Tribute to a true Champion- Sourav Ganguly

Sourav Ganguly always has this uncanny knack of being so very unpredicatable. Every now and then a fellow feels like tearing off his shirt and waving it around or punching in the air that would do Mike Tyson proud. Of all places, Sourav Ganguly responded to the urge at Lord's, holiest of cricketing holies. So much for decorum... Every now and then a fellow feels an insult coming on. Ganguly was the only Indian captain who never hold himself back in calling spade a spade, He never shared a great relationship with Steve Waugh- the captain of Australia in famous series of 2001. So much for deference. Typically it started as a misjudgment and became an amusement that turned into a strategy.

Ganguly did not mind directing the fire at himself. What could they do? Bowl bouncers? Already every fast bowler worth his salt had tried to knock off his head. He had no lordly lineage but he walked and talked as he pleased, not exactly trying to provoke opponents but unwilling to deny himself. He did not give much ground to the modern game, with its fitness and diving and running between wickets and morning training and all that rot. It was brave of him to remain apart, for it left him exposed to ridicule, forced him to justify himself. But Ganguly was not scared of the pressure. Perhaps he needed the extra pressure. And, just in case, he had the populist touch. If Anil Kumble was the colossus, Sachin Tendulkar the champion, Rahul Dravid the craftsman, VVS Laxman the sorcerer, then Ganguly was the inspiration.

It has been an astonishing career. Some men prefer to follow a predictable path and their stories tell of a slow rise to the top and an equally measured decline. To that end instinct is subdued, contention avoided and risk reduced. That has been altogether too dull for Ganguly. Throughout he has toyed with his fate, tempting it to turn its back on him so that once again he could surprise the world with a stunning restoration. Something in him rebelled against the mundane and the sensible. He needed his life to be full of disasters and rescues, and comebacks and mistakes and memorable moments. To hell with the prosaic. At heart he is a cavalier, albeit of mischievous persuasion.

Taken as a whole, his contribution has been a triumph. It is no small thing for a boy from Kolkata to make it in Indian cricket. Till then local players were regarded as soft touches, and Ganguly himself was so categorised in his early days. Whereas the Mumbai-ites had risen through a rigorous system and the outstation boys had fought every inch of the way, the Bengalis seemed to lack the toughness required to make the grade. Ganguly changed all that. Indeed it was one of the many tasks he set himself. Always he has pitted himself against presumption and always he has prevailed.

Heavens, he even managed to time his departure as sweetly as ever he did any cover-drive. Before the series began he disarmingly announced that these four Tests against Australia were going to be his last. At a stroke his announcement put an end to speculation that he might lose his place. Ganguly is shrewder than he pretends. Just for a day or so it seemed that he might not get his way as reports spread of indiscreet remarks supposedly made about Robin Uthappa's hair, but Ganguly disowned the comments, even the splendid one about "every Tom, Dick and Harry" playing in the team. And so, once again, he lived to fight another day. Mind you, he let them hang in the air for 72 hours! That was typical Ganguly: at once the hero and the villain. He has been a great player whose career tells of determination and perseverance. As a batsman he played numerous influential innings. Often he was at his best on the game's greatest stages (including Lord's, where he first made his mark) or when the chips were down. Then he could concentrate. Ganguly was not a collector of runs but a match player. Such men cannot be judged only in terms of tallies.

As captain he was an uplifting figure prepared to stand up for his players. It is easily forgotten that his captaincy started with Indian cricket at its lowest ebb. He became captain when Indian team was in dark shadows of match fixing and team was in a rebuilding process after Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja were banned having been involved in match fixing. Top order was not stable. Middle order had lot of vacant slots waiting to be filled. Bowling was pretty much innocuous except the duo of Srinath and Kumble and there were not too many fast bowlers in domestic cricket who were not good enough to play at the highest level. Mind you, he didn’t had any good wicket-keeper batsman like MS Dhoni or any decent all-rounder.

It was his unorthodox nature and understanding of the game that tempted him to be innovative. He wasn’t afraid of trying new things. Be it shifting Virender Sehwag (middle order player then) to the opening slot or playing Dravid as a regular wicket-keeper in big tournament like World Cup 2003. He was a born leader who always stood by his players and team. He always gave youngsters many a chance to prove themselves. It was under his regimen that India got players like Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, MS Dhoni, Ashish Nehra, Gautam Gambhir etc. I remember a famous incident of 2001 Australian series when India lost 1^st test match against Australia in Mumbai. Selectors were a bit circumspect about including VVS Laxman and Harbhajan Singh in the Indian squad. It was Ganguly who had an altercation with the selectors and he finally succeeded to have them squad and we all remember how well they both performed in that Australian series.

