Sourav Ganguly: Story of the Visionary who triggered the change -Sohom’s blog

Sourav-Ganguly-at-Lords
Sohom Sehanobish’s Blog:
It was a cold December morning in 2007 when I was forced to concede the immense pleasure of witnessing yet another epic India Pakistan clash and go to my maths tutions. I did go out of my house, however only to sneak into a television shop near my house, where people used to queue up on matchdays to witness the Indian Cricket team in action. On that given day, the Warrior Prince from Bengal scored his first international century at his home ground. The ecstatic feeling I received from that particular innings was worth sacrificing the tution and worth taking some serious heat from my parents regarding my heinous act of bunking the class.

This is one of the few incidents that we, the people born in the late eighties or nineties are so used to. The time when the Bengali community needed a hero, who would turn out to be a role model for millions and finally bring an end to the tumultuous period Indian Cricket team was going through, a lad from Behala named Sourav Ganguly emerged, an he formed the dynasty with style. Whether it was scoring a ton at his debut at the mecca of cricket, Lords, whether it was that epic knock of 183 in the summer of 1999 or whether it was the 5 year spell of captaincy, which changed the landscape of Indian Cricket Forever.

The ongoing allegations of lobbying, region based nepotism ended once and for all under Ganguly’s regime. His constant backing for the group of young exciting talents like Sehwag, Yuvraj, Zaheer, Harbhajan and Dhoni led to them playing their natural fearless game, which helped in forming the integral core of the Indian side for a long long time. Controversies surrounded the Indian Cricket again during 2005 when Ganguly was sacked as captain and eventually dropped from the team, leading to severe protests throughout India and constant criticisms against then coach Greg Chappell.

The following story is nothing less than a fairytale as Ganguly returned into the side with sheer brilliance as he ended up being the second highest run scorer in tests and fifth highest run scorers in one dayers in 2007, thus cementing his legacy in the cricketing folklore forever.

The name Sourav Ganguly, irrespective of personal likings and dislikings, remains a myth in India. His attitude, wittiness, aggression, dedication, determination are part of a topsy turvy journey that encouraged millions around the globe to bow down and embrace the “Dadagiri”.

That heartbreaking feeling when he delivered an emotional message in that Pepsi advertising leading up to the ICC champions trophy in 2006, questioning people that did they forget who’s Ganguly?, got converted into a hysterical myth when he hung up his boots in 2008. On his 45th birthday, we pay tribute to that same old myth, the Visionary who taught us something can happen, if we have our hearts set in the right place. Happy birthday, Dada!