my dada

I just cannot believe that there are 1 billion - 16 lac mean indians living. I just cannot believe that a person who has been surreally successful as Mr. Saurav Chandidas Ganguly has been treated like this by the Indian press. He is without a doubt, India's most succesful captain. He is the man behind the turnaround in Indian cricketers' attitudes, the one who brought that fire in their hearts and in the stomach, which seemed restricted to a single person in the shape of Sachin Tendulkar. I just cannot believe that now the whole media is behind Rahul Dravid now, praising him for a good series against a good Sri Lankan side, and speaking in outrageously glowing terms of him, just forgetting that under Ganguly there were much greater ones. And the praise showered on Greg Chappell is nothing short of amusing. He is an Australian. Thats it. Indians still put up shoddy fielding displays every now and then, get involved in stupid run outs, dont take all the 2's and 3's on offer. But the odd day they summon up all of this, all the flash lights beam on to greg chappell's face. Though it was ganguly was the man who brought in greg, it was pathetic man-management of Mr. greg to write to the board in the first place without even having a long talk with ganguly, and make an effort to get him back. Loser. Ganguly thought greg would have been the ideal man to get things back on track, both on the team and personal front. Greg wasnt smart enough to find a solution with ganguly in the picture. he just put all the blame on him. and as usual, the whole of the media would love it. cant belive that there isnt any more than a whimper from any section of the population other than the 16 lac proud Kolkatans(+1, of course). It is probably the best testimonial to the influence of the media in the country.But ganguly is just a surreally aweome character. The world has tried to throw everything at him. He keeps fighting, and succeeded. How well. People talk of dravid as the great fighter. ganguly is two leagues ahead. He made his debut when hea was 17, in the '91 tour of australia. He was criminalised for showing too much of an attitude in front of senior players, by not committing himself to the duty of serving drinks, and getting gloves across to the player on the pitch. NO one has ever thought about the things from ganguly's perspective. twas kris srikanth who made this particular comment. Now he is just a real self-centred arrogant over-rated loser in cricket, life, everywhere. No one really asked the question as to whether ganguly was treated the way he ought to have been. He was out of the team until '96 Lords. Turning point 1. Lesson: Treat precocious talents carefully, whatever their character. Benefactors : Yuvaraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Virendar Sehwag. They are the future of indian cricket.He makes a statement at '96 Lords. And then again at Trent bridge. End of the series, Dravid said: "On the off side, first there is God, and then there is Saurav". He continued in the same vein for atleast 5-6 years. The next battle was: "Ganguly cannot play on bouncy tracks, cant play well on the on side, cant play balls targeted at the rib cage etc". This rhetoric continued and still does. Ganguly. Left-Handed Batsman. India. Age :32. Tests. Average : 42+Centuries:10-15. One Dayers. Average: 43+ Centuries: 20-25. Oppositon: Everyone, everywhere, every ocassion. During India's 2001 tour of Australia, after the one-dayers were over, Tony greig uttered thus: "this team is Tendulkar-Ganguly". He was the top scorer in that series as well. Though india won only one match, against Pak, Adelaide. Ganguly - 144.Now, the criticsm at Ganguly's technique gets overboard and stupid sometimes. I mean no one can play the ball hurled at 140 kph, at your rib cages. Even Sachin tendulkar, got out of a similar ball from Shoaib Akhtar, after his imperious, arguably his best,innings against pakistan, wc2003, centurion park. Now about the on side thing, how does it matter where he scores them. Hence we can conclude that, Ganguly was the top 5 one-day batsman of his generation.(Sachin, Bevan, Inzy will give him company).Now Tests. Ganguly is by no means one of the best test batsman of his generation. But when a decent batsman like mike atherton is highly regarded by the english, come on ganguly is atleast much better than him. It is so unfair that he is being compared to Sachin and Dravid and then judged. Asking for 3 legendary batsmen in a single line up is asking too much. Only Australia has more that 2 batsmen who average more than 50 in tests: Ponting, hayden, gilchrist, steve waugh. No wonder they are the best.Over a year of poor displays has led him to be thrown out of the team. No one goes and talks to him to get him back to his best. 1b-16lac-1 dont want him. Ganguly is regular sports page headline material now, though in ranji trophy, taking wickets as well as scoring runs :p. Back in the test team, but not the one-dayers. Bemused.Gear up for Saurav Ganguly. Part III.