Rahul Dravid's day out in Dublin: Visits Adamstown CC and interacts with local cricketers

The European T20 Premier League completed its six-team franchise line-up at a landmark event in Dublin, where Rahul Dravid was officially unveiled as owner of the Dublin Guardians franchise ahead of the league's 2026 launch. It was the kind of announcement that filled sports desks across the cricketing world. A legend of the game had looked at European cricket and decided it was his time to give back.

“What attracted me to ETPL was the larger vision behind it, the opportunity to help grow cricket in Europe by strengthening grassroots development and creating pathways for emerging talent across Ireland and Europe. Dublin already has a passionate cricketing community and enormous potential for growth. Nurturing the next generation has always been important to me, and I believe ETPL can play a meaningful role in that journey,” the former Indian batter was quoted in a media release.

Nurturing the next generation. Grassroots. Pathways for emerging talent. These were not abstract ideals in Dublin.

A mere day after the announcement, he visited Adamstown Cricket Club in Dublin to interact with the budding cricketers there. He was joined by Cricket Ireland Men’s International players Andrew Balbirnie, Tim Tector and Barry McCarthy.

The Club has been growing organically since 2009. It wasn't built on star signings or broadcast deals. It was built on the conviction that cricket could belong to everyone and promotes sportsmanship, equality, and is open for all, with the explicit aim of making cricket affordable and reaching all sections of the community. Today, that mission has produced multiple adult and youth teams for both male and female categories, across all age groups competing in the Irish Leinster league.

That is the grassroots Dravid is talking about.

As India's Under-19 coach, his tenure produced a generation of players who went on to represent the senior side and carry forward the habit of winning that was instilled in them. He has seen firsthand how sustained mentorship at a formative stage can shape an entire career trajectory. The ETPL, for Dravid, is that same instinct applied to a new geography.

For clubs like Adamstown, the league's arrival could represent exactly that kind of inflection point. When a twelve-year-old from the club watches Dublin Guardians take the field at Malahide, in a league backed by the man who coached India to an ICC Men’s T20 World Cup victory, something shifts. Cricket at the highest level stops being a foreign idea and comes right to their doorstep.

In Adamstown, the next generation is already on the pitch. They have been there since 2009, training on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, winning Junior Cups and Division titles, building something from nothing in a suburb that didn't ask for permission to love cricket.

Dravid has now told them, in his careful, considered way, that the feeling is mutual.

The talent, he said, is there, it always was.