The former India captain handed over his own game shirt with a handwritten thank-you note as Abhishek Bachchan's ETPL wrapped up its first season in Dublin.
Rahul Dravid doesn't hand out his own jersey to just anyone. So when the former India captain gifted Abhishek Bachchan his No. 19 shirt this week, complete with a handwritten note, it was worth pausing on.
The note read simply: "Dear Abhishek, thank you for your support to the game. Best always, Rahul Dravid." Short, personal, and enough to get cricket circles and Bollywood watchers talking at the same time.
The context is Abhishek's other job these days. He's the co-founder of the European T20 Premier League, launched alongside Saurav Banerjee, Priyanka Kaul and Dhiraj Malhotra, and the actor has spent the past week in Dublin as the tournament's inaugural season came down to the wire. Six franchises, representing Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands, competed through the group stage before the Qualifier on September 19 and the Final on September 20 closed out the league's first year.
Abhishek wasn't there for photo ops. Reports describe him overseeing operations and stakeholder engagements through the business end of the tournament, the unglamorous work of actually running a league rather than just fronting one.
And the ETPL has picked up some credibility along the way. The World Cricketers' Association reportedly said the league "sets the benchmark," a line the organisers will take as validation of the professional standards they've tried to build into the competition from the start. For a first-season tournament trying to carve out space on an already crowded European cricket calendar, that kind of endorsement matters more than most headlines.
Dravid's gesture fits into a pattern that's been building for a while now, of film industry figures putting money and time into sport rather than just showing up at IPL matches with a drink in hand. Abhishek has been vocal about backing sporting ventures for years. Getting a jersey off Dravid's back, though, with his own signature and a personal message, is a different order of endorsement than a courtesy handshake at a launch event.
Whether that translates into ETPL actually sticking around is the real question. First seasons are easy. Building something that survives past year one, with sponsors, broadcasters and players committing again next season, is the harder job. Dublin has hosted the debut, the Final is done, and now the league's organisers, Abhishek included, have to figure out what season two looks like and whether the momentum from a signed jersey and a cricket body's approval carries over into anything more concrete.
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