Farewell Ganguly

Farewell Ganguly

	In Australia and England, Ganguly is seen as a man of privilege, someone who clicks his fingers and an army of servants arrives to clip his nails or fan his face © AFP

Unlike most Australians, I like Sourav Ganguly. If he was Australian he’d have been my favourite player at stages over the past decade. Even though I preferred Steve Waugh, I was still amused by Ganguly’s ability to irritate Australia’s on-field Mr Unflustered. Ganguly could melt The Iceman just by turning up late for the toss.

Ganguly is a great tease. If he was Australian he’d be celebrated as a rascal and a larrikin, but as an opponent he’s rude, elitist, prickly, a time waster and serial pest who couldn’t play the short ball. I don’t know why, but I admire him for these weaknesses.

To have appeared in 113 Tests while dealing with short balls as uncomfortably as if he was being shot at by arrows is astounding. The game is hard enough without having to cope with a serious deficiency as well, but Ganguly did it. I didn’t really like his replacing of gloves or protective gear every couple of overs, or his calls for socks, blister pads, face wipes and grapes. Bowling 90 in a day is hard enough without the batsmen joining the turtles with the ball, although it added to Ganguly's character and ate at his opponents.

In Australia and England, Ganguly is seen as a man of privilege, someone who clicks his fingers and an army of servants arrives to clip his nails or fan his face. Maybe his life is like that, but after being dropped as captain and batsman by Greg Chappell, I liked him even more when he had to sweat to come back. Not everything in life was laid out for him.

At a presentation during the week to celebrate his playing achievements, Ganguly spoke about the need to make enemies for the good of India. He talked gently and softly, but with purpose. Of the players I’ve seen, only Shane Warne and Graeme Smith have been as magnetic. When Ganguly enters a room I’m drawn to him and even when he’s said nothing of real interest, I’ve been entertained. During the times when he’s sniped and picked and teased it’s been even better.

Before the start of this series he was defending his form and was reported by a Bengali newspaper to have complained “every Tom, Dick and Harry is playing for India”. For two days he let the story run before issuing a denial. Off the field he was equally good at playing games and scoring points. I will miss Ganguly for his entertainment and his spice. With each year more characters leave the game and as public life becomes increasingly sanitised, I wonder if they can be replaced by the next generation of media-managed clones.

Seven Ganguly's moments

Seven Ganguly moments

Hello, Lord's to farewell, lads

November 10, 2008

	Sourav Ganguly gets a hundred on debut © Getty Images

Debut dance
It's his Test debut, and he is believed to be a political selection for the tour to England, a perception he puts paid to in seven-and-a-half hours of blissful batting. The image - Ganguly celebrating, arms aloft, no brashness of the later days, and Rahul Dravid applauding him in the background - is enduring: the wait has finally ended; the boy who persistently called newspaper offices for four years to see if he is in the team has arrived.

That don't impress me much
In 2000-01 Australia are a world-beating team with 15 straight wins behind them and are at the final stop on their conquest. One man is not impressed. "They have won most of their games at home, beaten West Indies 5-0 at home, beaten India, Pakistan at home," Ganguly welcomes Australia. "They toured here in '96 and lost. They toured here in '98 and lost. So obviously that's going to be at the back of their mind." No awe here. If that doesn't rile Australia, Ganguly goes further during the series. He walks out late for the toss and, if he wins it, he walks off on his own after letting the TV interviewer know what India choose to do. Once, after being pulled up by Cammie Smith, the match referee, he turns up five minutes before the toss - in his tracksuit top. "You had to give him an 'A' for effort in his attempt to annoy us," Steve Waugh writes in his book, "and in particular me. It worked to a certain extent."

Doing the HQ
Indians, not the least Bengalis, are supposed to be studious, meek, wristy, oriental artists. They are not supposed to make opposition captains wait at the toss, make fielders tie their shoelaces and, worst of all, sledge. There the Indian captain is, at Lord's, no less, waving the shirt he wore a moment ago, shouting four-letter words again and again. With Ganguly, India's aggression goes naked, one of the turning points in the nation's cricketing history.

Surviving the Gabbatoir
He sweeps Stuart MacGill just wide of fine leg, runs very hard to convert what is for him an easy one into two, leaps twice in elation, almost trips over, pumps the air, holds his arms aloft and, without uttering a word tells every Australian that he enjoyed the "sweet chin music". This is the Gabba, and the year is 2003. Not only the Australian team, the whole nation, it seems, is after him, and this is test of the captain's mettle. The innings has it all - urgency, emotion, disdain - and sets the pace for the series.

Refusal to die
Only about a couple of hundred have come to watch him play a Duleep Trophy match in Rajkot. The email has already been leaked, his integrity questioned. On the surface he has been left out on fitness grounds, but the writing is on the wall. The North Zone attack - VRV Singh, Gagandeep Singh, Amit Mishra and Sarandeep Singh - does not sound intimidating, but on a greenish Rajtok track they are a handful. He comes in to bat on the second day, his team struggling at 54 for 3, and then at 59 for 4. In the short period before stumps, he is hit on the head by VRV. A different Ganguly appears the next day: he is sure, and he is aggressive. He plays all his shots, including the one where he makes room and slashes over point, a shot he usually employed in one-dayers. By the time he finished he had scored 117 off 143, and sent across the message that he should be playing somewhere else.

