Monday 10 November 2008

Saurav Ganguly – A True Hero

Rarely do we see an Indian fall and rise time and again and then to finally fall to roar back up with vengeance. He, a man who inspires loads of self-confidence amongst others; a man who faced adversity with fiery fury and converted them into inspiration; a man to whom “impossible” was just another term in the dictionary. This man of destiny is, Saurav Chandidas Ganguly. A man who we have all loved and hated at various times, but a man who has scripted innumerable number of inspirational stories on his way to success.

Around 20,000 runs in more than a decade of non-stop international cricket, 5 years as Indian team captain, the only captain to lead Indian team to World cup Finals in the last 2+ decades, The originator of the famous “team huddle” in the middle of the cricket ground, the only player in India after Sunil Gavaskar who declared his retirement plan well in advance. It is difficult to start describing this man – the Hero of millions. Yes Sir - for all his achievements – this man is my Hero too. Forget his flaws – as all great men have their share of those. If ever this country had a hero – This gentleman sits amongst the top ones.

Saurav, which means “one in a hundred” (in his mother tongue, Bengali), has given us great joy in his long career of 113 test Matches and more than 300 One day internationals, spread over 11+ years (in international arena). I still remember the afternoon when Ganguly walked in to bat in his Debut test at Lord’s Cricket ground. With English bowlers having an early breakthrough – Ganguly was always under pressure. And with highly successful Vinod Kambli (a regular player in test matches in those times) being injured, one always thought Saurav was a stop-gap replacement and with his “attitude” problems reported way back in 1991 tour of Australia – this guy would not play another test Match after this. His failure was a long drawn conclusion. He was taken-in only to complete the playing eleven in that match. Oh - how wrong everyone was?! The world that day, dear friends, watched in awe as this new kid hammered boundary after boundary, announcing his arrival on the international scene like an Emperor. He caressed one boundary after another on the off-side, through the covers and along the ground – piercing field placements at will. Before long – he had completed a remarkable century - on Debut. Rahul Dravid, who was also making his debut in that match (and scored a well made 92 runs in the same innings) was his partner for most of that innings and as Rahul aptly put it later – there is either God or Saurav Ganguly on the off-side of the cricket ground. Ganguly, meanwhile, continued to “hammer” his critics and went on to score another century in the first innings of the next match to became only the 3rd batsman in the world to score centuries in the first 2 innings of a career. It was a dream start for a player. And to achieve all this after he was “dropped” unceremoniously earlier (without playing in a single Test match in the 1991-92 tour, of India to Australia) on the pretext of having “attitude problems”! Beats sense. In-spite of this initial rebuke from selectors and despite his failure in his debut One-Day International against West Indies in 1992 (where he scored only 3 runs) – he fought back. And how?! Just as any great fighter would – by grabbing the next given opportunity to play. After four years of wilderness and hard work – it took guts to come back and score two consecutive centuries. What a wonderful-wonderful player!

He holds many records in the cricketing arena, like being the first Indian to have scored an ODI century in Australia against Australia, he along with Sachin Tendulkar holds the record of highest amount of runs scored as opening pair, has most number of centuries in ODI (22) after Tendulkar (amongst Indians) and 4th highest in the world (Tendulkar is followed by Ricky Ponting and Sanath Jayasurya), he is the only Indian captain to have led the Indian team for 5+ continuous years with consistent overseas wins in England, Pakistan, West Indies, Australia, New Zealand, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, he is the man who led the Indian team that broke the famous winning streak of “murderous” Australians in 2001 (helped by famous innings of VVS Laxman in Kolkata). Those are the ones I distinctly remember – there are many more records that a player becomes a part of (by playing international cricket for a decade or more), which I am sure you will find in innumerable number of websites and news dailies. I will not bother you with every single statistics here.

