IPL Season-2 Re-visited

IPL Season-2 Re-visited

Yes..it's a comeback of sorts for me to cricket blogging. And no points for guessing the topic. Oh yes..it is the end of the carnival that kept millions of Indians glued to televisions, with their daily time tables re-scheduled.Indian Premier League Season-2.
Often it's easy to keep track of short tournaments and revisit the moments at the end.But due to the sheer volume of the matches played and that too without any time to recover (both for the players and for me to track the matches), its more for the reason of remembering the event, is why I am blogging some of the IPL 2009 memories.

So here I go...in no order of preference:

The Match of the tournament: 3 choices - Rajasthan v Mumbai, Rajasthan v Kolkata and Deccan v Kolkata. I would go for the 1st one, since it was more Topsy-turvy than the other two and for the fact that Rajasthan miraculously won it from nowhere.


The Jaw dropping moment of the tournament: Undoubtedly has to be Adam Gilchrist literally killing Delhi Daredevils bowlers.A knock of 85 off 35, right up there with his knock of 149 in the 2007 ICC World cup final at Barbados.


The best commentary quote: In one of the matches involving Royal Challengers Bangalore, when Anil Kumble's best figures of 5-5 flashed on the screen, Harsha Bhogle said - "These are outstanding figures.Something you associate with, in a match between 4th std-A and 4th std-B".

The most cliched words said: No prizes for guessing. It has to be "Thats a DLF maximum". As the tournament progressed , so called ROCKSTAR Danny Morrison made it as "Thats a DLFer"...

The Ice-man : 3 contenders for it - Rohit Sharma,Irfan Pathan and Munaf Patel. However Rohit Sharma takes the cake for his breath-taking brilliance in the final over against the Kolkata Knight Riders and almost repeating it against Kings XI Punjab.


The SOUTH AFRICANS : This coveted crown sits on the head of Mumbai Indians, for showing all of us how not to handle pressure situations. Whats more, they were coached by Shaun Pollock and led by Sachin Tendulkar. That should tell it. (with due respect to both!!)

The best media coverage for the tournament: It has to be the Fake IPL player(http://fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com), who faked to be a 'real IPL player' and gave us all the masala that we needed.It ended in an anti-climax, with him not revealing his identity. However, will we get a glimpse of him again at the ICC World T20??
Time will tell....

Captain of the tournament: MS Dhoni,Gilchrist,Kumble and Warne stood out.But without an Iota of partisanship here, Kumble it is, for simply making the Royal Challengers rise from the ashes like a phoenix. Hats off Anil...I salute you!!


Statement of the tournament: Ashish Nehra was on cloud nine taking a bunch of wickets and went out saying - "I can do whatever Zaheer Khan can do". The very next day, Adam Gilchirst plundered him for 18 runs in his first over and brought him back to earth !!

The glamour icon: No.. it was not Mandira Bedi this time.Danny Morrison,with a goatee beard and extravagant English, had his fair share of moments with cheer leaders. On one day, he had an Aircel Cheer leader sitting on his right lap for an interview and on another day, he had one of Mallya's 'White Mischief Gals' sitting on his shoulders. I wonder what's in store for him,if he does the same things next year in India.

Now the Mandira Moment: Prior to the match between RCB and MI, in an interview with Neil McKenzie,Mandira refered to Abhimanyu Mithun of RCB as a Wicket Keeper.He turned out to be a medium pacer!!!.The best thing was Neil McKenzie too did not know about it. And SET Max never bothered to care about it..Mandira continued to anchor at-the-venue reports !!!

The Joker: It has to be that man again - Sreesanth. He gave Hayden a mouthful after dismissing him,despite being bludgeoned for 22 runs off the previous 5 balls. And he went for a victory run after castling MS Dhoni with an inswinger when the teams met the next time. Perhaps he was venting out his anger for not having been selected for the India T20 WC team, and making his case worse with the sprint!!




