Rahul Signed as the Grand Ambassador for Skyline constructions

Bangalore city-based real estate developer Skyline Construction & Housing Pvt Ltd, signed Indian Cricket team Captain, Rahul Dravid as its brand ambassador. The Managing Director of Skyline Construction & Housing Pvt Ltd, Avinash Prabhu said “Rahul can truly showcase our company’s brand values. As a youth icon, he embodies reliability, diligence and dependability.”The shift came after another Bangalore-based real estate developer Nitish Estates made Australian cricketer Shane Warne as its brand ambassador.

This Construction Private Ltd.,currently has a property worth of Rs.1000 crore across Karnataka and has over seven million square feet area under construction and it would be ready for occupation in 18 months. Added to this,the company is finalising a 3.70 lakh sqft mall at Whitefield at a cost of Rs 75-80 crore. It has also has plans of setting up a hotel on Hosur road.
By twining in Rahul Dravid, the wall of the Indain Cricket team, Skyline's bond with the city had strengthened even as projects grew in number and popularity, said the director of Skyline Construction Dhiraj Prabhu,. he added that "The last few months have been crammed with activities as many projects are in the final stages of being rolled out in the market,"
Captain Rahul Dravid said Team India was looking forward to play good cricket on their the upcoming tour of South Africa.
"It's going to be important series for us. South Africa has been a very good tour to play good cricket. It's going to be good, tough cricket. As a team, we are looking forward to it," Dravid said at a function organised by Skyline Construction and Housing Pvt Ltd, who have signed the ace batsman as their brand ambassador.
Labels: Dravid, Rahul, Rahul Dravid, Wall of Indian Cricket team

International Career

• Dravid made his international debut in one-dayers against Sri Lanka in the Singer Cup in Singapore immediately after the World Cup in March 1996, replacing Vinod Kambli. After scoring just 21 runs in four matches , Dravid was dropped during the Sharjah tournament and did not play again until Sanjay Manjrekar was injured on the tour of England .
• With Manjrekar sidelined, he then made his debut in the Second Test against England along with Sourav Ganguly, scoring 95 . He held his position on Manjrekar's return for the Third Test, scoring 84. After moderate home series against Australia and South Africa, Dravid broke through on the 1996-97 tour of South Africa. He batted at No. 3 in the third Test in Johannesburg, scoring his maiden century with 148 and 81, the top score in each innings to claim his first man of the match award . He also finally made his

first half-century against Pakistan in the Sahara Cup in 1996, scoring 90 in his 10th ODI.

• In the 18 months ending in mid-1998, he played in an away series against the West Indies, home and away series against Sri Lanka and a home series against Australia, he scored consistently, with 964 runs at an average of 56.7. He scored eleven half-centuries but was unable to convert them to triple figures . He scored his second century in late 1998 against Zimbabwe in a one-off Test match, top-scoring in both innings with 148 and 44, but was unable to prevent an Indian defeat. He then became the third Indian batsman after Vijay Hazare and Sunil Gavaskar to score centuries in both innings of a match during the 1999 New Year's Test match against New Zealand with 190 and 103* to force a draw , batting for a total of 653 minutes. He had a moderate subcontinental season in early 1999, scoring 269 runs at 38.42 with one century before scoring 239 at 39.8 including a century against New Zealand in late 1999. This was followed by a poor away series against Australia and another poor home series against South Africa, accumulating just 187 runs at an average of 18.7. He then scored 200*, his first double century, against Zimbabwe in Delhi which along with 70* in the second innings helped India to victory. It was the first time he had passed 50 in 12 months and he followed this with a 162 in the following Test, giving him 432 runs in the two match series at an average of 432.

Criticism Against Rahul Dravid

• One of Dravid's most debated decisions was taken in March 2004, when he was standing in as captain for an injured Sourav Ganguly. The Indian innings was declared at a point when Sachin Tendulkar was at 194. In Dravid's defence, the media noted at the time that the decision had apparently been made by Ganguly, and Ganguly himself later admitted that it had been a mistake, the wording of the statement indicating that it had not been Dravid's call.
• Rahul Dravid has had a mixed record when leading India in Tests. India lost the Karachi Test in 2006, giving Pakistan the series 1-0. In March 2006, India lost the Mumbai Test, giving England its first Test victory in India since 1985, enabling Flintoff's men to draw the series 1-1. While the loss in Karachi could be put down to several Indian batsmen playing badly, the defeat in Mumbai was arguably the result of Dravid's decision to bowl first on a flat dry pitch which later deteriorated and ended with an Indian collapse in the run chase.
• After India failed to qualify for the Finals of the DLF Cup, Indian skipper Rahul Dravid was criticised by former all-rounder Ravi Shastri who said that he was not assertive enough and let Greg Chappell make too many decisions. When asked for a response, Dravid said that Shastri, while a 'fair critic', was 'not privy' to the internal decision-making process of the team.