Look at his career though and you will see that we were blessed to have got a player like him. It goes without saying that Indian Cricket would have been poorer without a Sachin, Dravid or a Kumble. But Indian Cricket would, today, be struggling without the inspirational leadership of this one man – we all know as Maharaja, the Tiger or lovable Dada. It was when everything seemed lost after Australian series of 1999, when Australia beat us fair and square (in Australia, under the captaincy of Sachin) – that this man was chosen to lead the team (on this day, the 10th of November, of 2000). Those were horrible times with Match-Fixing allegations flying thick and high and Indian Cricket definitely at its lowest ebb. How ironical that Saurav will say good-bye to International cricket on the same date – i.e. 10th Nov 2008. Destiny? Perhaps. Anyways, after becoming Captain, he tasted first blood in form of Test series win over South Africa in 2000 and then against Australia (in India), in 2001. He never looked back from then on. He went on to consistently lead India to test match wins, both overseas and at home. He picked his bunch of players – all of whom were young and hungry – and built a “dream team”. Let me jot down a few incidents that I think truly define the leadership onus that he took upon himself. He was the one who convinced Virendra Sehwag to open in Test Matches – the benefits of which we are reaping till today. He was the one who sacrificed his opening combination with Sachin to give Sehwag the mantle of opening the innings in One-Day Internationals. This, even though he had a successful, world record partnership going with the “Legend”, Sachin Tendulkar. He was the one who (in 2003 Indian tour of Australia) walked in at number 4 position, in the evening of the “First day of the First test match” in Brisbane to shield Sachin Tendulkar from facing the wrath of McGrath and Gillespie. Which captain of a team would even dare to do that in the first test match of the series on the first day? He knew all too well that his “perceived” weakness against genuine fast bowling was something the opposition will exploit and if he were to get out cheaply and that too to a bouncer delivery – his critics would jump and say “we told you so”. He would end up looking foolish then to have even thought of guarding someone as great as Sachin Tendulkar. But again – in a crushing answer to his critics – he went on to score a century in that innings! That is how Ganguly was and that is what sets him apart from any of the Indian Captains till then and ever since. A Leader, who was not afraid to face challenges and who, if required, was ready to catch the bull by the horns even under fire! I can see streak of such traits in our current Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni – who by the looks of it is on the way to lead Team India in many matches to come.

Alright, remember the World cup of 2003? India had lost their group match against Australia by a whopping 9 wickets (after being dismissed cheaply for 120-130 odd runs)? The whole country was vying for the bloods of the Indian team and more so of Saurav Ganguly – the Captain. I still remember the worried faces of the Indian team shown in media after the loss to Australia in their second pool match. Saurav, as captain, could have easily avoided facing the media and let the other members of the team face the wrath and fury of the nation through the media. But that is not how Saurav lead his team. He took the responsibility of talking to the media and respond to every single punch from them with his chin held high. As a captain – he kept his wards away from those blood sucking wolves on the prowl and kept the team united and motivated. Now that, Sir, is the sign of a wonderful and a great leader. Another decision to prove his support for his chosen team came in form of persisting with Mohammad Kaif in the playing eleven. Mohammad Kaif’s house was ransacked back home in India (by agitated fans of the game) and he was being made the scapegoat for what should have been seen as a collective failure of the entire team. Ganguly as a Captain – stood by Kaif and made him play in all the matches of the World cup from then on. Kaif proved his mettle and had consistent match winning scores from then on – to lead India to historic World Cup Finals. That we lost in that World Cup Finals should not have caused too much of botheration, as Australia were far superior in those times and for us to have won the finals, we needed “The lady luck” as the 11th player, playing that day in the Indian team. That was not to be. But the whole World Cup series brought forward another aspect of Ganguly’s leadership skills – his care and protection of his wards. A basic lesson taught to all the leaders in Management courses. To be a great leader - you have to have the courage to shield your army from any attack, both from within and outside. And Ganguly proved just that in the 2003 World cup series.

All the above are incidents that may seem insignificant and perhaps may not have been noticed by general masses – but these were for me the golden steps taken by a great leader. For me that group of players, from different regions of our vast country, became “Team India” during that series. The entire team seemed united under the able leadership of Saurav Ganguly.

Life, however, had another struggle scripted in the tale of this player though. He was “beaten”, humiliated and thrown out of the team after test series victory in Zimbabwe (against the host nation in 2005). It came as a body blow – not only to Ganguly as a player and a Captain – but also to all his admirers like us. And to know that it was a conspiracy hatched outside the playing ground – was deeply annoying and extremely frustrating. But then, not for anything is this man revered by his fans – he kept quiet and with the energy and vigor that only great men posses, he worked hard. He worked extremely hard – willing/waiting for that one chance to get back into the team where he belonged as a right. After India were beaten “with a cane” to lose 4-0 against South Africa in ODI series (in South Africa) – there was a call for bringing back Saurav Ganguly. He got the chance, in form of Test Match slot, “against” the wishes of scoundrels like Greg Chappell, Dravid, the previous Cricket Selection Committee (With that “Lilliput”, Kiran More at the helm) and ex-cricketers like Ravi Shastri etc. And did he prove to be the savior for the team? Yes Sir – he did. He was the highest scorer in the first test match against South Africa. He led India to a test match victory – the first by an Indian team in South Africa. A dream comeback was once again being written for this warrior. He scored at will in that series and was the highest Indian scorer there. He then went on to make 3 centuries in 2007 (including a double century against Pakistan). Even his farewell series (against Australia) has turned out to be a dream with one century and 2 half centuries. Is this the man we were after to quit the game? We certainly treat fighters and heroes “very well” down here in our country. Huh.

