Never has one man caught the imagination of a community like he has. Never has one man stood for the pride, success and character of a community like he has. Never has one man changed the shape of a sport in a nation like he has. Never has one man been so humiliated and trodden upon like he has been. Never has someone given it back to them like only he can.
Sourav Chandidas Ganguly. The name evokes two kinds of reaction. Utter disgust, ferocious hatred or unadulterated, uncompromising adulation. There is however, a third kind. One of respect and admiration. And as always, I fall in the third category.
When I first saw him, I did not like him. Apart from his off-side strokes, that is. But Sourav is neither about being a batsman nor about being a captain. In a sense he is comparable to James Braddock - the boxer who came out of wilderness during the 1930s US economic depression and inspired a nation to fight back - with dignity and with honesty. It gave them hope.
Hope. Now, that is quite a word. Isn't it?
In the last 60 years, Bengal has produced two cricketers of note. Pankaj Roy and Sourav Ganguly. One still has his name written in the record books for the highest opening stand in test cricket - but thats it. Pankaj Roy had no other notable contribution - definitely not to Bengali society or identity. In those times, Bengal had no dearth of people who gave her an identity.
In the last 20 years or so - the steady decline of Bengal, intellectually, politically, industrially, socially - in all spheres of life has been alarming. And its in this background came a regal master - fearless, hungry for success, and one who would not flinch an inch but come back at the opposition at all times.
Ganguly defined Bengal. He is passionate as almost all Bengalis are, he wears his heart on his sleeve - something which has been associated with Bengalis over time, he is political which again defines a Bengali, he does not mince words and is more often than not controversial - which I grudgingly admit is another Bengali trait. He is lazy, as most Bengalis are. And he is non-parochial. He stood up for people he believed in. He did not favour a player from Bengal but picked the best Indian side. And he put his neck on the line, always, without fail.
He will never have a grand farewell. We, as a nation, have never given our heroes that. His contribution to Indian cricket will never be recognized. In fact, except for statistical records, he would be confined to the dustbin of Indian cricket. So, lets not crib about it. Lets accept it as part of life of a 'great, gracious' nation. Let us just remember that for every run scored by Yuvraj Singh, for every wicket taken by Harbhajan Singh, for every century scored by VVS Laxman there was someone who saw it all coming when others did not.
And as a Bengali, thank him for showing what we are capable of. And that in spite of a decadent 30 year rule which has destroyed all what we had, we still matter - to India.
7 comments:
this, coming from a guy who fought tooth and nail against the concept of Simbly South, is alarming...
the one thing i liked abt Dada, apart from his Lord's shirt twirling, is the fact that he did not play the regional card like Sachin did for Kambli, or Azhar did for Raju... and u want to take tht away???
If only all Bengalis had qualities like Dada, the state wouldn't have lost its glory... but some of them do nuthin but bask in reflected glory :(
everybody has their ups and downs... dada had them too... we never remember ppl... we are too impatient for that... we only want instant gratification... i want my money's worth and i want it now... i dont care if somebody brought the indian cricket team back from the depths to the final of the world cup against the greatest side in the world... i only want india to put up a big show in that match... and if they lose one match to minnows as long as they can "come back" in another match we are willing to forget...
we are willing to forget that we could never beat a team like australia unless we had to "come back" and show someone something... like we did at perth...
All the world's a stage and every event is now a reality show... wwe to cricket... :(
I think, to be very honest to most of the people in India, some have got more than what is due while others have got less or nothing. This is not only true for sports in general, or cricket in particular - if we look around we will find thousands of such examples which I don't want to name.
I also get baffled at the double standard shown to certain people - and even more strange is the fact that people fight to justify such things under the guise of stupid reasons. Even to the extent of being branded as a moribund, regionalistic, retrogressive antinational - I supported what happened at Eden Gardens during that infamous test match. At times, you need to stand up for your people else people could easily take you for granted.
By all statistical examinations and dissertations, SCG would remain a player, who defied his limited skills, who challenged everything that came in his way, and also one who dared to challenge the unchallenged. He might not be in the category of Tendulkars or Dravids, but he would surely have his own place in those hearts whom he inspired, sowed the seeds of courage and gave the power to say - "Do a Ganguly".
SRK:
I thought I praised him for not been parochial. Where did I take that away? And I partially agree with the last para - some of his qualities are great but as a person he is pretty lousy !
Ranga:
Instant gratification it is!
Stam:
There are other ways of supporting your own people not by supporting your opposition. This mentality reeks of the general Indian tradition through history where we have invited others to invade us to settle our personal scores. Why did not Eden do a "No Sourav, no Cricket" which it did for Kapil Dev?
Agree with most of it.He's enriched Indian cricket as much, if not more, than any of his contemporaries and should get the lion's share of the credit for Indian cricket's turnaround in the new millenium.
For a less emotional and utterly cold-hearted take on the selection issue read nowcricket.blogspot.com
In whatever way I may have made fun of some of my bengali friends (or actually the ones who happen to belong to bengal) about ganguly, it was never possible for me to see Ganguly as a bengali player, in the same way as Sachin is not viewed as a Maharashtrian player or Dravid a Karnataka player. It seems to me that in order to derive our personal share of pleasure (sense of achievment!!), we often start identifying ourselves with successful people with whom we may have something in common like state, name, birthday etc etc. Ergo, we also feel sadness once the fountain of our derived, second-hand pleasure gets depleted.
After all, what is so bengali about Saurav. That he wears his heart on his sleaves (how about Sreesanth), that he is lazy (how about Inzamam), that he is aggressive (how about ponting). Such characterisation does not serve any purpose other than to propagate the existing stereotypes.
Ganguly will always be remembered by our generation as an aggresive player and captain, one who bounced back after being dropped (and also probably as a person who did some stupid adverts while he was not in the team). His silky off-drives against the best pace attack of the day offered some rare titillating moments to the connoisseur. That he was/is from Bengal matters only for our bengali friends. For the rest of us, he will always remain one of the greatest Indian players and captains.
By the way, writing his obituary may be premature as he may still bounce back.
Anindo:
I actually think that there is some sense in making a team for the future. But they could have done it after the Aus tour.
Pd:
I agree with the point fo stereotypes. But every community has some definite behavioral pattern and if you overlook that, then you are likely to miss out on the essence of the specialities of that community.
I really do not know how India will remember Ganguly - I doubt whether she will. But this post was written from the prism of a Bengali mindset and the objective was to explain what he meant to that community. Nothing more and nothing less.
And this was not an obituary. I will never write one for him.
I have not written anything about cricket or politics in my blog - I won't. But cricketers - yes, more to do with their character than their cricket.
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