GANGULY - THE WARRIOR

For any team sport, team spirit is an important factor that determines the morale of the team. If a team lacks a good chemistry between its players, however talented the players may be, it will fail. It is the responsibility of the Captain to infuse this unity and morale amongst the players. Team India needed this very badly in 2000. India’s star batsman and skipper Sachin Tendulkar had a poor form due to the captaincy pressure. When he decided to step down from captaincy, future looked gloomy for Indian team. To be frank, it was a period of struggle to Team India. When Sachin stepped down, Ganguly who was his deputy was chosen as an obvious choice. Sourav Ganguly captained the side in the ODI team. Being successful in both captaincy and his batting, Ganguly led India to a series victory. Following that India went into the Asia cup, but failed to make it to the finals. But real tragedy was the match fixing scandal that took fans by a shock. Especially considering the early days of his captaincy, it was a hurdle for Ganguly as well. But he wasn’t disturbed by that. He had the strong intent of building a young Indian team. Sourav Ganguly was very much instrumental in looping in some of the big names like Sehwag, Yuvraj, Kaif, Zaheer, Harbhajan and Nehra. Later, Dhoni was also introduced to Team India under Ganguly’s captaincy. Ganguly had a great fighting spirit which, he was able to successfully translate to the rest of the team. Be it the toss incident against Australia, or the T-shirt swirl at Lords, Ganguly always followed the tit for tat policy. I still remember the Russell Arnold incident, when Arnold ran in the danger area. Ganguly was aware of the spin threat of Lankan attack and immediately warned Russell Arnold for running through the danger area. Another important thing that happened to Indian cricket was the appointment of John Wright as the Indian coach. Ganguly and Wright had a very friendly relationship, which was very much evident in Team’s successful endeavors.

“John Wright was more of a friend than a coach” – Ganguly

When it comes to batting, he was one of the elegant southpaws. Though he was vulnerable to short balls, he was regarded as the god of offside. Be it the cover drives or square drives or the square cut, offside was his forte throughout his career. He was one another batsman, who was gifted with a very good hand eye coordination. When it comes to powerplay batting, people talk a lot about the likes of Kaluwitharana, Jayasurya. But Ganguly also belonged to the same league. He was very much capable of stepping down the track for fast bowlers to launch their deliveries in vacant outfield areas. He was a major threat to spinners as well, especially for right arm leggies and left arm off spinners as he launched them over the long-on or midwicket ropes with such authority.

“On the offside, first there is God then Sourav Ganguly “– Rahul Dravid

Ganguly’s career had a slight slump in 2004, when he lost his batting form. In addition, he had rift with the coach Greg Chappel, and he was dropped from the Indian team and Dravid was made the skipper. Yet he didn’t give-up. He fought hard for his comeback and he was successful in making a comeback. He once again proved that he was a fighter. With his strong attitude, he proved all his critics wrong by finding himself a name in the world test XI squad, which was announced by Cricinfo. He was prolific in both Tests and ODIs in his comeback. He scored his highest score in Test matches against rivals Pakistan in 2007. He also played his last ODI in the subsequent ODI series, before calling it the day. He ended his test series on a high note against Australia by scoring at an average in 54 in his last test series. Dhoni payed tribute to Sourav Ganguly by asking him to captain the side for final session. Later in a press conference Ganguly revealed that

“As the match came to a close, MS Dhoni in a surprise gesture asked me to lead. I had rejected his offer earlier in the day, but could not refuse a second time. Ironically, my captaincy career had begun exactly eight years ago on this very day”

Ganguly will always be remembered for the belief he infused in the team, for spotting the good talents and more importantly for widening the selection radar which has helped a lot of youngsters to groom themselves as match winners.

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADA