One of the news that took me by shock in the recent days was "sourav (i love to call him as sourav) calling it a day".
I m one of his greatest admirers, he is one of the best cricketing legend and best captain for india, even we can say one of the best captain in world cricket.
when everyone liked sachin, i don’t know the reason why I liked sourav, note the fact i too love sachin’s cricket, sachin is a master/ legend who is incomparable, yet something was special in sourav that made me his diehard fan, more than his cricketing ability i liked his
-> shrewd leadership quality,
-> fearless attitude to fight for the game . . .
sourav is one of the cricketer who has been constantly under the pressure created by media (for performing poor in 3 games out of 10) and by his roles n responsibility (opener, captain), even though under such massive pressure circulating him almost from year 2000 (when he started leading team india) to till date, he has delivered what best he can do. generally even great players failed when they are under pressure (needless to strike examples, we all know many of it).
he is the one of the indian cricketer who has been criticized and speculated more than anyone in the recent times; writing about him has been a business for media and they kept writing abt him. it has become a habit for them and even people like to read the news which often portrays him as bad cricketer and person with worst attitudes. worst part is that he has NOT been praised by the media even when he has done well. .. . his bright side was always kept under the dark.
there are people and players in our life, who gets the unfortunate luck of being criticized for doing ANYTHING wrong and not been praised even when they deliver SOMETHING good, sourav is one of the elite member in this unfortunate club.
selection committee dropped him even for the "REST of the Indian squad" in the irani trophy in early September this year:-
Dada during his press meet to inform us that the current test series will be his last one said "How long would I have played? Maybe, up to 2009. Maybe, seven more Tests. For that I was not prepared to take any more humiliation,"
this statement really moved me . ... one can understand how much it has hit his heart.
And here is what sourav added to the above statement "If a gun is held at your head, how far can you bear it. That too after playing 450 matches. I played badly in only one series. But others are not dropped. I have scored the highest number of runs after comeback,"
he has played 311 ODI and 110 test matches and scored close to 19000 International runs. Player with such caliber and history, was not even eligible for playing in a DOMESTIC match in india? are there players (new or old) who out formed him in the previous series in sri lanka or in Irani trophy???
as sourav said, he has been humiliated . . .
when the speculations over sourav's cricket future were almost dumped, by simply accepting the fact that sourav is no more in indian squad, he made one of the greatest comeback in world cricket ever,
he was included in the Test squad for the away series in South Africa in 2006-2007. He ended as the highest Indian run-scorer in that series and went on to slam back-to-back hundreds against Pakistan at home, the second of which was a glorious 239 in Bangalore.
after his comeback in dec 2006, he is STILL the highest run getter among all other indian test players during this period (dec 2006 to till date).
i would also like to quote few more important things; he was the man behind too many brave strategy changes (in the right way) in our indian ODI format; such as
- shuffling the players position based on the game need
- going with 7 batsmen and 4 bowler strategy.
- changing a regular batsman into wicket keeper batsmen . . . .
(in india, wicket keeper has only kept wicket and batting was his second priority for 30 years of ODI cricket, very few exceptions were present before rahul dravid was assigned a role of wicket keeper).
- who took the brave decisions to have positioned great players like sachin, rahul during the slog overs to score more runs
- and more to list.
all the players had a worst time in their cricket life and it was the case with sourav too . . .
- he also failed at too many ODIs (not ONLY he) and
- has poor foot movements (even he has it till now, although he has improved on lot better than it was originally)
- poor runner btn the wickets
but he is also the guy
- who times the ball next perfect to sachin/lara in the world,
- who squares (cuts) the ball as perfectly as rahul,
- he s one of the best (or rare) left hander’s who outburst at off spinners (generally off spinners has a good edge when bowling to left hander’s)
- fighting with only few players for most no of six hitters in ODI
- who's captain abilities are praised by most of the cricket players in the world
past is past, anyways I am happy with his retirement as I don’t want such a great leader to be humiliated anymore and I m happy to have seen his wonderful innings over these 12 years. More over everyone has a day to quit ... and “all the run machine will stop at one point of time”!!!!
one thing, i just wanted to make a note. .. he is the next best indian batsmen (at least by statistics) after sachin and he is one of the best indian captain so far, he deserves a better farewell (even if not a great one)....
we will miss such a great leader . . . . (I still feel, I have provided only very few facts abt such great leader and player).
