If Anil Kumble was the colossus, Sachin Tendulkar the champion, Rahul Dravid the craftsman, VVS Laxman the sorcerer, then Ganguly was the inspiration. These were the words described in an article I read in CricInfo and so true are these…
Sourav Chandidas Ganguly, proudly know as “Dada” by Indian fans “Maharaj” in Bengal and “the God of offside” in the cricketing fraternity took a bow yesterday from International Cricket. This mans greatness and hunger for success reflects in his own way of loving the sport. With a fine gesture from MSD, who allowed him to lead the side the very last time in the last minutes of the game, still reflected that this man is not over yet, and he responded to the gesture with same passion as he captained India in his prime.
Dada, in his career has been loved and hated by so many in the same breath, and in this cricket fanatic country, with so impatient & ungrateful fans, and amongst the political clout of BCCI, having played 113 test match and scoring 7000+ runs with an average of 42; is a great career for any cricketer who aspires to play for India.
I have been a Dada fan, from the very beginning, and he was the one who raised the bar of Indian cricket as a team, which at one point was dominated by individual performance, to a level, where these boys were hungry for success, and just not playing to gallery or record books. He infused that passion, that killer instinct, and the conviction that India could take bold decision and live up to it.
There were many, who misunderstood “dada”; be it his team, critics, selectors, or we as fans. It was disheartening to see people commenting and writing him off every time his bat did not click or his game plan back fired. I hope we as fans where so impatient and fanatic with our government machinery and politics, rather than just Cricket. I remember taking “dada’s “ side every time discussions came up, and the funny part was people always spoke about cricketing averages and numbers for all players except dada, who basically ran into an emotional quotient of his fans and critics which oozed out emotions which may or may not be logical!!
For everyone’s clarifications, here are some of his stats, you may like to revisit.
These figures were the least referred figures probably in his charismatic career, while speaking in context, and his antics were more popular all through his life. Be it his “shirt off” antic at Lords, or his “not so good running between the wicket”, or his “fitness” or his “dadagiri” as a captain but end of the day it was this man who taught us how to win abroad, and a great person like Kumble approves of that. It was this man who believed in his few good men and groomed them to be pillars of Indian cricket today. It was this man, who led a team which came so close to repeat the heroics of 1983.
Today when he goes, he leaves a vacuum in the international cricket, he may not leave too many records behind for people to chase, but he surely leaves a legacy in cricket and is an inspiration to many individual from various walks of life, not just cricketer with his fighting spirit and never say attitude.
For me he was an enigma who shall be missed on the international cricket, and I salute this great man of Indian Cricket and wish him the best!!
“Dada, we’ll Miss you” …
2 comments:
As a late admission to engineering school(classes started in October and I joined in late December),i stood out like a sore thumb.The ragging energies of seniors were about to be revived and there was only Amit, Debashish, Anik and myself to concentrate on.Fortunately I had two highschool mates who had joined in time and were therefore "experienced" by then.
I got to know that there were a couple of senior(which meant the college team)versus junior(freshers) cricket matches which had already been played by then and we had lost both of them horribly.One of my mates from school was our opening strike bowler.No wonder we were loosing the matches as that guy had only been spotted playing hand-cricket type games in the 12 years at school.Fortunately my mates from school recommended my name to our "captain"(one of the pushy UP guys who couldnt bat or bowl but would nevertheless insist on opening both...he got his way because of his language more than anything else).
So the match was at 6am and I was dragged out.We fielded first and after half the innings the captain asked me to bowl.It was the first time i was bowling with tennis balls in Karnataka.The differnece is they are much lighter than the ones we used in Bengal.So the more you involved your shoulder, the more near your feet it would land.It did not take me much time to realize it and i shifted to the Sachin type seem-ups with the occasional cutters to cut the pace off.It gave dividends and I bagged a couple of wickets along with an amazing catch in the outfield running and diving forward in the gravel and getting a piece of cloth torm off my track pant in the process.Adequately warmed up by now I awaited my turn to bat.The target was stiff(i think we had to get more than 8 an over)but not impossible if the grey matter was utilized.My captain went first and came back first as well and by the second over we lost another.I insisted on batting at the top(i wanted to control the innings from the beginning)and got my way and went in at 4.The first ball I faced was outside the off stump and I let it go.By the reactions of people around I gathered it was the first time someone had let a ball go on that field.I proceeded to get my eye-in as I had always done in my life while wickets at the other end kept falling.Fortunately I got a bong(who would go on to be a great friend till date)coming in at 6 0r 7.He couldnt hold the bat right but at least I could communicate a few things to him in the sense I wanted it to be taken.What followed after that prompted the college team captain(a burly surd who doubled up as the opening fast bowler and wicketkeeper in that game)to ask me from behind the stumps after ten minutes,"Where are you from?"."Calcutta...Bengal",I said."They play cricket there?","I thought you bongs only played football."(thats why you are a surd..I said to myself)"You look like you have played professionally?",he went on."I have", I lied.Tanmoy(my bong friend)and me went on to stitch an unbeaten winning partnership with him not out on 50odd and myself unbeaten on 87.I repeated the feat in the next match as well and they were trounced again.They suddenly realized that they had to study after those two matches and never played with us again.
What made me go crazy was what the people of India thought about cricket in Bengal.Thank God "DADA" played that innings at Lords just months after that.He sent the message to the whole country, which I had been able to send to a few people in a nondescript engg college in B'lore...Thats Dada to me.....and thats how important he was to his people.Now we go around cricket stadiums and the moment they get to know we are bongs they widen their smile and say "DADAAA...."....Thank you Saurav Chandidas Ganguly...Thanks a lot:)
For those who may be guessing who this 87 N.O is, its my good friend from school Somit Biswas!! Great job Bisu!!
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