Captaincy Achievements

^ Rahul Dravid led India to a historic test series win, against the West Indies in their home soil in 2006. Since 1971, India had never won a test series in the West Indies. This is also their first prominent series win outside the Indian subcontinent (barring the win against Zimbabwe in 2005) since 1986.
^ Under Dravid's captaincy the Indian team tied the previous record of most consecutive One-Day International wins for an Indian team (8).
^ During his captaincy the Indian team broke the 14 match West Indies record for most consecutive won matches in One-Day Internationals while chasing a total. For this 17 match run, Dravid was the captain for 15 matches and Sourav Ganguly was the captain for the other two. This streak was broken on 5/20/06, when India lost to the West Indies by one run, at Sabina Park, Jamaica.

Partnership Records

# The only batsman to have been involved in two ODI partnerships exceeding 300 runs.
# First batsman to be involved in a 300 run partnership along with Sourav Ganguly in the 1999 World Cup match against Sri Lanka at Taunton.
# Involved in the highest partnership in the history of ODI cricket with a 331 run partnership along with Sacin Tendulkar vs New Zealand at Hyderabad in 1999-2000.World Cup Records.
#He was the leading run scorer in the 1999 World cup with 461 runs.Highest score by a wicketkeeper in a World Cup.

Captaincy Records

# The highest winning percentage among all the captains who have captained their sides in at least 5 ODIs. He's won 23, lost 13 and had no result in 1 - this winning percentage of 62.16 displaces Ajay Jadeja's 61.54 .
# He is tied with Sachin Tendulkar in fourth place for having captained India in the most victorious matches.
# Has the highest ODI batting average as captain of 45.58 (as of 4/7/06), among all captains who have captained more than 10 ODIs.

Outstanding Innings in Test Matches
# 180 vs Australia at Kolkata, India in 2001 148 vs England at Leeds, UK in 2002 233 .
# 72* vs Australia at Adelaide,Australia in 2003 270 vs Pakistan at Rawalpindi, Pakistan in 2004 110 and 135 vs Pakistan at Kolkata, India in 2005 81 and 68 vs West Indies at Kingston, Jamaica in 2006

One Day Matches
# 126 vs New Zealand at Taupo, New Zealand, in 1998-99 145 vs Sri Lanka at Taunton, England, in 1999
# 153 vs New Zealand at Hyderabad, India, in 1999-2000

Test Record

*Dravid has the highest Test batting average among those who have scored over 8,000 Test runs. (September 2006) .

*Scored nearly 23% of the total runs put up by India (with a batting average of 102.84) in the 21 Test matches won under Ganguly's captaincy. This is the highest percentage contribution by any batsman in Test cricket history in matches won under a single captain where the captain has won more than 20 tests.

*Longest streak of consecutive Tests since debut (94) Only player to score a century against every Test playing nation away from home (until the ICC decides to add more nations to the list of Test playing nations his record can only be equalled, not broken).

*Involved in highest partnership made away from home for any wicket for India with vice captain Virender Sehwag of 410 runs vs Pakistan at Lahore in 2006 (the highest partnership between a captain and the vice captain).

*He is the fastest to reach 9000 runs in Test cricket. In all he took 176 innings to do this, bettering the previous record set by Brian Lara by 1 innings.

*He has the best career Test average among contemporary batsmen who have played at least 20 innings (58.75 after 104 Tests and 176 innings, just ahead of Ricky Ponting's 58.22 from 105 matches and 175 innings; as of 9th August 2006 Michael Hussey averages 75.93 after 19 innings).

*With scores of 50 or more in 7 consecutive Tests Dravid bettered the previous Indian record of 50+ scores in 6 consecutive Tests for a single batsman. This record was shared by Vijai Hazare, Chandu Borde,Sunil Gavaskar,Dilip Vengsarkar and Sadagoppan Ramesh. As of 4/7/06 this streak is unbroken.

*He is currently joint 4th along with Brian Lara among batsmen who have scored most away runs in Tests (5288 as of August 9th 2006). Only Sacin Tendulkar,Allan Border andVivian Richards have scored more away Test runs.

*Best career average among players who have played 100 or more Tests.

*Best away average among players who have played 50 or more away Tests. 9th batsman to score twin hundreds in a test twice, and only the 2nd Indian to do so, after Sunil Gavakar, 1st Indian to score 5 double hundreds, each bigger than the previous.

Minor Records

ODI

=>The first Indian to score a hundred in the Caribbean (105). (The previous record was 90 by Sunil Gavaskar

=>He has the highest score by an Indian captain against West Indies (In all countries) (105)

=>He has the highest score among any captain in the Caribbean (past and present of all countries) .

=>He has the record for least number of innings required to score 1000 runs against West Indies by an Indian (26) .

=>He is the leading Run scorer against West Indies for India.

Test

=>Was the first batsman to score 1000 runs in the 2006 calendar year.

=>Dravid is the seventh batsman to have both scores be the best in the match in which 40 wickets fell.

=>With 496 runs Dravid scored the most runs scored by an Indian captain on foreign soil in the 2006 tour of West Indies