The Guffaw Moments: Suresh Raina,Shadab Jakati and Badrinath messing up with the ball like school kids against Deccan Chargers.And I never saw MS Dhoni as grumpy as he did that time.Another moment was the entry of the dog on the field to stop play for 20 mins in the first match of the tournament(CSK v MI).Not to forget, Shilpa Shetty introducing her beau to Geoffrey Boycott, when Boycs was searching for attention from Shilpa.

Catch of the tournament: Rather it would go to 3 people. I cannot remember any better catches in the tournament than the ones held by Roelof van der Merwe and Vinay Kumar at PE, to dismiss Dhoni and Hayden respectively. And they came in a must win game for the Royal Challengers.
The other one was Suresh Raina pulling off a screamer at Point to get rid of Gautam Gambhir at Jo'Burg.

Ego-hurting moments : Abhishek Nayar carting Andrew Flintoff for 3 sixers in an over in the tournament opener.Later in the tournament,Sourav Ganguly never batted in the game against Daredevils, after Knight Riders got a good start.What's worse, Morne van Wyk, Moises Henriques and Wriddhiman Saha got to bat ahead of him !!

Biggest BOO's: These are reserved for Greg Shipperd and John Buchanan for their cries to allow more than 4 foreign players in the playing XI. It made sense for Shipperd, since he had to keep Glenn McGrath out.But Buchanan showed the world that he's the biggest fool.He played Langeveldt and Mortaza for one game each after they were out of the tournament, and gave extended runs to ordinary players like Moises Henriques and Morne van Wyk....!!! Come on..This is the INDIAN Premier League..!!!!

Penultimately, the only thing that was good(if at all there was!!) about SET MAX's extraa innings T20 was the theme song composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy!!!! I better not mention anything else about one of the worst post and pre match shows,(in terms of content) ever presented.




And finally....Special mention to youngsters like Manish Pandey, Amit Singh, KP Appanna,Pragyan Ojha,Tirumalasetti Suman,Vinay Kumar,Ravindra Jadeja & Raina,Rohit and others for keeping the Indian Cricket's young talent flag flying high.

Kudos to Adam Gilchrist's Deccan Chargers for the spectacular IPL victory.


IPL season-2 certainly lived up to its standards !! But IPL-1 was the best... Only because, I was virtually helpless about what to do in the evenings, after the tournament ended. But no such feelings this time around !!! And as Lalit Modi said...Hope the IPL comes back bigger and better next year in India..!

Setting an example..are they??!!!

"Kuch nahi ho sakta iss desh ka!!!" ...These were the first words of a promotional video that was being aired a few days ago on various television channels.Basically, it was an attempt by young people of Indian Cinema appealing to the Indian Public, more specifically the Youth,to vote in the general elections.These actors were guided by a prominent filmmaker in reaching
out to the public by means of strong statements.

Are they setting an example??? Just decide for yourselves.

More than 3 quarters of the "actors" who appeared in the promotional video did not vote!!!
Courtesy: http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/features/2009/05/02/5121/index.html

And the reasons given, are beyond logic...
Some were busy with shooting schedules,some didn't have their names on the electoral list,some did not bother to travel to the places of their domicile, where they could have voted...Some were on holidaying!!!
What did those people think of when they shot this video !!!??? FOOL People???!!!
Why does the government declare holidays for voting??
We have seen common people waiting in the scorching heat in queues to vote, and these people who travel in Air conditioned vehicles , do not have the time to vote!!!
ALAS!!! They proved that with irresponsible "acting",really nothing can happen of this country!!!

And have a look at this...Of the ones who voted, this is what we saw the very next day.
Most of us have had great respect for the Bachchan family for having entertained us all these years.But the photograph on front pages of many newspapers made for disrespectful statement from the Bachchans.

However, if we take a look at this link, Amitabh Bachchan himself clarifies that he was not alone in doing this act.

http://bigb.bigadda.com/?paged=2

There were more people who chose to signify their "I have voted status" in the same show-off of the "Election-Finger"..!!!

The Election commission then had to justify the reason for choosing to put the mark on the middle finger !!! So we really cant blame the Bachchan family !!!.

