The year was 2000 and the world had just come out of the Y2K crisis. There was a feeling of goodness everywhere, for we were entering into a new millennium. However, things were not that good with Indian cricket. India had been whitewashed by Australia (3-0) in Australia and also by South Africa (2-0) at home. “The God” also known as Sachin Tendulkar was not willing to captain the side, match-fixing saga was threatening Indian cricket. To sum it all, Indian cricket was in dire straits. That was when a certain Bengali by the name of Sourav Chandidas Ganguly was named the captain of Indian cricket team. The task was tough but the man was tougher. He not only led India, but in years to come became one of the most successful captains in the history of Indian cricket. Some say that the job of captaining Indian cricket team is one of the most difficult jobs in the world given the sheer burden of expectation of hundred million people. Thinking about Ganguly’s captaincy immediately brings about memories of the NatWest trophy finals at Lord’s when he took out his T-shirt to celebrate the victory. His captaincy records speak volume of his contribution to Indian cricket. He led India to the finals of the ICC knockout Trophy in 2000, finals of 2003 World Cup, NatWest trophy victory, and successful series’ against Australia etc. But we would fail to do justice to the contribution of “Captain Dada” if we just look at these statistics. We need to go a step further and see the reasons behind his success, the ways in which he built his team. When he was handed captaincy, the Indian team was going through a transition phase with many youngsters knocking on the doors of the team. He somehow had this uncanny knack of spotting talent, and when he used to spot talent, he used to back it. He brought in many youngsters like Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag etc. and gave them the confidence to play without the fear of losing their place in the side. These were the very players who became the mainstay of his ‘Team India’. He was one Indian captain who built his team by backing his players when the odds were against them. It was not that these players started performing from the outset. Classic case is that of Virender Sehwag. Sehwag had performed well in the ODIs but given India’s star-studded middle order of Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly himself & Laxman there was no room in the middle order of the Test team. So, the only option for him was to open the innings and given the fact that Sehwag was not a natural opener he was reluctant to take up this role. This is when “Captain Dada” stepped in and gave him the confidence that even if he failed as an opener it won’t be held against him. The rest as they say is history. Sehwag went on to become India’s most successful opener since the original little master Sunil Gavaskar and has in fact two triple centuries to his name. In similar ways he supported Harbhajan Singh during the off-spinners lean patch. When these youngsters used to go out in the middle they did not have the fear of losing their place in the team and this made them play freely. They were assured that they would be given a long run and will have sufficient opportunity to prove their mettle. Another aspect of “Captain Dada” was the attitude that he infused in the Indian team. The Indian team had the impression of being a soft team in pre- Ganguly era. Rarely was an Indian cricketer found to be sledging or showing aggressive gestures towards the opposition even when provoked. Ganguly changed it all. He taught the team to give it back to the opposition. My belief is that a little bit of aggressiveness is good for the sport and also for the viewers. He famously made Steve Waugh wait for the toss during an India-Australia Test series which did not go down well with the Aussie skipper. One more image which comes into mind is Ganguly fielding at close-in positions just to give some verbal volleys to the opposition batsmen. He was not a great close-in fielder but he used to make such moves just to get on the nerves of the opposition and was indeed quite successful with these antics. His impact on Indian cricket was huge. He taught a team to fight, to give back word for word to the opposition. It was only in the Ganguly era that Indians became respectable tourists and India’s overseas record started improving. In times to come, his records as captain might be broken but the legacy of captain Dada – Sourav Ganguly will live on
Posted on: Mon, 08 Jul 2013 07:20:07 +0000