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“When my batting average started exceeding my school grades, I guessed the writing was on the wall,” says Rahul Dravid, explaining how he knew cricket would rule his life from his time at St. Joseph Boys High School in Bangalore. Growing up listening to cricket commentary on his father’s transistor, Dravid and his brother Vijay grew curious about this sport that his father loved. In this beautiful video, Rahul Dravid, who is known as “The Wall”, drives down memory lane to tell us how he turned into a cricketing star.

Dravid says his school team-mates were happy to have him in the team just because his mother used to make delicious chutney sandwiches, which she used to bring for the whole team. From winning his first Cottonian shield as the school captain to going to England for the first time, Dravid thanks his coach KK Tarapore, who mentored him throughout his initial cricket years.

Today, with 13288 test runs, Rahul Dravid is one of the greatest the sport has ever seen. He comes in at No 2 on the list of Indians with the most test runs, after Sachin Tendulkar, and is also at No 9 in the list of highest scorers in One Day Internationals.

With his class and discipline, Dravid has always inspired not just with his skill but also his leadership on the field. He became the first Indian to deliver the Bradman Oration in 2011, where Dravid spoke on a range of cricket matters, from the impact of the “great” Donald Bradman, to the importance of the sport in India, to the responsibility today’s players have as custodians of the game.

This speech, which Mark Nicholas later described as “mesmeric” started off with him saying “we cricketers devote the better part of our adult lives to being prepared to perform for our countries, to persist and compete as intensely as we can – and more. This building, however, recognizes the men and women who lived out the words – war, battle, fight – for real and then gave it all up for their country, their lives left incomplete, futures extinguished.”