New Delhi, March 16 Legendary Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid said he was deeply honored to receive the Lifetime Achievement award at the recent BCCI annual awards ceremony, adding that his career in cricket is like passing on the legacy of those who came before him.
Dravid, along with Roger Binny and Mithali Raj, were awarded the Col CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement award in a glittering ceremony in New Delhi on Sunday night. "I believe that my role has always been to carry on the torch. Whether I was a player or a coach, I have simply built upon the good work that others have done.
"I have had the opportunity to contribute and do my best, and I am very proud and grateful to see the next generation continuing to do so, and the successes we have achieved are a great credit to the current management, the current team, and everyone involved in Indian cricket.
"So, we all have our time in the game, and we have to do our part. I have tried to do my best, and I have been inspired by those who came before me. It is amazing to see that future generations continue to take it to another level," Dravid said in a video released by the BCCI on Monday.
Dravid, who is also one of the few Indian cricketers to have captained and coached the national team, said receiving the award was a moment of immense gratitude for him. "I am very grateful to receive this award. I mean, I follow the previous recipients of this award, who are some of the greatest legends of the game in our country.
"They are the people I have looked up to and admired, and they have been great inspirations to me as a player and as a coach, and in all the other things that I have been involved in Indian cricket.
Reflecting on his decades-long career, Dravid, who also headed the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru, said he considered himself fortunate to have remained connected to Indian cricket from his earliest days as a schoolboy cricketer to the present.
"So, it is a great privilege. I am very grateful for this honor, and I am very humbled. I think I am very appreciative of the fact that I have been able to be involved in Indian cricket for such a long time – since I was a young boy, probably playing in under 15 cricket for the first time, to today, and I am very grateful for the opportunities that I have had. So, I think I have been very lucky to be involved in Indian cricket," Dravid said.