Sourav Ganguly: An epoch brought to end

Nature follows dawn-sunlight-dusk-midnight. What can be dawn-sunlight-eclipse-sunlight-forced into darkness forever? Confusing enough... but that is what Sourav Ganguly's career has been.

Sourav Ganguly is certainly the most controversial cricketer India has ever produced. For me he has used cricket and more mind games to succeed. His inclusion in the Indian test team was termed as quota system. He carried his not-doing-dirty-work image from his ODI debut series when he refused to take drinks on the ground. The man in the making was a leader who would reshape the fate of Indian cricket. He silenced his critics with an awesome debut following the same in the next test match only to be nicknamed "Prince of Kolkata" by the British media.

Captaincy of the Indian cricket team is the next most commented job after the prime minister of India. Ganguly's career took a linearly increasing curve from 1996 to 2000. He formed a successful opening pair with Sachin, was the one man army at Toronto Sahara cup, and smashed a splendid 183 against Sri Lanka in the world cup. I guess no Indian batsman has matched such a batting performance outside India against a good team as his 183.

When Sachin resigned from captaincy, Ganguly was the most deserving player in the team to lead. Captaincy did take a toll on Sachin's individual performance, and history says it happens with very Indian captain. Indian team got a new image with its new leader. Azharuddin brought a real bad name for the country by selling himself to bookies, Sachin couldn’t take India’s performance anywhere, and this new guy coming in had a lot of responsibilities. He took the most unorthodox decisions, realised the importance of Rahul Dravid, the then laggard in ODIs, and ensured his place by giving him a dual responsibility of a wicket-keeper. And it worked.

He pushed for inclusion of Harbhajan Singh in the team, who would have otherwise been forgotten due to the chucking allegation, groomed players like Yuvraj, Zaheer Khan and Irfan Pathan and brought in Srinath back from an almost retirement. His leadership was undoubtedly the best Indian team ever had. Harbhajan ripped apart the Aussies, Pathan gave Pakistan the dose of their own medicine (doctored by Wasim Akram :-P) and Zaheer Khan remains the mainstay of Indian pace attack. He steered the Indian team to finals of ICC Champions Trophy in 2000 and 2002. It was his sheer perseverance and never-give-up attitude by which India defeated strongly placed South Africa in the pre final game. In this period Indian team reached the finals of almost every tournament they played.

Ganguly was the first Indian captain to take the Aussie challenge in the right spirit and beat them at their soil. The entire 2003-04 test series was dominated by India. It was he who reinstated the confidence in the Indian team that they could take on the Aussie might. It was when the Indian team lacked the experience of Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan, any other captain would have accepted a thrashing defeat before the first match. He led the team by setting an example, a splendid 144 at Brisbane in the first test, used the resources he had to gain the maximum. He found talent in Pathan and the player delivered by taking Steve Waugh’s wicket in the last test match he played.

Even Australian media praised the Indian team and Wisden published an article that other teams should learn from India. He was the architect of the changing face of Indian dominance in world cricket. He questioned the decisions of Steve Bucknor, challenged the bans on him at ICC, and used aggression to treat other teams their way, particularly the Aussies. And the list remains incomplete without mentioning Ganguly waving his shirt at the Lord's.

All was going right, when Indian board realised that they need another foreigh coach. Newly appointed coach, Greg Chappel, wanted to run the game of cricket in India like a football coach. He dreamt of 2007 world cup but couldn’t take the team anywhere close to it. A team can’t have two Gunda’s, that’s what SRK said in Chak de India. India had one (Ganguly) and just got another as Chappel. Differences must have crept in; Chappel had the edge to prove himself because of Ganguly’s bad run with form. An Indian fighter, fighting with an Aussie egoist. Cricket imperialism isn’t it? And the Aussie succeeded in dividing the team and ruling over it. The team seemed to have performed well on records but many of the victories were against weaker teams. The docile Dravid was just a remote controlled captain. Greg Chappel might have succeeded in ruling over the team but actually ruined the team chemistry. The result: 2007 world cup debacle.

When Ganguly staged a comeback in the Indian side, performed well, I thought I could draw a parallel with his comeback and Steve Jobs second coming. Both being ditched by the individuals they backed and made a remarkable comeback. Jobs went ahead and still continues but Ganguly found more John Sculleys. His second stint with Indian team started off remarkably with fighting performance against South Africa, and good ODI performances against West Indies and Sri Lanka. But the road ahead was never as smooth as it used to be.

The new league of young, hit-the-dance-floor, hair-style-changing, chips-selling and bollywood savvy players cleared the seniors from their way and own the control of the team. I doubt how long will Sachin hold the fort. Ganguly could not even get to think of retirement from the ODIs and probably for this reason the board decided to give him the opportunity to think about his test career.

With politics in the Indian cricket prevailing, the most successful Indian captain is being made to take retirement. The person who transformed the outlook of the Indian team isn’t given the respect he deserves. His elegant sixes won't be there anymore, his on field aggression won't be in the game but his ideology will remain, his aggression to take the team forward will be leant by others; and his leadership will continue to inspire people.

It’s an era coming rather being brought to an end.