Dressing Room - Sourav Ganguly

Sourav Ganguly made his international debut for India as a precocious 19-year-old in an ODI against the West Indies at the Gabba in Brisbane in January 1992. He had a pretty unremarkable debut scoring just 3 runs and that coupled with supposed rumors about his attitude led to him being consigned to the cricketing wilderness for more than 4 years. He made a dream debut to his Test career, scoring 131 on his Test debut at the home of cricket, Lords in 1996.  Most players would give their right arm to have such a beginning to their Test career and to announce his entry on such a stage is the stuff that fairytales are made of and Ganguly silenced all his detractors with that innings. Ganguly’s 131 against England is the highest score by a debutant at Lords and he is one of just 105 players who have scored a Test century on debut.

While Ganguly scored a lot of runs in Tests, he wasn’t one of those batsmen who churned out a lot of runs but was boring to watch. His batting had a touch of majesty and grandeur and he was considered one of finest timers of a cricket ball. His batted with a sublime grace and it was only fitting that one of his first idols in cricket was David Gower. Ganguly’s batting particularly through the off-side had a touch of grace and imperiousness and he is considered one of the finest players through the off-side. Rahul Dravid once famously remarked that as far as playing through the off-side was concerned, Ganguly was second only to God.

Ganguly played in 113 Tests and scored 7212 runs at a batting average of 42.17 with 16 centuries and 35 fifties. His record may suggest that he was just one of many good players to play Test cricket, but if ever there was a player who was better than what his record suggested it was Sourav Ganguly. Ganguly is currently the 6^th highest run getter for India in Tests and he played the 8^th most number of Tests for India.

However, it is as a captain that Ganguly has left an indelible imprint on world cricket in the Test arena. Prior to Ganguly, most individuals who had led India in Tests had a colonial hangover and in fairness to them also led poor teams. Therefore, India’s record particularly away from home in Tests, left a lot to be desired. Ganguly gave India the belief that they could compete with the best and one of his main aims upon assuming the mantle of Test captaincy was to improve India’s Test record away from home. Ganguly’s 21 Test wins as captain was a record for India at the time of his retirement. It has since been surpassed by Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli. He also jointly holds the record for the most Test wins by an Indian captain away from home with 11 wins to his name.

In 2000, Indian cricket was reeling under the match-fixing scandal and needed a strong personality and a credible figure to restore the faith of the fans in the team. Sachin Tendulkar already had two unsuccessful stints as Test captain and was not keen to assume the mantle. Ganguly strode forward and calmly but surely guided India through the murky waters. There are some players who lead the team through the sheer weight of their performances, some lead the team through the force of their leadership and others through their tactical acumen. Very rarely, in Test history does a player score highly in all 3 parameters. Ganguly was a fine leader who inspired his troops and was tactically brilliant. He performance with the bat as Test captain was modest at best. He averaged 37.66 as captain while averaging 45.15 as just a player, but it would be erroneous to conclude that he was weighed down by the pressures of captaincy. He took to captaincy like a fish to water. Ganguly was a good Test match player but it was in the ODI arena that he made his mark.

Ganguly played 308 ODIs for India and 3 for Asia XI and scored a combined 11363 runs at an average of 41.02 and a batting strike rate of 73.7 with 22 centuries. He is the 8^th highest scorer in the history of ODIs and is the joint 9^th highest scorer of centuries in ODIs. Ganguly scored 9146 runs as an opener in ODIs and there is no doubt that his elevation to the opener’s slot in ODIs during Sachin Tendulkar’s reign as captain did his career a world of good. At one stage of his ODI career, he was the second most sought after wicket by the opposition after Tendulkar. He might have been just a good player in Tests, but in ODIs he is an all-time great.

Ganguly is the only cricketer to win 4 consecutive Man of the Match awards in ODIs. He became the first player to score 3 centuries in the history of the ICC Champions Trophy. He is one of just 5 players to achieve the treble of 10000 runs, 100 wickets and 100 catches in ODIs. His 183 against Sri Lanka in the 1999 World Cup is the highest by an Indian in World Cup history. In 2002, the Wisden Cricketers Almanack ranked him as the 6^th greatest batsmen in ODI history. Ganguly was awarded the Banga Bibhushan Award from the Government of West Bengal on 20^th May 2013. He is also a co-owner of Atletico de Kolkata, a franchise of the Indian Super league which won the title in the inaugural season in 2014.

Like almost every international cricketer, Ganguly has been involved in his fair share of controversies. In cricket, irrespective of the seniority of the player, it is a tradition that a player who is 12^th man carries the drinks and passes messages from the dressing room. There were rumors that on India’s tour of Australia in 1991-92, Ganguly refused to carry the drinks. This story if true does not reflect well on him. In 2001, in the Test series against Australia at home, he riled the Australian skipper, Steve Waugh by deliberately turning up late for the toss. This incensed the Aussie skipper, who felt that it amounted to lack of respect. However, this was a clever bit of gamesmanship from Ganguly who wanted to get under the skin of Steve Waugh and a bit of hypocrisy from the Aussie captain, as the Aussies are known to indulge in a lot of gamesmanship themselves.

