Sourav Chandidas Ganguly
You will not need too much of introduction
about this man.He is called as the god of off side. You need to understand the
bowler and his bowling to be a good batsman. You need to understand the batsman
and his batting to be a good bowler. You need to understand the game of cricket
to be a good captain!And Ganguly is a captain,the real captain. Though its not
a formal way of writing an article when you quote a personal incident but I am
forced to quote this incident;one of my 70+ year old relatives in 1999 on
seeing Ganguly’s 183 innings against Sri Lanka said “indha chinna paiyan romba
nanna aadrdhe !Ithaala dhaan India team
future la strong aaportho ennamo ! ” It means “this small kid plays
well!Because of him India’s future may probably get better! ”.And the most interesting part is, this was
the last words from his mouth.He died the next morning in sleep out of heart
attack.And his last words became true!
Ganguly is a great captain and probably
the greatest captain India had. And many will not decline if you say him as the
third greatest Indian batsman of all time. The Bengal tiger made his one day
international debut in the year 1992.Still he managed to become a regular
player of the Indian team only after 1996 test debut in which he scored a
century. From then on he started creating huge impacts with batting. 1997 to
2002 was his career peak and through out that period he was considered as the
best oneday batsman on earth even ahead of Sachin Tendulakar.He became the
third batsman in history to score a century in each of his first 2 test innings. In oneday internationals he
topped the calendar year 1999 with 1767
runs with an average of 46, which is the second highest ever runs acquired by a
batsman in a calander year next to Sachin’s 1894 runs in the year 1998 and 6
runs ahead of Dravid’s 1761 which he scored in the same year of 1999.His ODI
domination continued during the next year also as he again topped the calendar
year 2000 scoring 1579 matches(7th highest individual annual score
ever) but this was a better year than 1999 as he scored so many in just 32
matches which is better than the previous year’s 41 matches, with a better
average of 56 and 7 centuries in the year. But 1999 was not the first year for Ganguly to become the
highest run getter of a calendar year; in 1997 itself he achieved that feat for
the first time scoring 1338 runs. In 1998 when Tendulkar topped Ganguly stood
second in the world. So he was the 1997’s highest run getter, 1998’s second
highest,1999’s highest and 2000’s highest run getter!!From 1997 to 2000 he
played 147 matches and scored 6012 runs with 16 centuries and 33 fiftys.This 4
year achievement of Ganguly looks like
career figures of some top class batsmen of his period like Andy Flower
isn’t it? Is there any doubt why he was
called as the best ODI batsman during that period? Was Wisden wrong in rating
him as the 6th best ODI batsman of all time?
He managed to score 11,363 runs(5th
highest overall till date) in one day international format with 22 centuries .
He was not a great test player any way. Better to say that he was not so good
like onedays. His test performances are not of a legend’s standards.He managed
to score his only double ton towards the end of his career.Still he is a legend
for the things he did not only as a batsman but also as a bowler who has taken
100 oneday wickets with 5/16 as his best figures; Not only as a bowler but also
as a fielder who has taken 100 catches!;last but not the least,not only as a
fielder but also as a captain!He is the one who totally changed India’s
approach of playing from a coward’s approach to a tiger’s approach. Indians
always feared playing big teams in 90s which even Sanjay Manjrekar, a former
member of Indian team during 90s agreed with. Ganguly as captain changes
everything. He captained India to win 21 tests which is the best record by any
Indian captain! He has won 76 odis as a captain. He has a major role in India’s
2011 world cup victory though he retired 2 years earlier as he was the key
reason for the formation of strong and fighting Indian team!