To the Prince.

Sport.
An instrument of passion. An instrument that can bring people with any amount of differences. There is a certain magic. A certain 'high' it delivers that is not easily found. Ask a passionate supporter what it feels to be watching his team playing beautiful and effective sport, or just rather watch him while he is at it, and you will know what I am talking about.
There can be many theories about what exactly is it that binds so many people together not just with each other but also with the players out there. But it just cannot be explained by a particulr reason. It's a whole bag of things sport and the sportspersons who play it bring to the life of the common man that makes it special.He doesn't have to know the skills of the game. He doesn't have to know the correct technique or tactics. It's an identity the fan imbibes,...of the player, of being part of the team, of being part of a fraternity far greater than himself, of geniuses, of warriors and of heroes.
This introduction, I hope, would help me lay out the importance and the stature of the man that is and the cricketer that was Sourav Ganguly.
Let me make it clear. I was not a die hard fan of Ganguly and am not still. The real premise of this post is to be able to give something back to someone with an undeniably huge stature in Indian Cricket but has to go out in ways that are not fit for someone of that stature to say the least.
Sourav Ganguly, in his time, for most Indians was second only to Sachin Tendulkar. Now that says something about the man. I myself have had arguments about who is a better player in fun. But is there any other player in the last decade or two that you can actually compare with Sachin? I don't think so.
He brought with him an elegance and class that was rarely seen in Indian Cricket and with it, I am sure inspired many a young batsman to time rather than hit the ball to the off side. He brought with him a certain regal style which as is true about sport was relived by every pair of eyes that saw the graceful bat caress the ball to the fence. He made batting look ridiculously simple. Without that sound a technique, it is surprising that an orthodox and proud batsman like Geoffrey Boycott was bowled over by his own definition of batting. So much so that Boycott himself christened him 'The Prince of Kolkata' and not for nothing. It didn't for any match seem like unfitting for Sourav. I still remember the Sahara series India used to play against Pakistan in Toronto where, I think, this name stuck as Ganguly could do no wrong. He was the Man of the series in one or two of the annual series and was really the new superstar of Indian Cricket.
It's with this simple approach to Cricket and his incredible born talent that led him to so many success. He just did thinhgs his way and still succeded. For years together, he hardly scored any runs on the leg side favouring the off and still made tons of runs. And he has to be the one of the most beautiful batsman I have seen. As a rule, only shots of players with a good technique look really beautiful but Ganguly was an exception to the rule. He was undoubtedly the best among the batsmen without a proper technique to look at. I haven't seen anyone and I repeat, anyone hit the lofted shot over long on more beautifully than the prince does.
The man was given the captaincy in one of the most difficult times in Indian Cricket and as Sunil Gavaskar said rightly, he brought back so many of the disillusioned fans back to the game. Me included. Disillusioned not just in terms match fixing scandal but also the tag of being mentally weak and chokers. He changed it and how. Leading from the front and fighting hard and smart, he made us proud again to be Indians. (I know strong statement, but that is what it comes to while watching a tight game and seeing them give up). I wouldn't say all of the credit goes to him but I would say he had a lion's share in it. The attitude rubbed onto the other players and Indians became a team fought each match and didn't just make up the numbers as was common before his era. Apart from the historic 2000-2001 Test series win against the mighty Aussies, the Natwest final comes to mind. The never say die spirit is still alive in the team and it was all started by this man.
Then came the dark period in his career. He began being a bit bogged down in his batting and was not the Saurav of old. He valued his wicket too strongly and ended up trying to defend every ball. Of course, a major reason for this was a huge pressure on him from many sides to perform as a batsman, most notably I guess from the Board and coach. This pressure alas got to him. He began prodding and toiling to score runs. Yes the same man who had scored 183 in an ODI against Sri lanka, an unprecedented task in Indian cricket history, on his way lofting the ball outside the stadium by giving the charge to Fast bowlers. I, too was dissapointed seeing him in this phase and did think may be his time was up.
And after a while and after a tiff with the Coach, he was dropped. Everyone thought this was it. I truly did believe his career had ended. There was no way he could come back in the team at his age and with so many new talents around. I was proved wrong. Dada scored heavily in the Domestic game and came back. It was, for me, probably one of the greatest shows of mental strength ever shown in sport. Any one would have given up. What's there to fight for when the administration itself is against you? But he did and that shows the character of the man. To prove an entire country of a billion wrong. To fight back to go the place from where he was humiliated out of in front of the whole nation. This come back alone can take him to one of the top achievers in sport.
And that comeback gave his fans an opportunity to give him a proper good bye. Because after he came back, he was a chanhged cricketer, the one of old. Scoring freely again. Taking the attack to the opposition in difficult circumtsances and still coming out strong. In the year 2007, he was the highest scorer in the Indian team in ODIs. And what does the board do? He was dropped from the team. The reason cited were, youngsters had to be given a chance and his fielding wasn't up to the mark. But dropping the highest scorer for the year??? How can they expect anything else from a batsman whose primary role is to score runs?
Anyway, all those wonderful ODI opening partnerships with Sachin were out now and Ganguly was consistently performing in the Test matches. I don't think he was the least scorer in the last year or so, but still he was dropped from the challenger trophy which was a preparatory event fot the Australia series.So he not even in the top 20-25 players in the country. Suddenly. And he was left to play for Bengal again not knowing when or if he will again play for India. Luckily, the selection committee changed and someone with no bias against him came on. He did the right thing and brought back Ganguly in the team from nowhere and Ganguly replied by scoring not only a century but scoring in the Border-Gavaskar trophy at an average of around 54. I hope the earlier selector would have got his response. Dada gave it with his bat but didn't say a word. He fought with his bat when he could easily have created a ruckus by making accusatory statements and the like. But that is the easier thing to do. And thus for the great Ganguly, even performance was not seemingly enough to get into the team. He was, as was reported in the media, at the mercy of the selectors all the time and they were only too happy taking their personla vendetta against a strong willed individual as is so common in our country. And thus I suppose, to end this feeling of being at someone's mercy to be in the team and not on the basis of performance, Ganguly announced his retirement. I, as a fan and as an Indian, am and will always be sad that one of the most glorius careers in the history of Indian Cricket had to bow out in such sorry circumstances. He does tell us about the state and workings of the administration where the heroes and legends are treated this way.
Sadly, apart from the fans, none of the present or former players supported Ganguly in his trials. And thus, with whatever is possible, the Prince of Kolkata bid adieu to Cricket in a grand style by beating Australia 2-0. Alas, it wasn't supposed to be a happy ending but Dada made it as respectable as he could.
And such is the story of the Prince who, like only sportspersons can, filled millions of hearts with passion, pride and awe and showed what fighting really is.


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