Sometimes I wonder, what is it about ‘Greatness’ that is so selective in nature. Why can’t there be a lot of Greats because every person should ideally strive to be the best that he can be. And I wonder, what is it that makes a lot of ‘Greats’ be so vain that they cannot see when their time is up. Life is, after all, a journey and no matter what some silly lines might suggest that ‘Time stood still when… (she looked at me / Warne came on to bowl / Sachin raised his bat)’; believe me, it is all nonsense. Just that a few ‘Greats’ do not accept this brutal truth and want to latch on to those few moments when they removed their shirt, and time did stand still.
Saurav Ganguly, better known as the ‘Bengal Tiger’ or the ‘God of Off Side’ or some ‘Maharaja’ is definitely one of those ‘Greats’ who characterized the marked change in the attitude of India and Indians towards the world. India went from being a meek sidey pushover to the Bull in the pit, not only in cricket but also in other areas of World recognition such as Business, Economics and even Bollywood. Suddenly, during those few years, Indians decided that they didn’t need to take ‘shit’ and found a new confidence to stand up against their ‘white’ counterparts in all fields. I guess, before Ganguly ‘roared’, even the BCCI never fully realized its economic clout in world cricket.
Unfortunately, the ‘Greatness’ promised by Ganguly remained just that – a promise; unfulfilled coz. ‘Greatness’ cannot leave a bad aftertaste in your mouth. Greatness cannot be literally told to ‘get out’ when it still wants to be in. Greatness, among other things includes, knowing when to Quit. The career of many a great sportsmen passes through domestic level, club level and finally to international level. The career of Saurav Ganguly albeit seems to reverse this pattern, just like that guy Benjamin Buttons’ life in that movie. Being out of International cricket, he has been shown the door by the IPL owners and once he’s out of the IPL, he might as well finally quit Domestic cricket. The Hero has fallen.
Do not for a minute think that we Indians know nothing better than to deride greatness. We loved his hairy chest (not like someone loves a chest but figuratively speaking) when he removed his shirt during that Natwest Final, we loved him when he creamed deliveries through the off side even though the team put 7 players to cover his cover drives, we loved him when he stood by players he believed in, and when he held his head high and carried on with his job in the wake of the match fixing crisis.
Though the announcement of his retirement sounded a little funny considering, he did retire from International cricket and none of the IPL franchises were interested in him, there wasn’t really anything for him to go on, I still thought of remembering the guy. But again, even in the dying moments of his career, he displays he still wants to latch on to his past and claims to have never spoken of retirement, though a lot of people have already published ‘tributes’ for his farewell. Somehow, this reminds me of our Principal’s speech during our Annual Day celebration in school when in the middle of his long speech, all of a sudden, the students would start clapping, not in adulation, but to let him know that his time is up.
Life is not perfect… and so isnt this hero Sourav… !
He has always had been a flawed hero… Controversies have always been around him… he too has not always been perfect or ideal in them…
having said that I still am always most most thankful of him for changing the attitude as you mentioned. He was helped by having some great players around him… but the credit must go to him and only him for bringing the change in the way we approached things… no taking shit… !! as you said it..
I can never forget the mental disintegration of Steve Waugh during one innings in the 2001 series where Sourav stood at silly point and kept taunting tugga that he couldnt sweep bhajji and got him to sweep and edge to short leg. Tugga was the master of mental disintegration Sourav fell him at his forte… Dada was mercurial… temperamental… yes Amazingly gifted on the offside… but he didnt realise his time was up… !!
Like I said… life cant be perfect.. but I am most thankful to him nevertheless for the change, for the memories and yes for waving that t-shirt at lords…
Loved your take… I am always overtly biased towards our players and I guess it shows !
he he, yeah you are overtly biased… and once in a blue moon, a guy like Sachin proves you right
But the rest are mere mortals 
I’ll have to skip as this is a cricket-wala post. But all marks to you for the title
I agree with you rakesh, I think he needs to realise that the time has come to hang his boots, and I don’t have a clue about why ganguly is persisting to play in the IPL..??
He might be persisting but ‘Commerce sense’ prevails
Saurav Ganguly will always be hailed for ushering Indian cricket in a new era, for his flamboyant nature and for his zeal and enthusiasm. For someone who has lived his life on fields, may be it’s difficult to realize that it’s time to hang up his boots. On our part it’s easy to see and analyze though. But you summed it up well. Ganguly must be credited for building the team that it is today – Sehwag, Harbhajan, Yuvraj owe a lot to him.
“it’s difficult to realize that it’s time to hang up his boots” Wonder why it isn’t difficult for Aussies like Hayden, Gilchrist etc.?
But yes, the youngsters do owe him.
Oops, that was me!
I do beleive that Ganguly was made a scapegoat of some sorts and as usual we indians always follow the WHITE SKIN.. and thats what happeend after the CHAPPEL incident the whole of BCCI sided with him rather then there own.. and look what happened
Ganguly deserved much more than what he got but then thats how we indians work.. when the person is there we dont say anything but once gone everyone suddenly remember how great they were same happened with Kapil dev or Sidhu so much politics in a GAME
THe person who showed his hairy chest
and made all of us here show ours too and the ROAR in the field now tell me WHICH POLITICIAN can achieve that yet they are the ones who decided the FATE of a great player .. PITY REAL PITY
Arey Bikram, I think the problem is the opposite, we Indians worship Heros like they’re GOD and then it becomes very difficult to drop God from the team for poor performance. That is what happened with our cricketing greats.
For a long time, Ganguly was not in form but why wasn’t he ever dropped? Just because some time back, he was a great player? Doesn’t make sense.
Remember what happened in the 2007 World Cup? Why? Because we had the flop Dravid, Laxman, Ganguly and even Sachin in the team. All of them were in bad form and at least 2 of them didn’t deserve to be in the WC Squad. We were out in the first round.
And even after that humiliation, nobody quit. Everybody hung on. I guess, it was time to show them the door.
A lot is made out of Saurav’s contribution to Indian cricket with regard to making it ushering in a culture of competitiveness and so on. I don’t disagree but I do think a lot of credit for some that goes to Kumble as well, and not the least to the likes of Dravid and Laxman. How the latter in particular stood up to “white teams” on bouncy tracks have gone a long way in instilling confidence in the new generation of cricketers. Here are some thoughts and predictions on the WC semifinal – let me know what you think:
http://www.suite101.com/content/why-the-india-pakistan-semifinal-will-not-be-what-you-think-a362148