Ganguly

For the past few months, Ganguly baiting has become a fashionable statement. Anyone and everyone who has or has not played/coached/commented/watched cricket has a view and here is mine. Let me say at the very beginning, that I was never a Ganguly Fan.

After seeing him score a century at lords on debut and then following it up with another in the same series, I remember the hula-hoop surrounding him when he came back to Calcutta. I remember vividly, the interview given by his brother to Sportstar, where he said that they were getting about 100 calls a day on their Home Phone from crazed girls and how they were changing their number. He had become One of the few Bongs who was made it B’time in the past decade and was given a Demigod status.

From about ’97 to 2000, he played in numerous tests and one-dayers and if people with a short memory cannot recall, this was the time of the infamous match-fixing controversy but Ganguly was quietly making a name for himself and in those days of individual-glory rather than team work, he was one of the stars of the Indian team. Now I wondered after the Azhar and Sachin Captaincy saga, why Jadeja was not chosen captain especially since he had started to play tests and was well liked by the Indian Media. Soon after Ganguly was given the captaincy, the match-fixing scandal broke through and all of us had the answer to the question.

After this came the Nagma Episode and with the Australians in Town, it lead to a lot of questions about Ganguly’s Character. But India won that series convincingly and even though Ganguly followed it up with other successes, they all came with a silver lining as every commentator believed that with the team India had, we had to perform better and India was not doing that because of Ganguly’s captaincy.

Now that’s where the HOG starts, if India did well in those days (Natwest series-World Cup-Australian Series-Pakistan Series). It was because Ganguly believed in an individual’s talent and went all out supporting him. This leads to self belief within a team and the confidence that if he went all out and if he failed, he would still have a place in the team. This lead to players like Sehwag, Yuvraj, Kaif, Harbajan, Zaheer, Nehra and Balaji emerging from the shadows and performing outstandingly well for India. The only downside of this was that Ganguly was playing favourites and this lead to ego-clashes with former players and discontent among emerging talent in the country that they were being ignored.

If you ask me, that can and must be done. Case in point Mike Hussey vs. Justin Langer and the Australian selectors got it right when they went for a seasoned performer and look at where they are now. As for the former players, they had always underachieved and could not bear to see a person who did not care a hoot about what they thought but merely looked after his team. Former players like Sunny Gavaskar (remember his 36 in 60 overs), Ravi Shastri (one of the most selfish players ever to represent India), Sidhu (Do I have to say anything?) and Manjerekar (On Ten Sports yesterday, he had the tenacity to say that Pakistanis in a Sharjah Final were like Lions and we could not do anything against them. What were you, Sanjay? A moron? Hmmmm For Once i agree)

Now I am sure that all of you would have read about Ganguly’s bad qualities in tons of articles. Let me see if I can mention a few good ones.
1. Ganguly, as we all know is a fabulous opener but when the situation demanded in the world cup, he made way for Sehwag and Sachin.
2. Never say die Attitude, I can recall many matches won just because of that.
3. Dealing with Superstars, both Sachin and Dravid gave some of their best performances with him as Captain.
4. Dealing with Youngsters, As I said before “He made the careers of Half the Current Indian Team”
5. Getting under the Skin of rival Captains and coaches. Anyone recall Steve Waugh and his infamous “Ganguly is not a friend”
6. Making his views on anything clear…..ahem crystal clear.
7. Removing you shirt at Lords. One of the few everlasting impressions in Indian Cricket. And yet people ridiculed him for doing that, calling him unsporting and Not acting like a Gentleman(Gavaskar). I would tell Gavaskar as a Cricket Lover, that i prefer a bare-chested victory Salute rather than an Insipid defeat.
8. Bouncing back from adversity. Remember Nagma, Injury, Suspension and now Politics.
I am sure he will be back. May not be as successful again but that’s not the point. He’s a fighter who taught India never to wilt under pressure and had a true Lion’s Heart, which he wore on his sleeve.
So here’s Saluting India’s greatest Ever Captain.