If all these people were not objected for this show, then same thing must extend to MTV and Channel-V in the future,to make free usage of such obscene remarks,without being censored. Isn't it???

What does the government have to say on this???NOTHING!!!
They are busy freeing names of culprits who are not yet sentenced,from CBI lists and carrying on with mudslinging..
What are the other political parties doing about this?? Simply moving around the bushes!!!

By the way,I did cast my vote traveling 10+ hours to my domicile.That doesn't mean i am showing it off..at least i did my duty when many people did not bother to do it!!!

But the plain simple thing still remains - "Kuch nahi ho sakta iss desh ka!!!!".

To speak or not to speak...

There are occasions where one has to carefully speak whilst discussing matters of sensitivity in public places.And in India, these matters relate to politics(especially now being the election season), movies, religious issues,..and of course cricket.I had one such similar experience today when i had been to a petty tea shop, during a short tea break from my work.

I was with 2 of my colleagues and i discuss cricket with one of them very regularly..This time the point of discussion was the most thrilling match of IPL 2009 till then, between the defending champs and a team owned by a bollywood superstar.

The match had gone to the wire and thanks to a flamboyant knock from former India captain, the champs who looked set to win, had to settle to a tie.However, it is a different matter that the champs went on to win the match in the deciding 'super over'.The bone of contention of our discussion was about the result.

This colleague of mine always had only one opinion about the former India skipper...contempt and i had immense respect for what the captain had done to Indian cricket,albeit all the controversies associated with him.My point of argument was that, without his knock they would have lost hopelessly, while he was hell bent on his point that he could not finish off the match,to which i agreed. However when he tried to mention that his innings was a fluke, i was tempted to make the discussion even more heated.

Since this was taking place in a busy street, there were many people around.And an auto rickshaw driver overheard us and poked his nose into this chat.I ignored him and so he spoke to my colleague and began blabbering about how the last over went and how good a young 18-yr old fast bowler had bowled it, getting out the former India captain.

So my colleague said " Yes he bowled really well..he's a good bowler".

In response to that, i stressed "He needs to get his bowling action right".
The response from my colleague was "We'll talk about this later"..

I wondered what made him say this. I now had glance at the other person,whom i had ignored and it was then that i realized why he joined the discussion.

We finished our tea as the guy was continuously chattering and making an eye contact, started walking back ot our office
My colleague then asked - "Do you know why i stopped the discussion?"
I responded in the affirmative. And then i told him that "Yes, but i was speaking to you not to the other guy.The bowler is good but his action looks really iffy".

Now then...the reason why the auto driver joined the discussion was because of the surname of the bowler(I need not elaborate much on this!!)
And lo...this was taking religious proportions out of an animated discussion on a sport..!!!

And thus i have decided to be extremely watchful of similar such experiences that i can possibly come across in the future...


But this is the case with people in India...!!! And certain questions pop up in my mind...

1. Why are sentiments associated badly with things, that should be dealt with logically??

2. Why would anybody want to interfere into a discussion happening between strangers ?? And that too without any invitation ?

3. Aren't people feared when speaking on certain topics, to people of different religious background??
Or rather do they really have to fear?? Are they not common people??

I am not sure whether i can get answers for these, but one thing for sure...
"Freedom of speech" is never the same anymore for me....!!

(Bad)LUCK BY CHANCE???!!!

Finally i take some time to write my first blog for 2009.I had thought several times, i would begin for this year some way or the other. But ironically this is the topic i chose to write on.

If one was to analyse about a situation, it would either be to think about what went wrong or what went right.I am pondering over an incident that happened on March 22,2009. I had been to the Innovative Film City located at Bidadi about 40 kms away from Bangalore. It was a company sponsored outing and after having seen some of the snapshots of the Film city,i was looking forward for some enjoyment.

We reached the venue at about 10.45 AM and after all the preliminaries, simultaneously giving our cameras some hectic usage,the first thing we did was to watch a 10 min clip of the epic "SHOLAY".The best thing about this was the setting - a small mobile village theatre with wooden benches and dim lighting.We saw the "Yeh Dosti" song and the famous Gabbar-Kaalia sequence in the 10 mins.As we moved along , next on our itinerary was "Velocity". This was the Go-Karting event.

