiden Test series triumph, Dias always proved to be tough nut to crack.
At Chennai in 1982, he was out for 97, but instead of ruing a missed hundred, Dias cherishes a compliment he received at that time from Gavaskar."Sunil came inside our dressing room and told me 'You've played one of the best innings I've seen.' That virtually was a hundred for me. When Kapil wrote his autobiography, his wife asked me to write an article on him," he gushes.
The 64-year-old is now content coaching the Lankan Under-19 side. "I thought we've to give something back to the game, and teaching youngsters the basic skills and techniques is the best way to do it," he says. He's happy to see Dravid take up a similar role in India, but makes a pertinent point. " Actually, you must have the best coaches looking after 13-14 year-olds. That's where you learn your 'ABC' of cricket. When they progress to the 'A' team, coaches mustn't teach them basics."
Dias doesn't agree that Sri Lanka's rapid slide in international cricket, evident by the way they caved in to India in the first Test, is alarming. Neither does he believe that the slump is never-ending.
Like many, Dias feels that India skipper
Virat Kohli is "the No 1 batsman in the world". "As a coach, I like to watch him bat because you teach the youngsters about basics, and when a person at the top like him implements them, it becomes easier to explain."