India doesn’t know how to honour its sporting heroes

Indian cricket has been blessed with Princes and Maharajahs ever since its inception. We have had Royals like Ranjitsinghji, the Maharajah of Vizianagram and Duleepsinghji don the sport and make it richer. But indisputably Indian cricket’s Greatest Maharajah has been the man who is so aptly nicknamed ‘Maharaj’- Sourav Chandidas Ganguly. He started like a prince, ruled like a king and left the game like an emperor. The story of cricketers from Bengal being given a rude awakening by the controllers of cricket in the country has been a historically continuous process. It started with Shute Banerjee and Putu Chowdhury while Sourav Ganguly’s case shows that things haven’t changed. But defying all odds, the Tiger of Behala has stood like a Prince among the ruins of his predecessors to become arguably his country’s finest captain.

If we travel down memory lane through Sourav’s international career, it presents an interesting case study. His first international tour consisted of just a single one-dayer against the West Indies and was highlighted by his ‘Maharaj’-like act of not carrying out the duties of a twelfth man properly. He was deemed an egoistic cricketer and was left to rot in the wilderness for more than 4 years. It was on the England tour of ‘96 that this talented southpaw got his chance to present himself on the international scene. Destiny had to play an important role as the Shakespeare of Patiala, Navjot Singh Sidhu, left the tour midway and Sanjay Manjrekar suffered an injury. As a result Sourav got his much awaited entry at Lords. The rest, as they say, is history.

Very few sportsmen have had to fight against odds as frequently as Sourav has throughout his career. It is unfortunate that India does not know how to honour its sporting heroes. If I were to write on this aspect, even a whole book would prove inadequate. Once Sourav launched himself with twin centuries on the England Tour, he never looked back. He developed his one day game to such a level that he even outshone Sachin Tendulkar for a prolonged period of time. For a man to whom challenges provide the biggest motivation in life, he took up captaincy at a time when Indian cricket was in complete turmoil and passing through its darkest phase. The match fixing controversy had rocked the nation and Sachin Tendulkar had stepped down as captain. At the time when the country had needed a brave heart and a strong mind to pull it out of the deep cesspit that it had dragged itself into, Sourav became the team’s messiah. A team that had hardly won started winning regularly— both at home and abroad. India became TEAM INDIA. A team spirit that was hardly ever seen in the Indian team became the mantra of its success. India under Ganguly was a different knit altogether— a belief that they could win was seen among all its members. The NatWest victory started a run of wins which took Team India to the zenith of one day cricket— the world cup final. Beating Australia in Australia, Pakistan in Pakistan and England in England— Sourav Ganguly broke many jinxes. Indian cricket was reborn, literally. The hearts that had stopped beating after the match fixing controversy once again beat in unison during a tense match. India once again found itself in the big league.

During his leadership, Sourav Ganguly was lucky to have worked under one of the finest coaches to have trained India— John Wright. The former Kiwi captain assumed the role of a mentor and a coach so methodically that he gave breathing space to all team members. The captain was given the freedom to implement his ideas and the team was allowed to revolve around him. But after 5 hectic and demanding years in India, family took precedence over work and the man from New Zealand returned to his roots. With him went the fortunes of his captain.

Greg Chappel - the man who replaced Wright was seen as a master tactician who could work wonders with the team. But things took a turn for the worse. Chappel was instrumental in the ouster of Ganguly not only from the captaincy but also from the team. Suddenly every other person in the country became a cricketing pundit— Sourav supposedly couldn’t face the rising ball, couldn’t field, couldn’t run. The man who just a while ago was the country’s best captain and one of its premier batsmen was made to look like a novice. As a sports fan it was sad to see one of India’s greatest sporting heroes being meted such step-motherly treatment by his own “family” members. Age was used as an instrument against him. But fighting against all barriers, Dada proved what he was made up of with his fairy tale comeback in South Africa. The unity which was the USP of the team had completely disintegrated and it culminated in India being eliminated in the first round of the 2007 World Cup. Thus left Greg Chappel, who was responsible for the waning morale of the team and more importantly, ruining the career of one of India’s most promising talents with the ball— Irfan Pathan.

It is an arduous task to build a team. Sourav Ganguly had done this practically on his own. The current Indian team under M.S. Dhoni is just a continuation of the team under Ganguly that had brought confidence amongst players. Sehwag, Zaheer and Yuvraj were given space at a time when very few conservative captains would have dared to give them a place in the team. Sourav was a cricketer who played cricket at his own pace and by his own rules. It is sad that a cricketer of such magnanimous proportions has had to prove himself time and again to his countrymen. People became skeptic about Sourav’s effectiveness in the IPL. Unbelievable— no one since Brian Lara has cleared the ropes in both one dayers and test cricket as consistently as Sourav Ganguly has done. One of world cricket’s finest ever one day batsmen, Ganguly has been unfortunate enough to be at the receiving end of such blasphemous statements. The innings that he played in the last match of last year’s IPL were a lesson in batting for any young aspirant of the game.

The IPL commences from today, but the Knights have already lost their talismanic leader, whose role has been reduced to that of a mere team player. Buchanan’s decision of handing over the captaincy to Brendon McCullum seems to defy all cricketing logic. By replacing one of international cricket’s finest ever captains with a player with hardly any leadership experience, Buchanan has already put the cat amongst the pigeons in the Knight Riders Team. There was no apparent logic for dropping Ganguly from captaincy. By robbing him of leadership, which comes naturally to Bengal’s favourite son, Buchanan has inflicted another unwanted act of injustice on Ganguly. God knows how many more detractors this great cricketer has to face, even after retiring from international cricket. All said and done, his fans will still be praying for their Dada to continue to rule hearts with his performances. It will be a privilege for all of us to watch this great son of Indian Cricket continue his dadagiri— at least with the bat for the time being.

Deepanjan Deb