Here is a man who has experienced it all in international cricket. He has had an eventful career with lots of highs and lows throughout his cricketing journey. He had a dream debut and a dramatic end to his career. When everyone doubted his abilities and raised questions over his selection in the national side, he silenced all the critics by his excellent performance at the highest level. He was dropped from the national team several times and made solid comebacks for which he is called ‘the king of comebacks.’ He also had a spat with the national coach and was quite controversial. He is of course the ‘Dada’ as he is fondly called.
Sourav ‘Dada’ Ganguly made his test debut against England at Lords with a brilliant century. After that there was none stopping him. He was not blessed with technique or power but he was a sheer timer of the cricket ball. His team mate, Rahul Dravid, calls him ‘the God on the off-side.’ His stroke play on the off side was spectacular. He has played many crucial innings. He was a champion player. He is India’s first left hander to have scored more than 7,000 test runs.
He was a good batsman but better he was as a captain. He is arguably the best captain India has ever produced. He changed the whole mind set of the players. He proved that Indians were no more a soft touring side. It was under his captaincy that India started performing well overseas and started believing that they were capable enough of winning matches abroad. He backed the players whom he believed in. He was very aggressive on the field. He never took a step back in speaking his mind out. He is known as a tough man on and off the field which is evident in his shirt removing act at the Lords balcony. He proved to the entire world that India was as good a team as England or Australia. He as a skipper led from the front. He had once kept Steve Waugh waiting for the toss that was the kind of daring personality he was.
Now that we’ll never see Sourav Ganguly play for India we are bound to miss him. He might well be remembered for more reasons than one but ‘The Prince of Kolkata’ will be a proud man for what he has achieved for so many years. His fans and cricket fans at large will surely remember this great man for the passion, focus, dedication and perseverance he had but what really defines him is his ‘never say die’ attitude. This is perhaps the end of an era.
