Of Grit and Guts

Take a bow Mr Ganguly, you deserve it!
A year or so ago, I would never have imagined this day. Saurav Ganguly being the pillar of Indian batting. There was so much happening behind the scenes. The most "successful" captain of India was having a torrid time with the bat. His relationship with Greg Chappell had fallen apart and that had cost him his place in the side and almost cost him his career, as most people had imagined then. He was out of favour with the board officials as well. I even thought that the Pepsi ad featuring him, talking about making a comeback as a bit of a joke, I really did at that point in time. And how well has this man silenced his critics - surely a fairy tale comeback. And that's why this tribute!

I remember when he was out of favour with the Indian selectors and most of the India supporters, which was quite inevitable for he had been going through a very bad form, every first class innings of his was scrutinized. Every small failure of his was reported to justify his exclusion from the side. Most people thought the board was right in dumping the "Prince of Calcutta" for Greg, the Guru and India cricket was ready to move on from their personal dual. But that wasn't the way it was destined to be. Greg was too much of an outsider for Indian cricket. The so called "new direction" that he was supposed to give to Indian cricket was non-existent. On the whole, the Greg episode turned into a retrograde step to Indian cricket. Perhaps we were being too ambitious in thinking he would take India to a new level because cricket just doesn't give such a scope to a coach and Greg always seemed to cross the line.

Coming back into the Indian team Ganguly was a quiet man, he gave no emotion away. He was only prepared to do the talking when the bat was in his hand, quite a departure from the no-frills attitude he had shown as captain. When he played that comeback innings in South Africa, he looked so determined. I was absolutely surprised with what I saw Ganguly doing. He had been in poor form for more than a year before being dumped. His technique, which was never perfect, seemed to have deserted him. He looked so susceptible playing the short-pitched stuff. And yet, making the comeback Ganguly looked so much at ease, getting his timing back and very decisive in his foot-work. The same continued in England. His footwork only seemed to get better. And his timing looked as good as it was when he made that famous debut in that very land. He's never looked back from there and has carried on with such panache. He's been one of the most prolific scorers in the last 12 months, specially in the longer version. The double-century today perhaps rounds off a complete comeback for the man from Kolkata. I think, more than anything it has been a victory to his personality - his attitude right from the point he was called back into the team to this date has been just spot on. He's stayed off controversies showing very well that he's learnt a thing or two about how to stay off them! Perhaps the best example of that was the way he handled poor umpiring decisions in England when he was given out dubiously on successive occasions.

He's been enjoying his cricket, looks very happy playing for and with the team. You could see how happy he was for Yuvraj when the latter brought up his century at Bangalore.
To sum it all up, it has been a display of grit, courage and character from Ganguly and he deserves all the plaudits that are coming his way. We can probably look forward to a memorable trip down under.