A great era has come to an end. Good captains are rare. And so, letting Sourav Ganguly improve, rather than removing him, is the solution. Captaincy is a specialist's job. Captaincy is not a reward for good batting or bowling. Great batsmen don't always make great leaders, Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar being two recent examples. Only two jobs are of any consequence in India. The Prime Minister's and the cricket captain's. In other words, the captain has a high-pressure, media-intrusive job. No wonder, every Indian skipper goes through a bad phase. It's no different abroad. Take for example Michael Vaughan, England's highly successful skipper. As a player, his ODI average is 28.36 lower than Ganguly's 40.65. The only thing he backed was talent. If Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Mohammed Kaif and Irfan Pathan are doing India proud today, it's because Dada backed them through thick and thin.
Being India's skipper requires a different set of skills than say, captaining Australia or New Zealand. Teams in the past have suffered due to stormy ego clashes (Wadekar-Bishen Singh Bedi) or worse. Ganguly may not be great in making field placements, marshalling bowling changes or chalking out strategies. But he is an expert in man management. Words such as 'groups' and 'camps' have vanished from the Indian dressing room. Being bad is good in the Ganguly regime. Fines and suspensions don't stop him from playing cricket the way he wants. With tons of attitude, he is great at mind games. Remember how he got under the Aussie skin during the 2001 series? Even experts admit to his hunger for success. The Bengal southpaw gave the team a passion to win.
Cricket is one game where the captain plays a very special role. Without an able captain, a team rarely performs. Ganguly is one captain who handled his role with a natural flair. In cricket, fans have seen a natural stroke-maker in Sehwag, a natural swing bowler in McGrath and even a natural maestro in Sachin. Never before they have seen an Indian captain as naturally gifted as Ganguly. Raw passion, a sharp instinct, an indomitable ego and the supreme trust he places in his players have made Ganguly an epitome of a captain. Everyone will acknowledge that Sachin Tendulkar was born to play cricket. If there was one thing in cricket that this genius stepped out of, it was captaincy. That captaincy, Ganguly took up. His contribution with the bat is just an added asset.
Form is temporary and class is permanent.No ordinary batsman would have amassed over 10,000 runs in ODIs and more than 5000 runs in Tests in just ten years - five of which were as captain, which is a really mind-draining job. Ganguly has not only been the most successful Indian captain ever but also the most respected among teammates and opposition. The enigmatic Indian captain deserves one more chance. One should remember that Mark Taylor went around without a half-century for nearly 25 innings until the 334 not out against Pakistan. Without any doubt Sourav Ganguly gave Indian cricket an identity and respectability. Ganguly's real strength lies in keeping together a flock of disparate individuals, something whose worth can be appreciated if put against the miserable failure of the much-vaunted Sachin Tendulkar when he was on the job.
Courtesy: TOI
Being India's skipper requires a different set of skills than say, captaining Australia or New Zealand. Teams in the past have suffered due to stormy ego clashes (Wadekar-Bishen Singh Bedi) or worse. Ganguly may not be great in making field placements, marshalling bowling changes or chalking out strategies. But he is an expert in man management. Words such as 'groups' and 'camps' have vanished from the Indian dressing room. Being bad is good in the Ganguly regime. Fines and suspensions don't stop him from playing cricket the way he wants. With tons of attitude, he is great at mind games. Remember how he got under the Aussie skin during the 2001 series? Even experts admit to his hunger for success. The Bengal southpaw gave the team a passion to win.
Cricket is one game where the captain plays a very special role. Without an able captain, a team rarely performs. Ganguly is one captain who handled his role with a natural flair. In cricket, fans have seen a natural stroke-maker in Sehwag, a natural swing bowler in McGrath and even a natural maestro in Sachin. Never before they have seen an Indian captain as naturally gifted as Ganguly. Raw passion, a sharp instinct, an indomitable ego and the supreme trust he places in his players have made Ganguly an epitome of a captain. Everyone will acknowledge that Sachin Tendulkar was born to play cricket. If there was one thing in cricket that this genius stepped out of, it was captaincy. That captaincy, Ganguly took up. His contribution with the bat is just an added asset.
Form is temporary and class is permanent.No ordinary batsman would have amassed over 10,000 runs in ODIs and more than 5000 runs in Tests in just ten years - five of which were as captain, which is a really mind-draining job. Ganguly has not only been the most successful Indian captain ever but also the most respected among teammates and opposition. The enigmatic Indian captain deserves one more chance. One should remember that Mark Taylor went around without a half-century for nearly 25 innings until the 334 not out against Pakistan. Without any doubt Sourav Ganguly gave Indian cricket an identity and respectability. Ganguly's real strength lies in keeping together a flock of disparate individuals, something whose worth can be appreciated if put against the miserable failure of the much-vaunted Sachin Tendulkar when he was on the job.
Courtesy: TOI
Dada Mere Pardadaaaaaaaaaa..........
ReplyDeleteI think the media and the fans are solely responsible for this. People talk about Sachin Tendulkar scoring over 1000 runs a year, even when he was not in form, as a captain....how many of us or the media people spoke about it when they were shouting that Sachin's batting was affected by the burden of captainship.
ReplyDeleteHow about captains leaving on their own?
ReplyDeleteAny comment?
RC I have read ur article and I accept all what u have said. Dada is a gud captain, but looking forward these type of changes are required for a gud Indian Team. These type of changes can bring in more Gangulies into the Team.
ReplyDeleteThe good thing happened to Indian cricket is the exit of Ganguly as captain and let us hope Dravid is able to deliver better results than his predecessor.
ReplyDeleteThis is something like, someone saying, this won't happen the next time. And they keep coming back and tell the same thing. It was Sachin yesterday, Ganguly today, and there is every chance that it could be Dravid tomorrow. (Dravid has failed in both the innings against Australia since he has been made a captain. Get ready Sehwag....)
ReplyDeleteThis is something like, someone saying, this won't happen the next time. And they keep coming back and tell the same thing. It was Sachin yesterday, Ganguly today, and there is every chance that it could be Dravid tomorrow. (Dravid has failed in both the innings against Australia since he has been made a captain. Get ready Sehwag....)
ReplyDeletehe difference between Ganguly and Dravid is the former is full of emotions, could not get well with his peers, while Dravid is a team man and a cool guy, is at ease with both seniors and juniors which is the need of the hour. This makes one feel that Dravid is capable of delivering results, never mind the losses he has suffered because it is very negligible. He should be given a fair chance to show his talent as a captain.
ReplyDelete