Sourav Ganguly - The tiger that roared India to the top
My father, like almost every person in the world, has a bias towards people of the same ethnicity. Hence, when Sourav Ganguly took off his jersey and started waving it around in the air, my old man’s Bengali pride swelled by a few more inches.
“Baag er bachcha,” my father exclaimed, which literally translates to “son of a tiger.” Indeed, even after 13 years, the image of Ganguly shirtless and waving his jersey in the balcony at Lord’s still holds an endearing place in the heart of many.
To some, it was un-gentlemen-ish conduct from the Indian captain. To others, it was the perfect reply to what Andrew Flintoff did just some months prior.
Dada, as he is so fondly known, played some great innings in his career, but this remains the image that aptly resonates his persona: a tiger full of passion and wrath that never compromised or held anything back.
Later on, when Ganguly was asked about the incident, a sense of remorse could be heard in his words: “You make mistakes in life. I don’t enjoy when I see channels keep on repeating that footage on television. I have made so many hundreds, they should show that.”
However, one can’t help but feel that, deep down, a part of him still enjoys that act of audacity, and that he would do it once again had the same scenario presented itself – for it more than just an act of vengeance against Flintoff.
Despite winning the 1983 World Cup, the Indian cricket team were looked upon with eyes of disregard. The over-reliance on Sachin Tendulkar in the 90s meant that opposition players were more focused on him than the team. This wasn’t only confined to the opponents though, as there were many Indians who switched off their television sets and went to sleep after the Master Blaster got out.
Get Tendulkar, get India – this became a malaise of epidemic proportions, and India desperately needed an image make-over.
The man himself was given the charge to do so, but after facing a torrid time as captain, Tendulkar decided to step down and stay away from the helm. This decision by the Little Master was perhaps his most beneficial contribution to India.
Cricket, especially the Indian team, was facing a crisis – a dark entity that was feeding on the good name of cricket and consuming it like a black hole. The match-fixing saga at the turn of the millennium left a terrible black spot on the game and dealt a huge blow on the Indian team as two of its high-profile players, Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja, were found guilty of unethical practices.
In this hour of bitter darkness, a ray of hope was needed to lift the team from the abyss. And the Sun that shone at that time was Ganguly.
Appointing him as captain was a bit of a gamble. Even when he was a rookie in the international scene, he was accused of being arrogant and hence lost his place from the ODI team for three years. However, it was that arrogance that sowed the seed of self-belief in the team.
Controlled aggression is a necessity – it is what made the Aussies the most dominant team in the world for about a decade. And the Prince of Calcutta understood that perfectly well. Hence, as soon as he was instilled as the captain, he exuded a new wave of confidence in the players.
His policy of bringing in youth and playing them along with the experienced heads of the team reaped fruits that helped India greatly in the long term. The likes of Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan were the buds that became full-grown trees under his stewardship, and who played a crucial role in the 2011 World Cup-winning conquest.
Winning away from home was never India’s strongest point. Even now, they seem to struggle – in Tests, especially – on foreign soil. Accomplishing away victories has more to do with temperament and mental strength than anything else. And with Ganguly, those two things were always in abundance.
He implanted the necessary belligerence within the team that they so lacked. Be it Yuvraj’s zealous nature or Sehwag’s power batting that borders on violence, the touch of Ganguly’s work on them is very apparent.
India might not have won an ICC trophy under his captaincy, but Sourav Ganguly was the onset – the gardener – of the beautiful things that India achieved in the subsequent years.
He wasn’t without his records too. From 1991 to 2000, India failed to win a single Test overseas – apart from Sri Lanka in 1992. Before he took up the mantle, India were ranked 8th in Tests. However, after he stepped down, India were ranked second and had registered some emphatic wins away from home.
Ganguly led India to its only ever Test series win in Pakistan, headed a terrific surge to the final of the 2003 World Cup, captained the team that won the ODI series 3-2 in the 2004 tour of Pakistan, drew the Down Under series 1-1…the lack of spirit and confidence that usually paralysed the team while playing away from home was never present with him at helm.
Each and every player had a genuine belief that he could win every game under Ganguly's leadership. It was this ability to infuse confidence and strength in his players that made him special.
There are people who absolutely loath him, but the ones who don’t, ardently revere and love him – and the way Kolkata reacted to his misfortunes with Greg Chappell and Kolkata Knight Riders is testament to that.
The earth’s relatively cool surface has fire at its core; Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s calm nature has Ganguly’s fire at its root. It is that fire through which the team’s competitive spirit was forged, something that is still prevalent among the team.
India were a cat that purred, and Ganguly turned them into a tiger that roared.