In 2002, when India beat England in the final of the Natwest Trophy on 13^th July, Ganguly removed his shirt and started waving it around in the balcony of the dressing room. Most pundits felt that such conduct was inappropriate and unbecoming of an international captain. However, Ganguly has always been known to wear his heart on his sleeve and he insisted that he was merely retaliating to what Andrew Flintoff had done at the Wankhede Stadium when England had levelled the ODI series earlier in the year. He showed that he would not take any disrespect towards Indians or India lying down and that he would reciprocate in equal measure.

The most famous controversy of Ganguly’s career was his much-publicized spat with the Indian team coach, Greg Chappell. During India’s tour Down Under in 2003-04, Ganguly had sought Greg’s advice on some issues regarding the former’s batting. Later, Ganguly had recommended Greg’s name for the coach of the Indian cricket team.

During India’s tour of Australia in 2003-04, Ganguly had scored a breath-taking century at the Gabba in Brisbane in the 1^st Test and while India did not go on to win the series, they drew the 4 Test series 1-1. However, after this Test, Ganguly suffered a prolonged slump in form and scored just 580 runs in his next 13 Tests at 32.22 without a single century. In September 2005, Greg Chappell became the coach of India during the tour of Zimbabwe. Chappell emailed the Board of Control for Cricket in India stating that Ganguly was physically and mentally unfit to lead India and that his divide and rule behavior was damaging the team. This email was leaked to the media and resulted in a huge backlash from Ganguly’s legion of fans. Ganguly has enlisted the support of the Indian media and the Board had to intervene and order a truce between the two. Ganguly, Chappell, and the Indian team manager for the Zimbabwe tour, Amitabh Choudhary were asked to appear before the BCCI committee, where it was reported that the assurance of working together was given by them. Consequently, due to his poor form and differences with the coach, Ganguly was dropped as captain and Rahul Dravid was appointed in his place. Ganguly soon lost his place in the Indian team and did not represent India for almost 11 months before making a comeback.

Author Mihir Bose commented that the cricket world had gotten too used to the stereotype of the meek Indian cricketer and that this changed under Ganguly. He credits Ganguly for not being shy of taking on responsibility. Ganguly led a side that had all-time greats like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble without any problems. Under Ganguly’s leadership, India started to win Test matches away from home and their overseas record improved considerably under his leadership. They also started winning ODI tournaments and India’s reputation as a cricketing nation was enhanced during Ganguly’s tenure as captain.

One of Ganguly’s most vital contributions to Indian cricket was identifying talent and backing them to the hilt and giving them enough chances to cement their place in the team. Virender Sehwag was a middle order batsman who became an opener due to encouragement from his skipper, During India’s tour of England in 2002, Ganguly persuaded Sehwag to open the batting in Tests, assuring him that even if the latter failed, he could reclaim his place in the middle order. Ganguly was a formidable opener in ODIs and forged a great partnership with Sachin Tendulkar. In ODIs, the best place to bat is at the opening position where a player gets a bit of time to settle in and can also take advantage of the field restrictions. However, seeing the potential of Virender Sehwag as an explosive opener, Ganguly selflessly relinquished his opener’s slot and promoted Sehwag to open the batting as he felt that it was in India’s best interests for Sehwag to provide an electrifying start at the top of the order. He also encouraged Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh when they were going through a lean patch.

Even Mahendra Singh Dhoni has a lot to thank Ganguly for the encouragement he provided the former in ODIs. In his first 4 ODIs, Dhoni had scored just 22 runs at a paltry average of 7.33. Still, Ganguly had a lot of faith in Dhoni’s ability and in the next match against Pakistan at Vizag, he promoted Dhoni to the number 3 position and Dhoni scored a blistering 148 off 123 balls to cement his place in the team.  Ganguly was impartial, non-parochial and constantly pushed his players to raise the bar with their performances. If he felt that a player had potential then he backed them without any reservations.

Currently, Ganguly is the President of the Cricket Association of Bengal and President of the Editorial Board with Wisden India. He is also a hugely respected commentator and enriches the experience for the viewers with his insightful commentary.

Post his international retirement, Ganguly played in the IPL for the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Pune Warriors but was unable to reach the dizzying heights that he attained at the international level, as he was past his best.

Ganguly’s legacy to Indian cricket is instilling self-belief in his players that they could take on the best teams in the world and that they were there to win and not merely compete at the international level. Most pundits consider him to be India’s greatest ever captain in Tests and a lot of players who played under him consider him to be the finest captain they ever played under. In spite of the many controversies that he was involved in, Ganguly remains one of India’s finest ever players and one of their greatest cricketing sons.

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