Rahul Dravid's wife, Vijeeta, always kept a low-profile and played the role of his support system to perfection, but when he chose to call it a day, she revealed how cricket shaped up his life. In her tribute column for ESPNcricinfo, Vijeeta said: "I am his wife, not a fan, and the reason I am writing this is to give you an insight into the role cricket has played in his life, and to take that in for myself at the end of his 16-year international career."

"Just after we got married, I remember him saying to me that he hoped to play for 'the next three or four years', and that he would need me there to support him in that time. Now that he has retired, I think: 'Not bad. We've done far better than the three or four years we thought about in May 2003'," she said.

Vijeeta also wrote at length about how Rahul prepared for his match. "Cricket has been the centre of Rahul's world and his approach to every season and series has been consistent in all the time we have been married. Methodical, thoughtful and very, very organised. When I travelled with him for the first time, in Australia in 2003-04, I began to notice how he would prepare for games - the importance of routines, and his obsession with shadow practice at odd hours of day or night. I found that weird. Once, I actually thought he was sleepwalking," she wrote.

Vijeeta revealed that on match days, Rahul wanted his space and his silence. He didn't like being rushed, not for the bus, not to the crease. She also disclosed the superstitious side of Rahul. "Like all players, Rahul has his superstitions. He doesn't try a new bat out for a series, and puts his right thigh pad on first. Last year before the Lord's Test, he made sure to sit in the same space Tillakaratne Dilshan had occupied in the visitors' dressing room when he scored nearly a double-hundred earlier in the season. Rahul scored his first hundred at Lord's in that game," she revealed.

No cricket fan as ever seen Monk-like Dravid lose his cool, but Vijeeta said that though only dropped catches upset him, he once got angry because the team lost badly. "Only once, I remember, he returned from a Test and said, 'I got a bit angry today. I lost my temper. Shouldn't have done that.' He wouldn't say more. Many months later, Viru (Sehwag) told me that he'd actually thrown a chair after a defeat to England in Mumbai. He'd thrown the chair, Viru said, not because the team had lost but because they had lost very badly."

She said cricket has made Dravid a person that he is. "Cricket has made Rahul who he is, and I can say that he was able to get the absolute maximum out of his abilities as an international cricketer." "What next for him? I know he likes his routine and he's in a good zone when he is in his routine, so we will have to create one at home for him. Getting the groceries could be part of that. A cup of tea in the morning for his wife would be a lovely bonus, I would think, particularly now that he doesn't have to take off for the gym or for training at the KSCA at the crack of dawn," she said.