AS DADA DEPARTS

The doors of IPL has firmly shut on Saurav Chandidas Ganguly. The 38-year old former Indian captain is without buyers in a tournament where about a hundred odd Indian players found bidders. It was inevitable that he stopped playing at some stage, but to go out this way was not fitting for someone of his stature.



You can never again see him on the field caressing the cricket ball through a packed off-side field. Never again will you see him loft spinners out of the park with disdain. An era has come to an end. Yet very few acknowledge it.



Let us look back on the career of the man to whom, Indian cricket owes a little more than a lot. I don’t think any other cricketer was talked about or discussed as much as 'Dada'. He is the kind of person whom you have to hate or like; you just cannot ignore him.



He would have been the Indian cricketer of this era but for a short man from Mumbai. He did not complain, for he was not as great a batsman as Dravid or a genius like Sachin, but he inspired. He was a star, but a star who was a human, a flawed one at that. He had his flaws and he had his virtues, but he made his virtues count. And, he wore his heart on his sleeves.



The year was 2000, Indian cricket was like a ship caught in the tornado of match fixing. A few heads rolled and the side was left without a captain. Sachin tried his luck and found none.

Enter Ganguly.



In the few years that followed, he ushered in a new era in Indian cricket. He brought in a change and it showed. His boys did not fit the image of the stereotypical meek Indian cricketer. He instilled in his team, a killer instinct and ‘in your face’ attitude. His side was not the best in the world, but it was the best India had in a very long time. And, on its day Ganguly’s boys could make even the mighty Aussies cry. Ganguly found Indian cricket in shambles and left it in a state that was far better than the one in which he found it.



He backed his team to the hilt. He irked the selectors and picked his own men. And, they paid back the captain by winning. The Indian side tasted success and developed a taste for it under Ganguly.



There are leaders who push from the back and there are leaders who march in the front; Ganguly was the latter. Cricket is a game of the mind, and Dada knew it more than most captains. He had no qualms about irking Steve Waugh by making him wait at the toss or shocking the entire cricket fraternity by running bare-chested at the Lord’s. The sight of Dada flinging his t-shirt from the Lord’s Balcony will remain the image of the new era of Indian cricket that is not afraid to attack and thrives on aggression. To him every game was a war, which he had to win.



In a time when Australia was considered unbeatable, Ganguly inspired his team to beat them in their own backyard. Even his critics acknowledge the fact that he was India’s best captain (Oh, he had the results too!)



Ganguly, the captain had his favourites. But, that was because he knew talent when he saw it. He stood by his players, often giving them support like no other captain could and inspiring them to perform. Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh – they had all been Dada’s favourites and they all owe it to his unflinching support and belief in their abilities. It was Ganguly who spotted the immensely talented Dhoni and pretty soon, he was thrashing the ball around wearing the blues. That’s almost half the current Indian side and then you realise the real contribution Dada made to Indian cricket.



There are very few sights more beautiful in cricket than Sourav Ganguly on song facing a spinner. The seemingly effortless manner in which he lofts them out of the park was surely a sight to behold. His 183 against Sri Lanka in the 1999 world cup could still be giving Muttiah Muralitharan nightmares. Wherever Murali bowled, there was only one place the ball would go; and that was out of the park.

The Aussies tested him with a packed offside ring with seven fielders, but in his prime, he still managed to pierce it and find the fence. He was attacked with short balls, but never did he shy away from playing the pull shot which more often than not, got him out.



Yes, he was lazy between the wickets. Running for runs was not for him. He preferred scoring runs by making the opposition run to the fence.



Ganguly, the batsman was hugely underrated and an under-performer too. For, someone who scored a century in his very first test match, he did not live up to the expectations. But, the careers of some players are more than just the statistics (not that his were bad, he sure could have done better!)



Even if he was terribly out-of-form, his elegant cover drives promised he was just a hit away from being back on top; often to deceive.



Few captains could have inspired their teams the way Dada did. The Indian team’s inspired run into the finals of the 2003 world cup, if only to lose to the Aussies, was a major milestone in the history of Indian cricket.



But, somewhere he went wrong. His batting was in shambles and it reflected on his captaincy. And soon he became the modern day Indian Cricket’s hero who hung around a little too long to see himself become the villain. But that was totally Sourav Ganguly - unpredictable as a roulette wheel.



Ganguly was exciting and fun to watch. You could not predict what would happen the next moment if he was on the field. And, when he was on the field, the battle was always on.



He could have cut a deal with the board and retired in peace, without all the ‘dropping’ controversies. But that would have been so much unlike Dada. He liked to play it as it came. He tested his fate continuously and often emerged on top. And he took failures gracefully, only to come back with a vengeance. He risked the shame and ridicule that would befall him were he to return and fail.



That is a matter of heart. And I guess that is what makes him dear to millions.



No matter how many times he was thrown out, like an unwanted kitten; he always found his way back home – into the team.



Lesser mortals would have given up, then and there. But not Ganguly. He went back to playing Ranji cricket, got himself selected into the national team again. And in his last season as an international cricketer, he was India’s top run getter in tests and second in the world.



He had made his point. Hit his critics back where it hurt the most. And then he called it a day.



His tryst with the IPL was a normal one, if you ask me. But, he was the best, KKR had, and in the last edition of IPL, he pulled off some age-defying diving catches and big hits. He still had some cricket left in him.



As far as I am concerned, Indian cricket lost a viewer the day Sourav retired and IPL lost one this week.



One might think that this is the last time he is making the headlines. But, with Ganguly, you never know!



Dada will surely be missed.