Sourav Ganguly: A misundertstood soldier
Diganta Guha
It was a first-class match at the Eden Gardens in the ’90s. Sourav Ganguly was adjudged out by an umpire’s decision, which, he thought, was not correct. He was fuming with anger and frustration while on his way back to the dressing room. In a fit of rage, he threw down his gloves. Present at the venue was a man called Kapil Dev Nikhanj who was not impressed at this show of disillusionment by Ganguly and ‘showered’ him with criticism. Cut to November, 2008 —the Board of Control for Cricket in India felicitation in Nagpur. Ganguly in his speech said, “Over the past 12-13 years I’ve made good friends and made some enemies, but it was all for the good of Indian cricket and, hopefully, you’ve enjoyed walking the path with me.” The arrogance is gone and replaced by a suavity that has earned him a place in cricket’s Hall of Fame. For many, Ganguly’s career was over after he had returned from the tour Down Under in 1992. There were reports of his refusal to go to the ground with the drinks bottle. His attitude problem only got him brickbats. Most would have given up hopes, but not the “Prince of Calcutta” as the former English cricketer, Geoff Boycott fondly calls him. Four years thenceforth it was the same man who scored a ton in his debut Test and followed it up with another. Yes, Sourav Ganguly had arrived. A reincarnated player sans the so-called arrogance, Ganguly caught the attention of the cricketing world. A new-found confidence and a killer instinct marked his comeback into international cricket. His elegant style and superb timing of shots made him instantly famous. And the rest is history. One would have to thank the then selectors for dropping Ganguly for the 1992 World Cup. Was he really prepared to play for India that time at the expense of the likes of Ajay Jadeja and Vinod Kambli who were in much better form? There would be innumerable debates over this, but, honestly speaking, the responsibility of the India Cap was probably thrust upon him a bit too early. Ganguly was a fighter to the core. And it is this fighting spirit that has earned him adulation and respect all over the world. It is true that his arrogance has been his bane in the beginning of his career, but with time, it was the same attitude that changed the complexion of Indian cricket. They call him the most successful Indian Test captain. When one sits to examine the reason behind India’s glorious run under his leadership, it is that belief that “We are no inferior to anybody,” which has done the trick. He made his team see eye-to-eye with Steve Waugh’s mighty Australians in 2001. Think of the NatWest triumph in 2002 when he waved his shirt at the Lord’s balcony which raised eyebrows of the conservative cricket experts. Ganguly’s gesture was actually a signal that “Indian cricket is ready to face any storm.” Before Ganguly’s elevation to the coveted post, we were very poor visitors, but it was under him that things changed. A captain who put his team’s interest over anything else including his own form is how he should be described as. Yes, he courted one controversy after another and one lost count of the number of times he had been banned from playing. In many such cases, was he the offender? Wasn’t he made the scapegoat just because he was the skipper? He stood by his teammates even when his captaincy was at stake. No other Indian captain had shown so much of commitment towards his teammates than Ganguly — be it making Dravid keep wickets in ODIs or backing Harbhajan Singh ahead of the senior pro Anil Kumble or persisting with Yuvraj Singh at a time when the latter’s form was in question.Little doubt, he was a naturally gifted player, though some technical flaws in his batting, especially his vulnerability to anything pitched short, were subjected to fierce criticism. However, Ganguly’s application and grit sailed him through the toughest of tides. True, Dravid had remarked once that on the off-side after God there is only Ganguly. His fluent cover-drives were pure artistry, and provided inspiration to many a budding cricketer. But on the technical front even till his last innings at Nagpur, he was inundated with criticism. But with a characteristic smile he countered it by saying that with so many flaws in his batting it wouldn’t have been possible to amass close to 20,000 runs at the international level. And it is this spirit that made his critics take back their words. The comeback man — this term is associated with ex-India great Mohinder Amarnath, but our Dada is not lagging behind. Be it the 1996 comeback or the 2006 one, Ganguly always proved his detractors wrong. And there are so many of his sparkling performances, in both versions of the game, and among them topping the list should be — the fighting 144 in the Brisbane Test (2003). And let’s not forget his unbeaten 51 against South Africa in the 2006 Johannesburg Test match when his teammates of the