Sourav Ganguly - The significance of the ambitious phoenix

Sourav Ganguly (L) and Steve Waugh

Bishan Singh Bedi was his fierce critic; who always believed that Dada was a man hungry for captaincy, post his comeback in 2006. Bedi always used the limited English words, he possessed in his confined English vocabulary, to criticise Dada. Bedi must realise that in his international career post captaincy, Ganguly played under Dravid and Dhoni. He played under Brendon McCullum for Kolkata Knight Riders inspite of being the highest run scorer for KKR. He even played under Yuvraj Singh during his brief stint for Pune Warriors and yet, never complained.

The core of the 2011 world cup winning team was built in Ganguly’s era. Ganguly was provided with a team that needed to be moulded. He was at the helm when VVS Laxman, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag, and Yuvraj Singh were not the power houses that they were during Dhoni’s tenure.

Also, Sachin Tendulkar was going through a lean patch at that time. A valid argument could be that, currently, even Dhoni’s team is under transition, after the retirement of stalwarts; but even the opposition teams are facing the same problems.

We must remember that it was Ganguly who instilled confidence and belief in his players that transformed an ordinary middle ordered Virender Sehwag into a swashbuckling exuberant opener, a meek and docile Harbhajan Singh into the tormenting turbanator, and a diffident Yuvraj Singh into the charismatic all-rounder, who won the Man of Series in 2011 World Cup.

Statistics and numbers will point out in favour of Dhoni but numbers cannot purely capture the emotions in any sport. Given the situation Sourav Ganguly had to face and the way he braved the turbulence cannot be ruled out. The debate between Dhoni and Ganguly will continue and without taking Dhoni’s credit away, the answer to this rhetorical question lies in – Who is better: The man who lifted a weak and pale boy from a polluted and contaminated pit, and made him face the world with courage, grit, and fortitude, or the man who empowered the same confident boy to take risks and challenges to complete them skillfully and adroitly to reach the zenith.

If we are to juxtapose history with Indian cricket, Ganguly represented the courage, tenacity, audacity, grit, determination, astute strategy skills of Sir Winston Churchill; who led England in World War 2 to face the onslaught of Adolf Hitler. England may have seen great rulers like Clement Atlee (Dravid) or Margaret Thatcher (MSD) but they can never forget Churchill’s contribution. Just like a phoenix rises from the ashes, Ganguly made his comeback in 2006 to serve Indian cricket for two more years.

Ganguly was neither a holy saint nor a crafty wizard. He signified the incandescent spirit of indefatigable character and fortitude. He served Indian cricket and its fans with utmost credibility and left Indian cricket in a much better state than he had inherited. What we do always determines who we are. Looking at Ganguly’s career in retrospect, he was certainly a fine player and our best captain.

Sourav “Dada” Ganguly was the best captain India had, and MS Dhoni is the captain of the best Indian team ever.