Stars are often the hardest to reach when you try to infallibly reach them, by standing on tiptoes. The ones who jump up and grab them are the real heroes. Having fought his way through a million wagging tongues, apprehensible experts, homicidal critics and brutal marshes, Sourav Ganguly has finally called it a day.
If Kumble was subtle, Ganguly was overbearingly loud in his approach to the game initially, quite literally :) The ardor of the man was bordering on apocalyptic madness. His desire to succeed was raging through his veins like lava. Arguably one the best left handers the world has hated and loved at the same time leaves us with a legacy that could help bald men grow back their hair.
“When Sourav was discarded from the Indian team, he put up an extraordinary display of resilience and imbibed superhuman determination to prove his detractors wrong. He often used to get up in the middle of the night and awaken his house help. He used to clear the drawing room area and ask his help to throw plastic balls so that he could practice. This would often continue into the wee hours of the morning”
Sourav Chandidas Ganguly, the immortal controversial figure, the universal dada, the god on the offside, the arrogant brat who refused to carry drinks onto the field when he was the 12th man, the man who showed us that wrestlers are not the only people in the sports arena who can take off their shirts, the man who practiced in a park with two small bricks as stumps when he was unceremoniously dropped from the team….the man who gave Indian cricket the saber toothed edge…..
The essence of a hero lies in the manner in which he picks himself up bloodied and battered with sand crusts sticking to his face to fight one more battle. Sourav was the Julius Caesar (with something extra) of Indian cricket. Both were extraordinarily ambitious men, born leaders and arrogant in their own rights. Caesar defeated Pompey and took hold of a politically unstable Rome, while Ganguly took over the reins of the Indian cricket team when the country was recovering from the shocks of a grave match fixing scandal. Both Caesar and Ganguly accepted the crown of thorns. Caesar introduced a string of superfluous and excellent policies and commercial decisions which changed the face of Rome. Ganguly with his youth policy and his devil may care attitude infused the brash fighting spirit into the beggarly and defused Indian team. Caesar was betrayed by the man he trusted, Brutus, He was cornered from every side, stabbed and humiliated and finally laid to rest in a bloody mass on the very land he ruled. Ganguly was betrayed by the very coach whose job he himself had helped to secure and was humiliated badly.
But Ganguly did not die….he stitched his wounds back up and returned to the battlefield, hungry, bloodthirsty for runs and determined to cross out Lady Fortune’s curses which had affected his brilliant career.
The smiling Maharaj started off brilliantly at the beginning of his career, scaling new horizons, sailing like a Columbus, conquering and discovering territory when India toured abroad, following unbound precedents, dancing like a ballerina down the pitch and launching the ball into the crowd as if to say that the ground was not big enough for him and the ball together. His cover drives, like scones and tea on a sunny British afternoon, his square cuts like a Deverish swordsman aiming for the neck, his sweeps like the avenging Tsunami sweeping over helpless lands…punishing the opposition bowlers, literally all the off spinners of the world retreated back into the shadows on seeing him.
The man who spent lonely afternoons in a coffee shop on the South African tour when he was ignored by the rest of team, the man who preferred the company of a packet of chips and a stroll by the riverside to quell his anger at the injustice was in fact a stubborn man who hated failure. Sometimes when you hate failure badly enough, you end up winning. The man who tamed the Kangaroo, wrestled the Pathan and made the Jamaicans dance to his calypso was at one time the Don Juan of the cricketing world. Umpires were his least favorite animated objects on the cricket field and match referees were amongst his choicest friends. His policy of win the toss and bat first was simple and devastating enough. His aura was confidence personified….his sheer brutality in terms of giving it back to the opposition was stunning.
“Apne Dada ko to nahin bhule ???” the one television commercial which I am sure must have made true cricket lovers and Sourav fans cry or atleast have moist eyes once…. How earnest were his words!! How humbled was the man who once was the undisputed Lord of Indian cricket!! How mellow was the man who was once the king of brashness!!
From glory to dust, Sourav Ganguly has seen everything. From a prince to a pauper and then again back to being the Maharaj, the man with the magic touch has fought the eye of the sandstorm, been rudely polite :) and has also taught people how to pick up the towel once you have thrown it down. Straight talk and self assuredness are his greatest assets. India’s greatest ever captain ended his last test match at Nagpur in a most befitting manner. A mature and wonderful gesture on Dhoni’s part to allow him to captain the side towards the end for a brief interval , infused into him the lost energy and child like enthusiasm as the Maharaj for the one last time took to captaincy as a duck takes to water. As someone close to me rightly said that it was sad to see him not being interviewed during the prize distribution, but the prince did take his shirt off for the last time and closed the chapter on one of the greatest success and comeback stories in sports history. The Muhammed Ali of cricket has finally hung up his gloves. It made me cry….because I would never get to see the chequered bandana, the green yellow goggles, the nail biting and the play of a man who selflessly put his own successful opening slot on line to give India one of it’s current heroes : Virender Sehwag….. play in Indian colours. The man who quit tennis and football to turn to cricket deserves a tribute…..
Let us pay Sourav Ganguly the tribute he deserves. The man who was liked by some, hated by many but adored by millions has finally gone…..His memories will roam on the offside forever and his story will inspire generations to come…..His shirt will be firmly on his back and he will, I am sure give much back to Indian cricket because he has amassed so much from it…..