likes of Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and others had failed to measure up to the pace of Dale Styn, Makhaya Ntini, Shaun Pollock and Andrew Nel on a hard and bouncy track. It was a do-or-die situation for the southpaw personally as it was his comeback Test. We are also reminded of his 87 against South Africa on a difficult Kanpur track in 2008. When it comes to ODIs, he was sheer genius. His greatest ODI innings? They are plenty —183 at Taunton in the 1999 World Cup, 141 NO at Nairobi in 2000, 127 in Johannesburg in 2001 and many others. Together with Sachin Tendulkar, he got India to innumerable blazing starts that made them the most successful opening pair in the history of ODIs. So, was he a better batsman in ODIs than in Tests? Different people would have different views. I would say he was far more dominating in ODIs —11,363 runs in 300 ODI innings at an average of 41.02 with 22 hundreds as compared to 7212 runs in 188 innings with 16 tons at an average of 42.17 in Tests. His final Test average can be attributed to his extraordinary run in Tests after returning to the side in 2006. But mind you an average of 42 isn’t considered impressive for a specialist batsman in Tests. It should have been close to 50 at least. According to many cricket experts, Ganguly should have ended up with at least 2000 more runs in the extended version of the game. There’s another side to it. While in ODIs he had the luxury to be in the middle right from the start, in Test matches, he came in at either number 5 or 6 with the tail enders to follow. Nevertheless, he should have finished with better averages in both Tests and ODIs. And if this were true, one should ponder where he had gone wrong. Did captaincy have anything to do with it? Read on. Frankly speaking, it is his over-involvement with the captain’s job that put the batsman Ganguly behind. The result: his batting average as skipper in Tests was 37.66 against 45.47 when he was not leading. Similarly in ODIs as captain he averaged 38.66 vis-à-vis 43.16 as just an ordinary member. Yet, we tend to forget the number of crucial innings Ganguly has played as a skipper. Apart from the 144 in Brisbane, Ganguly’s 99 against England in the Nottingham Test in 2002, his match-winning 111 not out in the World Cup semi-finals against Kenya in 2003 and his 60 off 68 balls in the NatWest final in 2002 are some of the instances when he led from the front with the bat as well. And there are many more. Talking of the NatWest final, cricket fans would remember Mohd.Kaif and Yuvraj Singh for snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, but mind you the start was given by their captain. We have all this while talking about his batting and captaincy, but what about his bowling? Truly, he was not used as a bowler the way he should have been. And one has reason enough to opine that he under bowled himself in international cricket. His ability to move the ball in heavy conditions could have been an asset but alas… Controversy is something that he had been embroiled in so many times in his career — the Greg Chappell episode topping the list. What went wrong? Who was to blame? One doesn’t know, but with due respect to Dada, perhaps he went a bit too far during that period. He did make some wrong decisions and that included skipping the Challenger series after coming back from the eventful 2005 Zimbabwe series. And honestly speaking, he was not quite the Ganguly we knew despite a hundred in the Bulawayo Test after he had been reportedly suggested by Chappell to quit captaincy to concentrate more on his batting. I am not a Chappell fan but in one sense he has done Indian cricket and Ganguly a lot of good. The comeback innings at Johannesburg and the subsequent consistency Ganguly showed till his retirement are a proof of it. A role model? Absolutely. Yes, he made some foes — some of his teammates like VVS Laxman and Kumble still can’t forgive him for leaving them out of the one-day side. Dravid was against his inclusion in the team when the former was the captain. M S Dhoni who had debuted under Ganguly ensured that the latter was dropped from the ODI squad in spite of the fact that he was amongst runs. The Aussies hate him, so do some Englishmen. But despite all this, his popularity scales all heights and it is just not restricted to West Bengal. Dada has retired from international cricket with his head high but with a frustration that he had some two more years of international cricket left in him. But what could you have done dude? You have had to prove your worth in every match, notwithstanding your past record and in this context you were an ‘exception’, weren’t you? How should we remember him? For some he could be tragic hero who deserved more than what he actually got. Well, there could be many angles, but to me he should be considered as a “valiant soldier and commander misunderstood.”
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