Will Ganguly now feel - “Should I have taken the plunge”?

IPL-5 is almost over for Sourav Ganguly and his team Pune Warriors. They started much more promisingly than many would have expected them to. Winning a few initial games, they promised a lot. Fans almost took it for granted that Pune Warriors will reach the play offs stage this year. Dada did keep warning, “this is a long tournament, still a long way to go…” Now after 11 games, Pune Warriors are now finally out of contention.

Will Dada now feel “Did I make the right decision to play IPL-5?” or he simply loves playing the game – win or lose. Knowing Ganguly, he’s had the burning desire to do well in the IPL and this is one tournament where he has failed to take his team to the top 4. As Atul Wassan had commented, Dada kept playing domestic games even traveling to empty stadiums at Karnal to keep himself fit was a great sight. Now after 11 games, will he will feel whether what he did was right or not.

Ganguly now almost 39, was 34 when the IPL started. His original team KKR bought some high profile players in year 1. Ricky Ponting, Shoaib Akhtar, Brendon McCullum, David Hussey etc. But then Sourav got into several issues with another Aussie – John Buchanan. He didn’t get the captaincy of KKR in 2009 but was reinstated as captain in 2010 when he convinced the owners to remove John Buchanan. In 2010, even with Chris Gayle in KKR, after a great start of winning initial games, the team again faded away and couldn’t make it to the last stage.

2011 IPL was high action drama when Sourav was dumped by KKR and not bought by any franchise. Shahrukh can’t be blamed for dumping Sourav as he hadn’t produced results in 3 years. As a team owner he had all right to be professional and not emotional. An injury to Ashish Nehra allowed Ganguly a back door entry to Pune under Yuvi. Pune fared last in 2011 when Dada played just 4 games for them and not with success.

2012 was the year that got Sourav another chance of realizing his IPL dream. Yuvi was struck with illness and Sourav was given a chance to lead the side in his absence. But again a clash of “egos” between Subrata Roy and BCCI saw Pune withdrawing last minute from the auctions. This meant that the players Pune were targeting were bought by other teams. However, Pune scratched across and built a young team under the captaincy & mentoring of Ganguly. Sadly though, Pune doesn’t have the team to win such a long tournament.

Several times during IPL-5, it was evident that Ganguly was way away from reality to find his silken batting touch. But his fans were still banking on the Dada magic. It had deserted him long. He struggled and his fans were at times embarrassed. His team faltered a few winning positions and losing them. Finally reality struck that IPL 2012 was another failure for Dada.

I am sure Dada will remain mentor for Pune in IPL 2013. If not as a player, he will now go for the title as a mentor. That would be his best chance to see Pune Warriors go closer to the top 4 teams under the Aussie skipper Michael Clarke.

Had I been Ganguly, at this stage after 11 games and almost being out of contention, I would have handed the reigns of captaincy to Michael and get back stage. But knowing Dada, he would never ever do that. But I am sure he must be thinking – “Should I have taken the plunge?”

All said, we have rarely seen a cricketer who has retired now over 4 years from international cricket with such a huge fan following across the country! But yes, Dada we are hugely disappointed with IPL – 5.