Cricket: 'I persuaded Dravid not to retire'

COLOMBO: Ricky Ponting claims he persuaded Rahul Dravid against retiring and the Indian batsman reciprocated the support when the Australian went through a lean patch. Dravid, the lone Indian batsman to perform well in the recent series against England, was out of form last year and Ponting said he encouraged the right-hander to carry on. "After our last series in India there was a lot of talk about Dravid being finished," said Ponting. "I told him 'don't you even think about retiring' because I saw stuff that suggested he was still a good player. I received similar messages after the Ashes from him."

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2011.