Kind note: This Blog might be little (or very) long and might have bored you through its course of journey, I will be sharp and up to the point next time. Comments and criticism are more welcomed as I would also love to see the world from your eyes. :)
See u thro’ my next blog … some time soon.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Esak..Nice Blog. I just wanted to respond coz I am a big fan of Saurav too and here it is from my eyes:
"On the offside, first there is God and then there is Ganguly" - that's how this daring prince was often described. Yes..If Cricket was a religion in the nation, Saurav was certainly it's God. He was born a Maharaja and on the cricket field, he was no different. His was not a fairytale ODI debut, but in Tests, what better debut can there be for the Lord than a century at Lords, the Mecca of Cricket followed by another one at Trentbridge? He was compared to legends like David Gower so early in his career. Eveytime he is into the crease, Geoffrey Boycott would call him his favourite "Prince from Kolkata". Everytime he sends the ball soaring into the skies, he would call him "The Royal Bengal Tiger" and everytime he comes to bowl, he would call him "The Man with the Golden Arm". The things I liked about the Prince the most:
1) Agression : India had all the talent in the world to beat any cricket playing nation but they never really had the mental toughness to handle sledging, to set aggresive fields, to attack, to come back strongly from the jaws of a defeat. I can remember the umpteen number of times that Indians would set a defensive field or would play for a draw in a test match, which, with a positive attitude and gameplan could have very well been won. They would never really take a chance but Ganguly was different. Agression was one thing about this fearless fighter that yielded India different results. No wonder, he is the most successful Indian test captain till date surpassing Mohammed Azharuddin who was once considered to have the best captaincy record.
2) His tactic to use 7 batsmen and 4 bowlers: No doubt, this was a daring move, it required the wall (Rahul Dravid) to wear the Wicket Keeping gloves. Not many captains would have had the guts to ask asenior player like Dravid to do that but Ganguly did, and it did yield the results in the world cup. But for one bad day against the Aussies, India would have been the world champions in South Africa in 2003 after 20 long years.
I wouldn't say his bright side was never given coverage. He is someone who enjoyed the best of lives as a cricketer on and off the field during his peak times but the later part of his cricketing career is not what you would call a fairy tale ending. He did not deliver the goods for quite a long time after Greg Chapell took over as coach and did definitely not deserve to be in the playing eleven. Remember
"Form is temporary. Class is Permanent". It would not have taken too long for a player of Ganguly's class to be back with a bang. All Ganguly needed was a little time, a little break and some practice matches to be back into form but he was given far too more that was was required. No Surprise..Ganguly did bounce back in what is considered as one of the most successful and famous comebacks in cricketing history. Yet, his cricketing fortunes had already been decided by the selectors, some senior players and more importantly by Dhoni, the Indian captain for One day Internationals. He was shown the door from the 20-20 format of the game, then from the ODIs. The prince could take no more and decided to call it quits from Tests, the only format of the game that he was allowed to play.
In all, he was stylish left handed player who was graceful with his shots, aggressive, charismatic, daring, smart, passionate, arrogant and yet lovable. His maiden test centuries, his last ball boundary chasing a 300 plus score against Pakistan to win the Independence cup in Dhaka, the many sixes he hit in Taunton in 1999 World Cup againt Srilanka, the nail biting finish at the natwest trophy final at Lords followed by his shirt take-off controversy, his inspiring leadership during the 2003 World Cup and a historical comeback after a long run of poor scores are something that the Indian cricket loving public will always remember for their lifetime.
What better opponents to play than the mighty Aussies in his final series?? but should n't have been there a better farewell? Afterall, he is India's most successful captain and the only one to have lead India to a World cup final after the only other occasion in 1983. He has started the series with quite a good score in the first Innings and I wish the score only keeps increasing with every innings he plays in the series. Nothing would do justice to him than a century on his farewell. I am just waiting to see the God being given a "Guard of Honour" by the playing 22 and a standing ovation by the millions of cricket loving people in this nation and world over, in what would be his last walk back to the pavilion.
Saurav - We will Miss you!!!
Hi Esak,
When you are representing India, you must take the pressure. As you know cricket is a religion in India. So the expectation is too high.
Indian fans, they not only wants to see your performance, they relate with your attitude & characteristics as well.
You may not know the games played him & ex BCCI president behind the screen.
Why people still love Kapildev over Gavsakar because of Kapil's attitude & characterisitcs.
As we all know Rajnikanth is not a great actor while comparing with Kamalhasan. But Rajni is liked by many, even my daughter who is 2 yrs old likes him. The reason is very simple: He looks like a normal (boy next door) south indian. People relate to his attitude & characterisitcs of his real life not the reel life. Same goes for Vijay (over Ajith).
You are expected to perform then why u need appreciation?
When you are in public service or representing a country you have more responsibility. You have to take it. You should develop that skill to take more resonsibility. He was not give captancy on day one.
hi sens, this is really nice one. the way ur thoughts were organised in a continuous manner was really good. actually i dnt feel bored r felt its long
Post a Comment