At the turn of the century, Indian cricket fell into a mire in the wake of Cronje-gate. A former captain had his image seriously tainted. His successor quit the job and, suddenly, there was a leadership void. From that emerged Sourav Ganguly, and Indian cricket started to sing from a different hymn sheet.
The hard numbers can never sum up Ganguly. Anyway, they are impressive enough – 113 Tests and 311 ODIs, tallies of 7212 and 11363 runs respectively, and a total of 38 international hundreds. But the boy from Behala, who went on to become a global icon, was a lot more than just those figures. He was the man who ended provincialism in Indian team selection. He was the one who put an arm around the shoulder and helped promising youngsters like Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and others reach new heights. He was the captain who waved his shirt on the Lord’s balcony. That was the day when obeisance towards past masters emphatically ended.
The Indian cricket team was going places. They went to England and won a Test and the NatWest Trophy. They went Down Under, won a Test and drew the series against Steve Waugh’s all-conquering Australia. Before that, however, Eden Gardens Test happened in March 2001, the turning point for Indian cricket. The first-ever series win in Pakistan was also achieved under Ganguly’s captaincy.
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The man whose leadership on and off the pitch elevated Indian cricket to a new level.… pic.twitter.com/RvvUefXsIG
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Then, Greg Chappell came and upset the applecart. Those were tough years. But Ganguly had to be the eventual winner. He came back in a spectacular fashion, scored runs and centuries, and left on his own terms.
After retirement, he wore many hats. Eden got a facelift when he was the CAB president. Domestic cricketers started to get more money and the process of launching the Women’s Premier League was initiated after he became the BCCI president. India played their first pink-ball Test.
Circa 2024, and ‘dadagiri’ continues, in the dug-out of the Delhi Capitals. Also, the debate on who is India’s finest-ever captain will continue. Ganguly led from the front when the going got tough.
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