Former India cricketer Rahul Dravid is sure to have many interesting stories from his long international career. However, the former Indian captain revealed in an interview an incident with a female fan, who had made up her mind to set up camp at his house!
In the interview on the show ‘What The Duck’ with Vikram Sathaye in 2016, Dravid recalled the time from his early days in international cricket when a fan travelled all the way from Hyderabad just to meet him at his home in Bengaluru. She turned up at his house and Dravid’s parents, who liked their son interacting with his fans, were quite hospitable, offering her tea and snacks after letting her in.
Dravid, who had returned from a tour, was sleeping, but when he woke up, his parents informed him that the fan had come from Hyderabad to meet him and had been waiting for over an hour at their house.
“I thought it was going to be a simple [taking] autograph or photograph kind of thing,” Dravid said. After greeting and giving an autograph, he was taken aback by her refusal to leave. The fan insisted on staying at his place!
“She said, ‘No I am not going to go… I have left my house in Hyderabad. I have come here to stay here. I am not going to leave here,” he said.
He said he was a bit upset with his parents, but he said the issue eventually got sorted out after they involved the police and contacted the girl’s parents. “It ended quite well,” he said.
“It was a bit of a wake-up call for my parents as well. You don’t just let anyone in through the door,” he said as he laughed.
He said that in those days there was fan-following, but a ‘certain sense of innocence’ allowed a lot more interaction between players and fans.