I am an ardent fan of Saurav Ganguly. The man who transformed Indian cricket and the way the players approach every game, especially on foreign shores. He instilled the much needed confidence in every player. His shenanigans of making Steve Waugh wait for the toss during the famous 2001 series was legendary. The entire Indian community will owe him a debt of gratitude for what he achieved as a captain. Test wins in England, Australia and West Indies, who were the pushovers they are now, was unexpected but sweet. The same Ganguly, since his retirement, has become somewhat of a rotten apple. Ganguly needs to grow up. More of that later. First about the man himself.
Multiple books speaks about a divided team
I have read quite a few books that were written by some of the former players. It includes Straight from the heart by Kapil Dev, Sanjay Manjrekar’s Imperfect. Saurav Ganguly’s A century is not enough, Laxman’s 281 and beyond. Apart from these, there were innumerable number of articles in various publications. In all the publications, almost everyone talks about some kind of rift within the team throughout their playing career. East vs West, South vs North, senior vs junior etc.
Infact, Manjrekar even goes on to write that the Mumbai players, when it comes to Ranji trophy were much more motivated than while playing for the country. He also adds that the players from the north, especially the seniors, expected everyone to address them with respect. Ganguly & Laxman writes that the players were more worried about their individual contribution than the team’s cause partly because of the less chances newcomers are given and partly because they were not at all comfortable when they played because of the bigger names in the team.
Laxman writes that whenever he was dropped, he didn’t really know the reason and no one bothered to tell him why was he was dropped and what are the areas that he needs to improve. From all these accounts, it seems that the Indian cricket team of the 80s and 90s were very much individual driven rather than a collective effort driven towards a common cause.
How Ganguly changed this division
When Ganguly became the captain he did not care about which state or zone is a player from. If he sees talent, he supported them all the way until they realised their potential. He ensured that the newcomers are integral to the overall planning and that they are given adequate space to express themselves. All kinds of divisions north/west, senior/junior were all eradicated.
When Ganguly became The Captain
It was under such depths of despair did Ganguly took over the captaincy. Immediately, he moulded the team into a fighting unit. He placed a lot of importance of winning outside the country. He led from the front like the 144 he scored in Brisbane. Ganguly also ensured he gave opportunities to youngsters who turned out to be match winners. He brought the best out of Dravid, Laxman & Sehwag who won many games during Ganguly’s tenure. His inspired move to ask Sehwag to open, Dravid to keep wickets proved to be brilliant decisions.
After more than 16 years, the team went onto win games in West Indies, England, Australia & Pakistan. I do agree that except for Pakistan, he did not win any series in the above mentioned countries but statistics do not always convey the real picture.
But the Ganguly off late is a whining maniac
First, the total and utter failure as the President of the BCCI. Then, came the mismanagement in selecting the coach of the Indian team when he and Ravi Shastri washed dirty linen in public. The Virat Kohli fiasco followed and now, he has said that it was he who appointed Rohit Sharma as the captain and seeks credit for that.
“I was criticised when I handed over the captaincy to Rohit. And now that we’ve won a trophy under his captaincy, no one is abusing me. Everyone has forgotten that I made him the captain,” Ganguly said in a chat with a Bangla newspaper AajKaal.
First of all, does Ganguly even realise that when Kohli was removed, Rohit was the only choice? He was already the captain in T20. Next to Kohli, infact, he is much more experienced than Kohli in terms of number of years at the highest level. Obviously, he became the captain. Even if someone who does not know the game at all was the pick the captain, he would have picked Rohit. There wasn’t any obvious replacement. It is not that Ganguly picked Rohit from a tree and made him the captain.
Wrapping up Ganguly must grow up
It has been 17 years since Ganguly retired. He has been in the news since then. Now that he does not have any responsibility, it is better if he remains quiet.