However, a due credit must be given to John Wright as well. He along with Ganguly just changed the attitude of whole team. Before their regimen Indians were termed as “Tigers at home and chokers abroad”. They just didn’t had the self belief to win matches abroad. Sourav along with coach John Wright ignited the candle of self-belief and a never say die attitude that they can win all over the world. It was in their era that Indian team got the name “TEAM INDIA”. Ganguly had a support of resolute and principled bunch of cricketers. They needed someone to blow the bugle and Ganguly obliged. That is leadership. Alone among the cricketing nations, his Indian side repeatedly troubled the Australians. Under his leadership the team prevailed in England, daring to bat first on a Headingley greentop. Indeed the very image of Indian cricket changed - a process started by Sunil Gavaskar and completed by Ganguly and companions. No longer does anyone talk about timidity against fast bowling or languishing overseas. Driven in varying degrees by pride and professionalism, the now-departing generation acknowledged these weaknesses, confronted them and corrected them.

Always Ganguly was in the thick of it. No matter how often he was discarded he bounced back. No matter how frequently his cricketing obituary was written he found a way back into the team. At times he seemed to relish the headlines forecasting his imminent and final downfall. He is not by nature defiant. It is too petty an emotion. Just that he liked to prove doubters wrong. Criticism spurred him on. Otherwise he was inclined to become lethargic. He revelled in his reputation as an independent man who lived and played by his own lights.

He is not a man easily pinned down. Although it is never wise to suppose a man can be caught in a single adjective, it is much easier with his contemporaries. To watch Rahul Dravid or Virender Sehwag or Anil Kumble play is to know a large part of them. Ganguly liked to keep people guessing. Perhaps it is his background. Is it possible that the son of a wealthy businessman might have had some reservations, even embarrassment, about becoming a professional cricketer? Deep down Ganguly belonged to the old days, not so much of aristocracy as of ease. He cast himself as a sportsman, a player of games, and on the surface did not take it too seriously. And yet the fires of competition burned hot.

In some respects he has been a rebel, against the expectations of his origins, against dutiful modern ways, against the patronizing of his country. But he is too large a figure to be motivated by anything as shriveling as anger. Rather he has been a creative force in the game. As a batsman he was full of neatly executed strokes. It was not in his nature to brutalise the ball. Nor was he a poet caressing it with a delicate touch. Neither extreme attracted him in the slightest. Instead he stroked the ball, guiding it between fieldsmen or lifting it over their heads. It looked effortless but some men like to hide the strain. He has an unusual and unconventional mind. Often he will make the remark that raises eyebrows, causes people to stop and think. After all the hullabaloo of the travesty in Sydney, his stepped back and said that it had shown "how desperately the Australians want to win". All India was in a rage and yet a part of him respected that unbridled determination to prevail. He saw the meaning of the whole thing. Indeed he must have taken satisfaction from it. Australia has worked themselves into a lather over beating India. The rivalry had been largely his creation. And India had stood its ground. He had played his part in that as well.

Ganguly was at his most effective against the Australians. Somehow he sensed that the two nations had a lot in common, though they knew it not. But he felt that his players were unduly intimidated by the reputations and muscularity of these opponents. Accordingly he set out to convince them that the Aussies were human and could be beaten. In India he turned up late for the toss, a cheekiness that began as an accident and became an amusing tactic. It worked. The Australians became riled and started to play the man and not the ball. They had fallen into Ganguly's trap. His players could see that he was neither scared nor scarred, and enjoyed plucking the giant's beard. As captain Ganguly understood the value of gestures, the importance of appearances.

By no means, though, was it all gestures. Ganguly was the real thing, or else he could not have carried his players along with him. In Australia in 2003-04 he knew that his struggling team needed him to lead the way in the critical hour with a captain's innings and in Brisbane he promptly produced a rousing, valorous hundred on a lively pitch against a rampant attack. It was this performance that confirmed, once and for all, that Ganguly was not as fragile as he seemed. A twig can be snapped but not even a tempest can uproot a tree. It also secured the respect of his initially reluctant opponents, who know a fighter when they see one. As far as the Aussies were concerned, Lord Snooty had earned his stripes. It is one thing to talk, quite another to follow up with deeds.

And now he leaves the scene. Although he has batted with silky serenity in this series, it is the right time to go. A man has only so many struggles in him. A player's supporters have only so many battles in them. Perhaps in the last few days of his career he will play his part in India's greatest cricketing feat, the downing of Australia not by miraculous deed but sustained ruthlessness. If so it will be no more than he deserves. Ganguly served with distinction and leaves Indian cricket in a much better state than he found it. He will leave behind him the legacy that won’t be easy to fill. I wish him all the very best for his future endeavors. May god bless him and give him a lot of success. Looking forward to see him in IPL and then as a coach of the Indian Team J.

End of the Gangulian Era

10th October 2008

Sourav Ganguly, one of the finest left handers India has ever produced is retiring after test series against Australia. First of all I would like to congratulate Sourav for such a fantastic career and his tremendous contribution to Indian cricket. The decision really caught me off-guard as soon as saw the news. I was seriously hoping and praying if it was not true but it was. I must confess that he has had a huge impact on my life. There are so many things that I have learned from him over the years. May be timing of his call was not the perfect one but that’s the way it goes. He was just not himself after being dropped from the Rest of India squad against Delhi. The age was not on his side to make a comeback again which he is famous for over the years, be it a come back in 1996 against England at Lords where he scored the most elegant hundred that you will ever see or against the might South Africans in December 2006. One of his great qualities was his self-belief. He showed the Indian team what it takes to win overseas. His image will always be of a leader who showed his team how to believe in themselves.

