Thank You DADA

It was Children's day in 1991, India were playing SA in the third ODI
of their famous comeback series. I remember skipping school midway and
going to see my first live international match. The atmosphere was
amazing its was a day night match at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi
on his birth anniversary. What i vividly remember about that match are the hundreds of Ravi Shastri and Sanjay Majrekar and SA's win eventually. In between i remember being told of Vengsarkar and Srikanth who occasionally came to third man to field. At some point i did see a younger person come in and field for a bit, i instantly remembered the face, it was Sourav Ganguly. I had seen him earlier in one of the Indian Training Camps and i remember clearly how far he was able to hit. Seeing him and Kambli and of course Sachin was a pleasure, i was ten, the cricket bug hadn't bit me till then and i was dreaming about being the next Michael Stich :) and what not.

When Ganguly played in his only ODI on the big tour of Australia, i was disappointed to not see Jadeja play, and we only heard later how he had misbehaved earlier and then dropped from SA tour. That Kambli was at his best and Jadeja was rocking never made us realize the kid who almost made it. When i started playing cricket and going to nets, my coach once or twice did mention to us why discipline and luck are also important with hard work .... " Otherwise Even Ganguly would have played for India " .... Everyone considered him a selectors boy, getting into the team with some influence apart from talent. When he was picked for England there was a huge cry as to why Laxman was not picked. By this time i was in Hyderabad and playing school cricket there. Laxman was making merry of every domestic team and should have been in the team before Dravid and Ganguly. But then Sourav did grab the opportunity with both hands and scored two marvelous back to back hundreds. In a series that India eventually lost, his and Dravid's innings made sure that India had probably found someone to fill the gaps of Shastri and Vengsarkar and to a certain extent of Kapil Dev the lower order Batsman.

Sachin asking him to open with him in Jaipur ODI was a surprize since Sidhu was still around, but again Sourav took the opportunity and scored his fifty, although a slow fifty it build foundation of the most formidable ODI opening partnership of all time. From that time till about 2000, He and Sachin made merry of almost all attacks. The way he stood ground in Dhaka Cup finals and score brilliant 123 was a highlight. The peak performance probably was the 183 against Sri Lanka in a must win game of 1999 world cup.

That he was susceptible to short stuff is no secret and i think the 2001 rule to allow one bouncer in an over really hampered his batting for a while. The slide probably started around 2002 and continued till 2005. But no one complained since he was doing brilliant job in captaining India. The one thing i really liked about him was his ability of promote youngsters and then giving them enough opportunities. He stuck with Yuvraj, Sehwag, Harbhajan, Zaheer even when these guys were non performing in between. The ability to inspire players is very unique to Ganguly and as he said its the spark on field, using right people at right time and motivating them to do the best is something only few captains have. I still remember Dravid using Kumble in an ODI when Afridi was going berserk, that to me was as stupid as it can get. Kumble went for 26 odd runs and Dravid had the “now what ?” look.... Ganguly for some reason always made changes that worked. Be it setting up a peculiar field for a batsman or using even spinners in short stint or randomly using a fast bowler as a stock bowler. Call it luck or brilliance, it always worked. The only time I saw the “now what ?” look on Sourav was in the 2003 finals. But who had even thought that India would even reach there.

Ganguly took over captaincy at a very bad time for Indian cricket, the match fixing was hanging around, India was loosing consistently and even Zimbabwe were sometimes dominating the Indian attack. He said at the time that he wants India to dominate not just at home but abroad, he worked towards it and India did achieve those victories abroad. He laid the foundation of self belief in youngsters and the colors of success were reaped eventually.

I personally think that him being removed from captaincy was good but the way was certainly wrong. He got out at the wrong time and for wrong reasons. Mr. More and Greg Chappel were guilty in not handling the situation with poise. To a certain extent even Sachin, Laxman and Rahul. Probably it was the insecurity of holding their positions in the team that no one openly supported Ganguly. It was only Harbhajan, Zaheer and Yuvraj. But even they were reprimanded at the time and lost their places temporarily.

The return was even more dramatic, being taken to Pakistan and dropped from playing XI was heart wrenching for any supporter of Ganguly. There was no point in making him sit, i think that was the bottom. But Sourav being Sourav kept mum and continued what he does best, score runs. But even in domestic cricket he was not performing extremely well, and finally when he did get a chance for comeback with Vengsarkar as selector, he again grabbed it with both hands score amazing 98 and couple of more 50's against Windies. In modern times apart from Sachin, there is no one who comes closer to Sourav in playing both as aggressive destroyer or an anchor. By the way I don’t think Jayasuriya never played sheet anchor role. Sourav in ODI's has destroyed attacks and also played the quite partner to perfection. World Cup 2007 was a huge disaster and i give full responsibility of it to Greg Chappel, he had basically no idea what he was doing. I think players were more worried to stick to their place in final XI rather than focusing on what India needs. And its this insecurity that ruined India's chances.

Once the Greg Chappel Era, there were more opportunities for Sourav and he was again back to what he does best. Keep scoring runs. Seeing him destroying Pakistan was pleasing with his first double hundred. Now that he is retired after the final frontier of defeating the mighty Australians, he can rest of the laurels of his achievements. The mighty DADA has gone but the spirit remains intact.

Good Bye Good Luck Dada, keep hunting new talents because you sure have an eye to pick them.

ADIOS JUMBO

With the retirement of Anil Kumble, a great chapter in Indian cricket comes to a close. Kumble has always been my cricketing hero since the day he obliterated England way back in 1993 and i was watching my first live 'test' match. I was just learning cricket and i loved every bit of it. Chris Lewis scored century and Kambli scored a double in that series but Kumble stomped his authority and gave hint as to times that were coming. With Rajesh Chauhan and V. Raju, the next generation of Indian Spinners were raring to go. Many have come and went since then but Jumbo just went on and on and on and on. Be it Hero Cup or Being best bowler in 1996 World Cup or Magnificient spells at home against almost all touring teams or bowling abroad, he did it all, the high point being perfect 10 at Delhi.

People practically wrote him off after 2003 world Cup but after a shoulder surgery and a little break he was back and back he was, dominating in Australia this time. Since then he as practically accomplished many records including a test century and Captaining India, something he should have done back in 1998 when Azhar was made captain the second time, its just a personal opinion.

There has never been a hard trier than Anil, he has bowled some devastating spells that we all know of but he has also bowled some amazing spells as a stock bowler, especially in South Africa and New Zealand. He was the quintessential team player, always there for the team. That is probably the greatest of his many qualities. He probably would have retired last year but captaincy essentially gave his career another extention. That India had not found a replacement was another reason. Leg Spinners are a rare breed and finding a good leg spinner is like finding a true unicorn.

We have been very lucky to witness Shane and Anil in a single generation and i think the Golden Age of Cricket is just dwindling. These two craftsman of same genre yet so different in their execution. We enjoyed till they played and we pray that we do find someone to fill their shoes soon.

For Jumbo, good bye, good luck, you still have IPL to conquer .....