Hello folks,
Here I am again with one of the most debated personality of Indian Cricket.
Sourav Ganguly, the architect who built the present Indian team which was down and out after the betting Controversies that ROCKED the cricket world.
It is he, who inspired the Indian team to scale great heights.
It is he, who inspired the Young brigade of present Indian team to become world class.
It is he, who taught the Indian team to look in to the eyes of the rival team and play hard cricket.
It is he, who’ss AT YOUR FACE ATTITUDE rubbed on the others in the Indian team.
It is he, who made us believe that EVEN India can win matches abroad.
Well the list just goes on and on....
Well all you Sachin and Dravid fans... please wait and read the complete review before you could comment something (I am a die hard fan of Sachin too)
His batting is the perfect blend of power and elegance.He has the gift of superb timing which allows him to bullet the ball to the boundary in a flash. But when he is on song - particularly in the one day game, his batting can be a deadly assault on the bowlers and a delight for the spectators. The manner in which he steps out and pounces on the ball, like a tiger on a hapless prey, is something to be cherished( Sadly, off late we haven’t had the opportunity to see that, but I am sure sooner than later we would !)
Why do we earn money? For our daily wages, to look after our family.. etc etc.. the answers would be many. Cricket is another form of earning money for your needs, as we all do in our respective profession. They are into Cricketing Profession. Then why did Saurav Join Indian cricket ? To make money for his daily wages ot to look after his family ? He is not playing cricket for his earning as all the other players of Indian cricket team do. He is from a very rich family. So he need not perform to earn money. He need not have to think about it as well, as he has money in plenty. Then what makes him perform so well at the highest level?
Let us look into some of the qualities of this LEGEND:
Commitment: Well, when I say Commitment, it does not only mean his fielding. As we all know he could definitely get better with his fielding.
I am talking about his commitment towards Indian cricket team to take it to the another level, his commitment towards the younger players to make them perform well and his commitment towards the younger players to not to undergo the SAME TREATMENT that he got when he first entered into the Indian cricket team.
Folks, mind you, these are not small qualities of any personality. These very qualities of Saurav, have taken the prince of Kolkatta to another level. Ask any junior cricketer in the Indian team and you would get to know the value of this ACE CRICKETER.
Mental strength:
He is mentally very tough and that is what required for a sports person. Saurav was never a cricketer during his childhood days, he started off with football and wanted to be a football player. Took cricket as his career very late but soon became so much popular that he was in the INDIAN CRICKET TEAM that toured Australia in 1991-92. From the childhood days you could see how tough he was mentally otherwise changing from football to cricket and getting in to the Indian team .... nobody can think about it, even in their WILDEST DREAMS.
This was just an example of his mental ability to adapt to situations. All of us know his ability when it comes to dealing with tough situations at cricket field.
At your face attitude:
Aussies came to India in 2001.They were on a role, winning 15 tests in a row.And it was the time when Indians were down to dust and not many had any hope that India would win the series. It was termed as Saurav’s ’’Litmus test’’ !
And when Indians lost the first test at Mumbai, hardly any soul in India or abroad thought that they would come back and win the test series. Lot of you guys could say that that win in Kolkatta which tilted the balance on our side is largely due to that Very famous partnership between Very Very Special Laxman and The wallDravid. But hey guys, any of you remember in which position did Laxman and Dravid came to bat in the first innings? Laxman came in at 4th down and Rahul 1st down. And how about in the Second innings? Saurav sent Laxman in on the fall of first wicket and Rahul at 4th down position... and what followed is HISTORY!
This is just one off example. It takes lot of guts and courage to take such decisions(Does not really mean this very decision). Otherwise it is very easy to go through the notions and meekly surrender to the opposition.
It is his At your face attitude and his mind games that did the Aussies in. He always gives back what he gets from the opposition. That installs the fear in the opposition.
Ability to rise like Phoenix:
Well, this is not the first time he is going through the lean patch, it had happened once before and he came out of that patch very strongly and I am sure he does the same this time around as well. As his scores in the recent outing for Glamorgon suggests, he is back in the fray and I am sure, the bad days for spinners would begin sooner than later.
The name, Saurav, strikes anger in some people’s eyes, happiness in others. It strikes fear to some bowlers, while as a victim to others. But the question is, is Sourav Ganguly an Indian Cricket Legend ? In a recent article in one of the forum I read that, Ganguly does not deserve to be in the INDIAN XI! Well guys, come on, just by looking at his previous 1-2 years records in batting, you cannot term him as a bad player. What about all those years in which he put efforts to be a champion match winner for India?
Just for your information, He has
the third most highest runs in ODI
the Second most centuries in ODI
the third most half centuries in ODI
the Second most man of the match awards
the World Record for 5 consecutive Man of the Match Awards(1997)- He was also Man of the series
More number of wins abroad ( Out of 16 odd test wins abroad by India in its long standing cricket history, Saurav has won more than 60 % as a captain)
Well this is my Personal opinion -- I personally feel Ganguly has been attacked by the fans of Tendulkars and Dravids. Because Ganguly was always threat to the Little Master’s Records(Because few years back if you had seen his Avgs in ODI and TESTs you would have thought he would soon break some of the records set by Tendulkar). I feel this not only rubbed off on the general public but on the media as well. People blame him for his inconsistency, but tell me which batsman barring Dravid is Consistent? I feel so sad when such a successful batsmen and captain, is targeted so much. If you pals think I am fooling around then for god sake check out the statistics, at least they don’t.
For any player/captain to be able to calm and control this STAR STUDDED Indian Team, it takes a lot of GUTS, ABILITY, ATTITUDE and COURAGE and Saurav Ganguly has them in plenty. Ganguly is the only captain who nearly won india a test series in australia , which no Indian Captain has ever done.
To be continued in Comments section...