Dressed immaculately, as he always is, in a tie and formal blazer, Dravid showed preparation is still the key as he read out a 'self-prepared' speech on an interesting topic - 'Oral traditions in cricket'.
He spoke about how anecdotes and advice from 'seniors' is still an essential part of growing up for cricketers at a time when technology arms the player with every nugget of information.
In a speech laced with humour, Dravid had everyone in splits with his responses to questions from the audience. A few BCCI officials had reportedly blamed the wives and girlfriends of Indian players after the team faltered in the Test series against England.
Responding to a query on whether partners should be allowed to travel with the team, he quipped: "Since I'm married, I would say yes. Wives, girlfriends, or a partner of any gender should be allowed, because the Indian team travels for almost the entire year. You can't start blaming them for the players' poor performance. In fact, if you don't allow them, that would be a bigger problem!"
Stating that he loved interacting with the Indian team ahead of the Test series in England, Dravid shot down the notion that team's 'gen-next' doesn't care about Test cricket.
"Guys like (Ajinkya) Rahane, (Virat) Kohli and (Cheteshwar) Pujara don't ask me questions about T20, but they keep asking me about Test cricket. I think they do care a lot about it."
Dravid does feel, though, that the current players' connect with history needs to be better.
"They are always willing to talk about it, but their touch with history is not as good as it should be. They live in the age of Internet. They are willing to watch a YouTube clip about (Sunil) Gavaskar batting, but they won't go deep to research about it," he said.
Dravid had sympathy for Pakistan off-spinner Saeed Ajmal, who has been suspended due to an illegal action.
"We shouldn't look at chucking as a crime. It's like no-ball. Nobody says you are cheating. You should allow the bowler to correct their action and return to the game," he felt.
The former India skipper had kind words for the ICC too, which has been under fire for not barring Ajmal from the game earlier.
"The ICC has a rule in place. When they reviewed a lot of old footage, they found a lot of bowlers, including (former Aussie pace great) Glenn McGrath, also having a 'bend,' but he wasn't chucking. I am glad they are strict about this. They have kept it consistent."
Fearing that "ODI cricket without a context would struggle," the 41-year-oldcalled for an end to "meaningless one-day games."
Though he almost ducked the question, Dravid also dropped enough hints that he would be ready to coach India someday.
"There's a time and place for everything. I've enjoyed being in the media and mentoring Rajasthan Royals. In future, I would love to be the coach of the Indian team or even a Ranji team," he said.
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