One for himself
The one word that describes the Ganguly who has made a comeback to the Indian side is serene. Almost monk-like, he goes about his business - fields mostly at the fine-leg boundary, bowls a few overs, and bats with utmost calm. No more shirt flinging, no more nail biting on the field. His last century, in Mohali, is one such effort. A century is almost inevitable from the moment he joins Sachin Tendulkar at the crease. Upon reaching the landmark, he doesn't react extravagantly, despite the drama behind his comeback to the side, he just smiles to himself, pumps the air, and gets on with it.

'Just one last thing lads'
Does he choke for a brief second? After he says "Just one last thing lads" and before he drops the bomb. He does pause, for sure. Is he collecting himself? Does he wait to make sure words will come out? Once he has said what he has said, you are too stunned to think what has happened in that split-second. "Before I leave, I just want to say that this is going to be my last series. I've decided to quit. I told my team-mates before coming here." And the lads don't have a word to say. They look at him, they look at each other, they look down. The announcement is all Ganguly: he comes in late for the press conference, he is mildly humorous, takes all questions in good spirit, and waits for the media coordinator to end the conference before catching everyone off guard.

'I want to cherish this for a long period'

India v Australia, 4th Test, Nagpur, 5th day

'I want to cherish this for a long period'

November 10, 2008

	Sourav Ganguly: "I was disappointed with the 85 I got. I was so close to getting a hundred. That was more disappointing than the first-ball duck" © AFP

Speaking after his final day of international cricket, Sourav Ganguly has said his most significant contribution was to raise the image of Indian cricket by building a team that was competitive overseas.

"During the phase from 2000 to 2005 [when he was captain], and it's still going on now, Indian cricket's image has gone up immensely, especially while touring," Ganguly said. "We were always termed as soft when we travelled. I think that has changed considerably. At the present moment India are a formidable side home and away.

"I was lucky to have Sachin [Tendulkar], Rahul [Dravid], VVS Laxman, Anil [Kumble], [Virender] Sehwag and Harbhajan [Singh] probably playing their best cricket at that stage. We've always been a strong team at home. The overseas results I'll always cherish."

Under Ganguly's captaincy, which began in November 2000, India won 11 Tests overseas including matches in Sri Lanka, West Indies, England, Australia and Pakistan. India's success abroad has continued even after Ganguly's tenure ended but he felt that the challenge for Mahendra Singh Dhoni's team now would be to continue winning after the retirements of key players. However, he felt Dhoni would be up to the task.

"Captaincy is a spark, it's not just preparation or the homework, it's about the spark on the field, which MS [Dhoni] has," Ganguly said. "He's got that extra bit of luck which you require in captaincy. I have never believed too much in the drawing board. I see a lot of that in MS Dhoni. He doesn't believe much in team meetings and all. He just does what he sees on the field. He will be tested when India goes overseas and I'm sure he will live up to it."

There was a lovely moment during the final passage of the Nagpur Test when Dhoni handed over the captaincy to Ganguly for some time. It was a magnificent gesture and fittingly, it was exactly eight years to the day since Ganguly had begun his tenure as captain in 2005.

"I didn't expect MS to ask me to captain the side for five overs," Ganguly said. "I was already switched off, so he woke me up. I didn't know what was happening the first six-seven balls. Luckily they were nine down so I managed to do it for three and then said it's his job, not mine any more."

What next? Sourav Ganguly had left international cricket and several people wanted to know what he was going to do in the future. Will you become a commentator? Will you write an autobiography? Ganguly answered each of those questions by saying he wanted some time off. "Commentary means travelling all the time," he said. "I don't think I'm ready yet. I've got other things to do at home. I've been on the road for 13 years. "It [an autobiography] takes a lot of time and patience. I don't know whether I have the patience. I'll take some time off and then take it from there."

Ganguly had been under tremendous scrutiny before the start of this series and his place in the squad was uncertain after he was left out of the Rest of India squad for the Irani Trophy. However, he was named in the 15-man squad and he announced his retirement before the series began. Ganguly made valuable contributions during his final series, steering India to safety in Bangalore, scoring a century in Mohali, and 85 in the first innings of the Nagpur Test. He finished the series with 324 runs at an average of 54 and India regained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

"We've beaten the best team in the world 2-0," he said. "I've played well, the team's played well. There were lot of doubts after we came back from Sri Lanka. The way this Test match finished … it's probably one of the best finishes I've seen in terms of a team performance. I want to cherish this for a long period. I could easily sacrifice ten to 12 Tests for this."

When asked which of the numerous series that he's been involved in was the most memorable, Ganguly thought for a moment before picking out two of India's best moments in this century: the 2000-01 home victory against Australia and the drawn series in Australia in 2003-04.

Was he disappointed with his first-ball duck his final innings? "I was disappointed with the 85 I got," Ganguly said. "I was so close to getting a hundred. That was more disappointing than the first-ball duck."

Ganguly left a Test venue as an Indian cricketer for the final time on the shoulders of Harbhajan Singh and VVS Laxman but the dramatic scenes that played out after Kumble's announcement in Delhi were absent. "This is my time to leave," he said, and he went quietly.