As we reached the track,my first view of the track was that it was an amateur one and not professional.Secondly,it was a first time for me, hence it suited me well, although i wasn't scared, since it can only be a bit tough if one doesn't know how to ride a car.Thirdly, the mindset was to enjoy as it was not a race.

Everybody waited for their turn to get onto the track and so did i.The track consisted of two types of Karts.One was a double seater, called the "Family Kart" and the other was the normal single seater.Some of my colleagues went on a ride on the Family kart with their wives,while the rest of us,namely bachelors waited for our karting rides.

There was one round of family kart followed by a round of single karts.This was succeeded by another family kart round and when this was not yet finished, the track instructors called for the next single seater rounds.

The track pit lane has 8 cars and i got to sit on Car no.7. Although not superstitious, i consider no.7 as one of my favorite numbers(not lucky). Another of my colleague was in car no.8 (I'll keep him anonymous with his initials-Mr.A).I sat down on the car and was adjusting my legs on the pedals.The scary thing was that the Fuel tank(rather a plastic kerosene can) was placed right in front my seat,below the steering wheel. But it seemed to be safely attached.

The instructor guided all of us one by one with the usage of pedals. I was just putting on my safety helmet and the instructor came to me and said -
"The right pedal is for the Brake and left pedal for the Accelerator. Hold the Steering firmly to control at the curves. If you bang other vehicles you shall be disqualified. If you bang the boundary safety walls you will be fined".

Saying this he proceeded to car no.8 to repeat the same.
I turned back to him and asked-
" hello boss,'right one' is the brake... right??" .
This is because the the positions of the pedals are the other way round in a Car.
The guy nodded and also told me-
"please fasten your helmet strap sir".
I said "Ok" and turned back.Since my legs are a bit long, i adjusted myself on the pedals once again.The next thing to do for me was to fasten the helmet strap.

After having read the story till here, one might feel, "Abey kya paka raha hai??". But let me make clear my intention about blogging this real life incident- "Luck ya Bad Luck????"

"BANG!!!!!!!!!!". This was what i heard the next second. The time gap wasnt even enough for me to put the helmet strap and the next moment i was sandwiched between two cars- One, on which i was seated and the second -car no.8- which was on top of me.So what happened???
None of the cars had been started, since the instructors themselves come and pull the trigger starting from car no.1.
However Mr.A had rammed his car right on the top of my head, sending my helmet for a wild toss and my Head went crashing against the steering wheel- "WHAM!!!!".
The next moment i was trying to wriggle my way out of this mess and the weight of the car was much more than a 100 kilos.Goodness Gracious!! It was a Go KART after all....After a few seconds one of the instructors came and pulled me out and another of my colleague came running(Mr.H) and saw my forehead-"Oh man...you've got a cut...."

I saw backwards as to what happened and there was Mr.A's car on my car and he was getting out of it.

That is when i came to know what had happened. A colleague of mine(Mr.R) on a family Kart who had set off in the previous round had come to park his vehicle in the pit,but what he did was to ram his kart on to kart no.8. He was arriving at such a speed that the momentum caused the havoc to happen with such ferocity.

I was simply taken for a first aid, people waiting for the karting rounds backed off seeing this sight and all of them were running around me asking -
"Are you feeling giddy?? Drink some water...Dont worry its just a small cut..".

I sat on the bed and asked the lady there.."Is the cut deep??". She cleaned the wound and said "Dont worry, it's just a skin deep wound"...They checked my nose and back and it was fine.
I closed my eyes and thought of my beloved people, trying desperately not to panic. My manager(Mr.V) asked me "You've had a tetanus injection recently??"

I said "Yes..in Jan"...As the wound was getting dressed I was given water to drink.I was still closing my eyes,trying not to vent my frustration.

The next thought that crossed my mind was " What's this that i went through just now????"

