Life and Cricket ate very alike and that is the beauty of this beautiful game. Every time someone passes away we tend to glorify them in a way that is often exaggerated and often justifiably as there are too many emotions attached to be objective. Likewise, when a cricketer calls it a day, he is often put on a pedestal that is too high and even the mediocre are hyped up as the great. This is all the more true when modern media at the end of the day is looking for stories that are sensational. When Sourav Ganguly called it a day, the reaction was no different either.
Sourav Ganguly is probably the most apparent bundle of contradictions in world cricket. Dubbed as the ‘Prince’ both for his elegance on offside and his royal mannerisms on and off the field, Ganguly is anything but ‘Royal’ when facing a fast bowler at full steam. Ganguly’s frantic movements, rapidly blinking eyelids and petrified look rarely inspire confidence to anyone sitting in the dressing room. But all that can be also easily swiped away with that one gentle nudge on the offside that sees the ball race away to fence. Classy yet clumsy, Ganguly brought both to the crease.
The same continued for his captaincy which seemed to be more annoying to the opposition than inspiring to his own team. Ganguly’s ways of getting a message across to the opposing team- making them wait 5 minutes for the toss, 5 more minutes after every break in the Test match as he takes his own time to walk out, another 5 to change his gloves once every two overs and just a few more minutes spent in wandering away to square leg pondering about what is for dinner that night. And while he indulges in his own style of playing cricket, opponents, umpires, match officials and even teammates have to wait. Yet he could come back, make an inspired bowling change and all that would be forgiven in his own country.
Ganguly was an inspirational leader as much by accident as by luck. He would be the first to admit this himself. His amazing streak of captaincy was kick-started by a brilliant knock by VVS Laxman, spun together by a purple patch of Harbhajan, Defended on foreign soil by the solidity of Dravid and shouldered largely by the brilliance of a Sachin. Yet, it is hard to fault him as cricket is indeed a game of 11 and not one and he did have his moments under the spotlight. To judge Ganguly would be difficult, probably even harsh as he was always a batsman cut-out much better for Limited Over cricket.
One of the reasons it is hard to rate Sourav as a batsman very highly is simply because he seems to have just not played enough test match knocks that really stand out. Barring the 144 in Brisbane which was inspirational stroke play against a competent attack, Ganguly has never been the same batsman in Test cricket that he was when he started off. The fact that he only got 5 centuries outside the sub-continent of which 2 were in his debut series in England, really show his batting up. Yet there is no doubt that he was an immaculate player in the shorter version of the game with 12000 being scored in electrifying form. Once again Ganguly the Test batsman and the ODI batsman were world’s apart!
The country loved Ganguly for his batting, hated him for his niggling injuries, embraced him for his captaincy magic and despised him when he lost form with the bat, elevated him to the status of a savior when he was at his prime and then labeled him as ‘leech hanging on to his spot’ when his best was past- Sourav Ganguly managed to polarize the country like nobody else did. His influence on Indian cricket is something that will get diluted with time but his contribution is undeniable. Yet somehow he stands alone and away from the other great batsman of his era.
Sourav Ganguly is simple not a batsman who is in the same league as a Dravid, Laxman or Tendulkar when it comes to skill and ability. Yet, he is a very fine left-hander whose elegance was a treat to watch and a captain who brought change to a stagnant system. Unlike the others, he will probably be easily replaced in terms of performance and runs scored by those who step into his spot. Unlike a Warne, McGrath, Kumble or Lara who have called it a day in recent past, Ganguly’s absence will be felt far less by his own team.
But dissimilar to all the others of his generation (barring one Shane Warne), nobody could coax controversy and sell stories like Ganguly. If you remove the shades of ‘nationalism’, then Ganguly is just another fine cricketer who walks away into the sunset. Many have before him, many will after him and just like we wish every one of those, we wish him nothing but the very best and thank him for all those memories.
