The IPL Generation
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was fast changing. “There are more options now,” says Dravid. “It’s very hard for me to be judgmental about kids of today. It’s unfair. I had gone through a commerce degree in college, and not very successfully. When I grew up, if I wanted to be a successful professional cricketer – and making a living out of the sport became a part of that – the only option for me was to be a successful Test cricketer. There was no other way in which you could make a professional living out of the sport. I would have still played it, but I would have looked to do something else professionally if I wasn’t good enough.” Dravid turned out to be not only good enough on the field but eminently marketable off it, but he urged against taking the easy way out. “People now have the option of not necessarily playing Test cricket but making a living out of the game,” says Dravid. “Who’s to blame kids for taking that option? Who’s to blame kids for using that opportunity if they feel they are not good enough for Test cricket? I won’t judge them on that, but I would like to challenge them. What I’ll tell kids is that the greatest satisfaction you are going to get is by
Chris Gayle: At home in the world