Don’t abuse Dada, he deserves respect

Pune Warriors India lost five matches in a row in IPL 5! Moreover, they lost to Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens! The match against KKR was portrayed as the match between the two ‘rivals’ – Dada and SRK! Dada lost the ‘battle’ and faced severe criticism from the self claimed experts. They said, wash off Dada! They said, Dada has to accept the blame and resign from T20. They said, Dada is too old for the format. Dada did not reply – he probably is waiting to show his class in the middle. He is waiting to remind the critics his contributions to Indian cricket or he probably is waiting to show the world why he is called the ‘Warrior Prince’.

Sourav Ganguly made his debut in 1992 against West Indies, but was dropped immediately due to his ‘arrogant’ behavior. Rumor was that Ganguly refused to carry a bottle of water for his teammates, but nobody knows whether the rumor was real or created. He was dropped and many believed that it was the end of Ganguly.

Dada came back in 1996 against England. The world of cricket witnessed ‘Dadagiri’ for the first time. He scored back to back centuries and emerged as the next ‘superstar’ of Indian cricket. He scored his first ODI century in 1997 against Sri Lanka and made his mark by winning four consecutive ‘Man of the Match’ awards against Pakistan. It was the beginning of the ‘Dada Syndrome’ in Indian cricket. Ganguly mesmerized fans across the globe by playing superb knocks including a brilliant century (183 from 158 balls) against Sri Lanka at Taunton in the World Cup 1999. His fans started believing that the ‘God of offside’ could score a century in each and every match. They started calling him ‘Sau Run Ganguly’ (100 run Ganguly).

Indian cricket faced the biggest turmoil in 1999-2000 when the match-fixing scandal was revealed. Nobody was willing to take charge of the broken Indian cricket team. The person who did not refuse the onerous burden of building a new team was Ganguly. He started his job with a victory against South Africa in a home series and led his team to the final of ICC Knockout Trophy in 2000. He demonstrated his cricketing prowess by scoring two centuries in the tournament including one in final. However, India lost to New Zealand in the final.

Dada played an instrumental role in imbibing ‘character’ to the Indian team. Under his leadership, India stopped the ‘golden run’ of Australia in 2001. He made Steve Waugh wait during the toss and created controversy. Many believed that it was the right response to the Australian cricket team which was suffering from ‘superiority complex’. Dada, on the other hand, developed a new generation of players who started winning in overseas. Under his guidance, team India started winning Test matches in various countries, including Australia and Pakistan.

Dada was the architect of ‘Team India’. He nurtured talents like Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh who gradually emerged as the icons of Indian cricket.

His downfall started during the last phase of his captaincy and eventually he was stripped off captaincy and dropped from the team in October 2004. His differences with the then coach Greg Chappell were wide open. These differences were accelerated when an e-mail, sent by ‘Guru Greg’ to BCCI was leaked. Greg, in his mail, stated that Sourav was not ‘physically and mentally’ fit to lead the side and should be dropped. The BCCI preferred the Chappell way and dropped Dada. However, this ‘Chappell way’ was strongly criticized by Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh and many more which clearly represents that Dada was not wrong. It was also said that the exclusion of Dada was the result of internal politics of BCCI. Whatever be the matter, the cricket administrators of India did not show any respect to this legend who saved Indian cricket from a crisis.

It was thought that the chapter of Sourav Ganguly was over. Nobody expected him to revive. But, he did; he made a comeback against South Africa in 2007 and played a brilliant innings. It was the second chapter of ‘Dadagiri’. After his successful return to Test cricket, he was recalled in to the ODI squad as well.

12^th December 2007, was a memorable day in the life of Dada when he scored his maiden double century against Pakistan. Finally he retired from international cricket in 2008. However, he continues playing in IPL.

Sourav was the icon player of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) franchise and became the captain of the team. Here also he could not escape controversy. The surprising ‘Multiple Captainship Theory’ launched by John Buchanan removed him from captaincy. Again he returned as the captain of KKR in the third edition, but failed to secure any success. His individual performance was appreciated, but his team failed to qualify for the semi- final. Dada, surprisingly, was ‘unsold’ in the players’ auction of IPL in January 2011, prior to the start of season -4. The player who performed well in the last edition, was not purchased by any franchise. Again, people started believing that his chapter is closed. And again he made a comeback. He was appointed as the captain of Pune Warriors India and showed his excellence in winning the first few matches, but lost momentum after that. The ‘over- priced’ franchise lost 5 matches consecutively and critics started targeting Dada for this. Is it only Ganguly’s fault or is the entire team to blame? Was the team built as per Ganguly’s wishes? – Probably not! The Pune franchise does not have an experienced player who can finish close contests. If we take the example of the KKR match, Dada tried his best to finish the difficult match, but after his departure there was nobody to complete the task. The critics won’t listen, they have started washing off Dada again. They have started criticizing, sometimes abusing a legend who revived and redefined Indian Cricket. Dada is silent. Perhaps, he is preparing to prove his critics wrong, once again.

He is a phoenix and a phoenix never dies.