BCCI to felicitate Dravid next week

The BCCI will felicitate veteran batsman Rahul Dravid in Mumbai on March 27.

"The BCCI will felicitate Mr. Rahul Dravid on Tuesday, 27 March 2012, at the Seaside Lawns, Taj Land's End, Bandra, Mumbai," the Board said in a release.

The ceremony will be attended by the Indian team, former captains and cricketers, members of Dravid's family, and current and former office-bearers of the BCCI.

Dravid, the second most prolific batsman in the game's history and India's middle-order bulwark for years, bid adieu to cricket, bringing down the curtains on a glorious 16-year career on March 9.

The 39-year-old, a former captain, became the first of the three ageing greats of Indian cricket, besides Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman, to retire in the aftermath of India's disastrous Test tour of Australia.

Dravid ended his Test career with 13,288 runs -- behind only Tendulkar (15,470 in 188 Tests) -- in 164 matches, with 36 hundreds and 63 half centuries at an average of 52.31, the 270 against Pakistan being his highest score.

Initially considered a liability in the one-day arena, he re-invented his game over the years to meet the demands of the shorter format which he played from April 1996 to September 2011. He scored 10,889 runs from 344 ODIs with 12 centuries and 83 half centuries at an average of 39.16.

Photograph: Stringer India / Reuters