Sourav Ganguly

Ganguly holds a special place in Indian cricket history. For a specific time period in his playing days he was at once the most hated and most loved player in the team. His captaincy tenure has got to be one of the most chronicled ones in recent times. More than his proficiency on the off side, his prolific partnership with Sachin in ODIs, his run in with Greg Chappell etc it is his role as a captain in shaping up a young team for which he is most remembered. He took over at a tumultuous time in the wake of the match fixing saga and, along with the likes of Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble, forged a team that was formidable at home and more than competitive overseas. His relationship with John Wright, India's first foreign coach proved to be the catalyst for India's admirable show in away tours. Ganguly emphasised on the need to be fearless and he led by example in this aspect. His ability to get under the skins of the opposition was built up over time and his brash attitude earned him quite a few call ups into the match referee’s cabin but Ganguly was steadfast and believed that the attitude helped India move forward. His actions were backed with performances on the field too. He finished his career as India's most successful captain and led India to a World Cup final too in 2003.

For all his success as captain his batting form took a turn for the worse during his time as captain. Ganguly burst into collective memory in 1996 with back-to-back Test hundreds in England. Subsequently he started to open the innings along with Sachin Tendulkar in ODIs. The duo formed what was arguably the most dangerous opening partnerships in ODI cricket history but his success in the shorter format did not translate in an equal measure in tests. Ganguly was worked over by the bowlers in the longer format and his deficiency against short pitched bowling was something that was picked up by bowlers and captains the world over. This was just the beginning of his problems though.

In 2005 Greg Chappell took over as India's coach from John Wright. The relationship between the two strongly opinionated people cracked as time went by. It came out into the open when Chappell's dismissive mail to the BCCI criticising the then captain's ability to lead the side was leaked to the media. A hurt Ganguly threatened to leave the tour midway and had to be pacified by the senior members of the team to continue on with the tour. His poor batting form did not help his cause either and Ganguly had very little public support. He had not scored a ton in more than two years. The long drawn drama ended when Ganguly was finally dropped from the national team and Rahul Dravid was named as his successor. He continued to be on and off in the team for a while but failed to cement his place. He got another chance on the tour to South Africa in 2006 after he was recalled to add some experience to a team that had faced a humiliating exit in the just concluded Champions trophy.

Relieved off the pressure of captaincy and coming back after a while Ganguly was hungry for runs that could restore his reputation. He went about his batting in an uncharacteristically calm manner and ended up as the highest run scorer in the series. He found his mojo in the ODIs too and his prolific run scoring in 2007 earned him a place in the highest run-getters of 2007 just behind Jacques Kallis. His ODI performances were on an upswing too after earning a Man of the series award against Sri Lanka. This was also the year when Ganguly recorded his career best of 239 against Pakistan in a Test in Bangalore. These performances however failed to earn him a spot in the CB series in Australia in 2008 when the selectors opted for a young team with an eye on the future. His form dipped once again as he failed to produce the big scores in a series against Sri Lanka and questions were raised once more regarding his inclusion for Australia's tour. Ganguly answered the questions by choosing to retire immediately after the Australia series. He was given an emotional farewell with the captain MS Dhoni handing him over the reins for a while in the fag end of his last Test in Nagpur in 2008.

Ganguly retains his magnetic ability to attract attention much like his playing days when things like him waving his shirt on the Lord's balcony, his coming late for the toss etc grabbed headlines. He has also taken a new avatar as a TV analyst and commentator but he remained an active player in the domestic circuit even three years after his retirement and played both in the Ranji trophy and the IPL with sporadic success until 2012.

The Government of West Bengal honoured Ganguly with the Banga Bibhushan Award on 20 May 2013. He was also awarded the Padma Shri, one of the highest civilian awards in India, in 2004.

By Ganesh Chandrasekaran