A man who scores at a rate of more than 50 Runs per innings/match in both forms of the game (Test Match and ODI, in 2007) and who has overall scored more than 12000 runs in One-Day Internationals, is dropped from ODI team under the pretext of bad fielding standards and non-performance! Well as the song goes, “It happens only in India”. Come to think of it – I can’t remember a single catch that Ganguly has dropped in the last 2 years – a memory that is still fresh. I can’t remember too many incidents of him misfielding in any match over the last 2 years. The ones that he has have been genuine mistakes that almost all the fielders make sometimes. Haven’t we seen Robin Uthappa, Sehwag, Rohit Sharma etc misfield? Look for evidence in Australian and Sri-Lankan ODI Series i.e. if you have had a temporary amnesia attack for some reason. In fact, Saurav has taken 100 catches in his ODI career. For someone who was not a regular in “slip-cordon”, he has done remarkably well, i.e. as a fielder, to hold on to those many catches. Is this the sign of a “bad” fielder? For devils’ sake – look at the other side. He is only the 3rd ODI player in the history of the game to have scored more than 10000 runs, taken more than 100 wickets and has more than 100 catches to his name (Sahcin and Jayasurya being the other two). Not even Ricky Ponting – who is definitely a better fielder than Ganguly and who has played equal or more number of matches as Ganguly has – has managed to take more. And to top it, Ganguly has scored many half-centuries and centuries, at an excellent strike rate since his return to ODI team in 2007! What else do you want a player to do? Not everyone can be a rabbit on field. Is Sehwag a great fielder? Is Yuvraj Singh anywhere as close to a good fielder that he once was? What is the use of having 10 good fielders – but not one of them scoring runs when required? Take a look at all the ODIs played by the Indian team in the last 1 year and you will find that we have won matches because of the “Bowlers” most of the times. Our batsmen have been found wanting in almost all the matches (except for some brilliant knocks by Sachin in VB series finals against Australia). If not for Dhoni’s knocks in most of the ODI matches, in the last one year, we would have struggled to post decent scores. So why drop a decent batsman from your team? Young legs? My foot. Let those intelligent selectors take a long walk to hell – for all I care. We shall see how many of these young “greats” like Yuvraj, Raina, Dhoni decide to retire in time – i.e. before they grow “old”. To say that seniors should make way for youngsters is just a bloody “catch line” I say. Let the damn “juniors” of today first become consistent enough to become “seniors” in future, and THEN we shall see how many of them are “great” enough to decide on their retirement. It is easier to tell others. We shall see how these “Youngistan Turks” feel about retirement when they reach 33-34 years of age. Oh boy – I can’t wait for that period to come. I am sure I will live long enough to see their reactions then.

See – Sachin, Ganguly, Dravid, Kumble and Laxman are “GREAT” players – great men. They have a certain way of thinking and we mortals just cannot even “begin” to imagine how their mind works. That is why they are “great”, whereas we aren’t. We have no business to compare them to ourselves and expect them to follow all principles (flawed or otherwise) that we believe in. They have achieved greatness by applying their body and soul to the purposes of serving their nation in their own capacity. And anyone who has served the game for over a decade (as these men have) should be well respected and honored. That we, like wolves, hang our tongues out to drink their blood (in their time of despair) does not show us in good light.

Players like Sachin Tendulkar are perhaps born once in a generation. But it will not be wrong to say that players like Saurav Ganguly are born once in many-many decades and leaders like him are even rarer to find. For the joy that this shirt whirling, outspoken, left-arm batsman (and leader) has given to every citizen of this country – I say we salute him. Give him every ounce of accolade and tribute that he truly deserves.

I may not follow the game of cricket as much as I have followed in my life after he leaves. There won’t be too many great players of my time left for me to watch. There definitely won’t be Saurav Ganguly to look for, playing those exquisite cover drives on the field! For such extreme emotions for the game – I thank you Sir. I shall eventually pass on the “baton” of “cheering with maddening emotions” to the next generation. We have to be consistent with Cricket Selectors after all i.e. to keep the game “youthful” overall. This game perhaps will be well served by new set of patrons who have fresh voice (to shout), fresh legs (to jump around in joy), fresh nails (to chew upon), fresh eyes (to keep them glued to the TV screens) and fresh expletives (in times when the team does not perform well!) to take the new crop of cricketers forward! I hope the game prospers in this country and keeps our man’s legacy intact.

As my kids grow up – I definitely won’t be looking up the Indian history books for inspirational super-hero stories to tell them. I just need to close my eyes and play back the saga of Saurav’s cricketing career and I know my kids would have learnt a lot by the time I finish his epic chronicle. I could not have found a better story to tell them. And for that – I thank you again Saurav.

Thanks a lot for all the good memories you have given us and wish you all the best.

Its Montoo..
(6th Nov 2008-10th Nov 2008)