If Rahul Dravid’s greatness needed an introduction then former West Indies fast bowler Tino Best provided the perfect one. The Former West Indies fast bowler spoke about his experience of bowling to India’s Fab Five for the first time and recalled the advice received from Rahul Dravid during their first encounter. Best, who made his ODI debut in 2004, revealed what transpired the first time he bowled to the Indian great, which was during a tri-series in Sri Lanka in the year 2005.
“The first time I played against India was in the Indian Oil Cup in 2005 and I bowled to Rahul Dravid and that was an experience, he hit me for three back to back fours. I remember after the game, we had a nice little discussion,” Best told SportsKeeda in an interview.
“He said, ‘Young man, I love your energy, keep charging in, just because you get hit for fours don’t stop.’ And I thought that was very humble and sweet of him. I’ve always had a lot of love for the Indian cricketers, Yuvraj gave me a bat once and I thought that was so cool of him,” the former fast bowler said.”
Explaining why he’s always enjoyed bowling against the mighty Indian batting line-up, Best said how the Indian team and its players always warmed up to him, despite being such huge stars. Besides Dravid, Best, over the years, has bowled to Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly in ODIs and Tests and the former fast bowler reveals it was their humility that bowled him over.
“From my experiences with the Indian cricketers, they were all really nice. Rahul Dravid and those guys were all nice and polite,” the former quick said. “They didn’t act like they had 1.5 billion people supporting them. Very humble people and that’s something I really admire. They never had any bad energy, bad vibe about them. They always show respect and love for the game.”