Sourav had to struggle for each and everything he has achieved. At times life has really been unfair to him. His first love has always been football. How he started playing cricket is a different story itself. His brother Snehashish Ganguly was a Ranji cricketer of Bengal. Sourav used to attend the practice sessions along with his brother. He is a right hander naturally but he eventually took guard as a left hander. Who would have imagined that this young block will turn into one of the greatest cricketers of all time. Young Sourav started taking his cricket seriously and was selected for Bengal squad against Rajasthan. His brother, then the captain of Bengal was dropped and Sourav was included in his place. It was really a paradox situation for him. He was happy to be selected for Bengal on one side, on other side he was sad because his brother was dropped. Playing in his first Ranji match he scored a fine hundred against Rajasthan and he had scored tons of runs. The selectors couldn’t ignore him anymore and he was selected for the tour down under in a tri-series against Australia and West Indies. He played just one match against West Indies and he was dropped from the Indian team, the reason has still been a mystery to many. Some said that he is not a good team-man, some said that he refused to carry drinks onto the field as a 12^th man. Just 19 then, Sourav put all that behind him and started working hard but he had to wait for 4 long years to make a comeback. He was selected for the England tour in 1996 for 3 test match series. There was lot of speculations regarding his selection. Some said that he made it to the squad because of the Quota System. Many eyebrows were raised and there was lot of speculation on his selection. But Ganguly silenced all his crictics by scoring an exquisite 131 on his debut. After India had lost the first test match, Sanjay Manjrekar was dropped from the playing 11 and Navjot Singh Sindhu left the tour in between for some personal reason. That gave chance to 2 legends Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid to make their test debut in Lords test match. Sourav’s hundred at Lords was followed by another 134 in the 2^nd test at Edgabaston. Sourav proved his ability with the ball too by sneaking 6 wickets in the series. It was start of a new era. He formed a formidable opening partnership with Sachin Tendulkar which has been the most successful opening pair in the history of One day Cricket with over 20 hundred run partnerships. Indeed dada has been a true champion, a great player, great captain who will always be remembered for his never say die attitude. Dada has achieved everything and I hope to see him going on a higher note. He will leave behind him the legacy that won’t be easy to fill. I wish him all the very best for his future endeavors. Dada Rocks!! :) … He might be retiring from International cricket but he will never retire from our hearts.

Selectors or "Bunch of Jokers"

I actually wonder y sourav dada was not born in England... becoz if he had been then surely he wud have been called "SIR Sourav Ganguly"... but dada's omission is not so surprising becoz this is the best exit that we INDIANS give to great players.. eg. kapil dev, azhar etc...

Here is a player who has proved himself in each and every role.. a great team man(may b some wont agree but its truth that he even fought wid selecters for Sehwag and bhajji when he was the captain) , a great motivater who always lead from front, a man who made a tremendous comeback of all time in the history of world cricket..Wat was his mistake? His mistake is that he is born in india... and not england where even a fussy player who somehow managed to score 6000 test runs and not even 1000 ODI runs is also treated as all time great (Best example Michel Atherton)..

Surely dada has done enough in last year or so after his comeback both in ODIs and tests.. Selectors said that they want a better fielding side.. now plz some1 tell me how gud a fielder is sehwag? He didnt even score enough runs that he could have been a strong contender.. Its time that we shud all raise our voice against this injustice... such a great player shud not be treated so shabbily... He deserves a Grand exit and its upto us to do something for Dada who has done so much for us..

LONG LIVE SOURAV!!

All hail Lord Snooty

Few called him arrogant, few called him Lord Snooty, few called him selfish. Love him or hate him but you can't ignore him, Sourav Ganguly has seen it all and is all set to play his 100th test match. That is some achievement.



Ganguly’s comeback is the stuff of fairy tales.

There were some silly insinuations about the reasons he wanted to carry on playing and one of them being the money aspect. Ganguly comes from a family that has a good business running successfully for a long time still and so that would have been the last of the reasons that he wanted to continue playing. Ironically, that accusation of playing for money comes from people who haven’t exactly had successful businesses themselves and who are prepared to come to places where there is an anti feeling against them.
There were some other good performances too, especially from the batsmen with Yuvraj scoring a scorching century in his come back to the India team and also a finely compiled century from another comeback man Irfan Pathan, who also suffered like Ganguly but kept persisting with his efforts to make it back in the Test squad.
Then, just across the waters in Sri Lanka, that ultimate stylist Mahela Jayewardene painted an innings of such brilliant strokes that England looking to level the series had to take evasive action to save the Test and stay in the Series. Some stubborn batting from their captain Michael Vaughan and the weather helped them to salvage a draw and keep their hopes alive. Muralidharan captured yet another fiver and for Ishant Sharma it was his first in Test cricket so the bowlers too had their say.
The Prince of Kolkata was on the verge of joining a select list of those who have got a double century and a century in the same Test match but was agonizingly dismissed 9 short of the mark. Still that Test match and the Series belonged to only him.


I wish him all the best for the future and i hope he continues to serve India for a long time..

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