Caution, bumps ahead warns Dravid on Suryavanshi's early success

While the words of caution may have been specifically regarding Suryavanshi, it could very well be applicable to the mass factory of aspiring and talented cricketers coming through the system, joining cricket academies often as early as four-year-olds in search of early glory and fame. Early success, as many elite athletes have testified, does not guarantee ultimate joy. Martina Hingis, for example, one of the greatest tennis players of all time from Switzerland, had been moulded into a prodigy at a young age. Having started her training at the age of two she was participating in competitive tournaments two years later. The early induction into the sport was followed by early success. But all that fame and glory unfortunately came at a cost. By the age of 22, she retired from the sport for the first time with 13 grand slams, citing injuries and fatigue as the reasons. Till only a year earlier, she had rather proudly flaunted growing up as a lonely child and being obsessed with perfection in her sport. It's not the kind of situation that Dravid wants Suryavanshi to be in. While admitting that it would be difficult to keep Suryavanshi away from the forced attention, Dravid recognised the fact that a strong support system needs to be developed for the youngster to enjoy his sport. "I don't think they're going to be able to actually control everything. It's just recognising that this can happen, this is what happens and putting a certain level of support around that and supporting him and helping him to navigate all of this attention and still allowing him that space to be a youngster is going to be important. "That (excessive attention) is part of being a cricketer in this country, that somehow you learn to deal with it because it's impossible to completely distance yourself from it 100%. You don't want to get sucked into it completely as well. So finding that happy medium is probably the answer in this situation. And I think a lot of you (the media) can play that role as well. "Let's be realistic, in a game of cricket where you fail a lot, he's going to go through some ups and downs as well. So I think everyone can recognise that fact that he's going to have some success, he's going to have some failure and we're all going to have to be mindful of that, that he's a young man finding his way as well."