My bad luck that i faced this without any fault or involvement of mine ???
OR
Is this life's way of showing its cruelty to me??
OR

My Good luck that i was not seriously injured as Steve Waugh was in Kandy in 1999 after a dash with Jason Gillespie??!!!


OR
My Good luck that the cars did not catch fire and were not blown up into pieces??!!!


A week after the 'accident'.....I still am searching for answers to these......!!!!

A year that was a bane for champions.....

A year that was a bane for champions.....

As 2008 comes to an end, it was a long year full of events engulfed with surprises, controversies, enthralling moments....

Major International sports took a toll on champions and what a toll it was.Cricket,Tennis,Formula-1-all saw reigning champs not only succumb to ever increasing pressure but also fail to maintain their standards.Formula-1 might have had a see-saw year like 2007.However Cricket and Tennis had the fans stand up and take note threatening signs of reigning empires crumbling.

I don't like comparing performances/results from different fields, but this was a bit compelling.
On a striking note, the patterns in tennis and Cricket went on similar lines as I line it up later.

Let me begin with tennis first.....This year belonged to the "Mallorcan marauder" Rafael Nadal.Roger Federer began the year with the invincibility tag looking more stronger than ever and also set his sights on crossing Pete Sampras' record.Rafa made it so tough for the Swiss that he eventually ended up taking over his no.1 ranking after a reign of 4 and a half years.Novak Djokovic and Jo Wilfried Tsonga beat Federer and Nadal at the Australian Open,with the former winning the title.But were unheard of for the rest of the year.Federer came to Roland Garros hoping he would be third time lucky in the finals against Nadal, but could win only 4 games in the match.The signs of a recession showed up deeply and when Nadal beat Federer at the Wimbledon Lawns after a 4hr 48 min epic roller coaster, it was alarm bells ringing loud.Amidst all this, there was a man called Andrew Murray who was silently making his way up the rungs.Roger successfully defended his title at the Flushing Meadows and this after exiting early from the Beijing Olympics,where Nadal won the gold.Further Roger also failed to secure the season ending Tennis Masters Cup at Shanghai, after winning it for 4 years in a row.Clearly the signs look scary for Federer...but he still cannot be counted out.After all...."Form is temporary, but Class is always permanent."

On similar lines,in Cricket...Team Australia began 2008, after having not lost a single test match in 2006 and 2007,with a string of 15 consecutive wins.The year began with the Acrimonious Sydney Test,which is more remebered for Symonds,Harbhajan,Bucknor,Benson,Ponting and Clarke for "very obvious" reasons than for Hundreds from Tendulkar,Laxman,Hayden and Hussey.Since then Australia won 2 test matches each against 7th ranked West Indies and 8th Ranked New Zealand. Their record for 2008 in test cricket stands as

Played 14
Won 5
Lost 5
Drawn 4

Of their 5 losses, 3 were against India, the 1st one at "Fortress WACA" and the rest were part of a 2-0 thumping away.2 more losses came as a part of South Africa's run chase at WACA and the Melbourne magic to beat Australia in their den, a first for any team since 1992-93.Out of the draws, they dominated India at Bangalore, but were on the back foot at Delhi and Adelaide. The other draw came against West Indies, which was a shame for the Aussies.

Against India and South Africa in 2008, the Aussie record reads:

Played 9
Won 1
Lost 5
Drawn 3


Lining this up against the same teams from Jan'04 to Dec'07:

Played 11
Won 7
Lost 1
Drawn 3


If not for the Sydney victory(which was not deserving), Australia look really nowhere near the champion side they were for the past 15 years.

How tennis and Cricket matched up in 2008:

Stunned:Australia and Federer

Australia and Federer lost their "aura of invincibility" and lost it very badly.While Australia were hamprered by retirements of Warne,McGrath,Gilchrist,Langer and Martyn.Federer was bugged by Mononucleosis,Stomach and Back Injuries.

Federer had a saving grace with the US open, but Australia did not even have anything to find solace with.

Devastating: South Africa and Nadal

Rafael Nadal was a rampaging bull winning French Open,Wimbledon and the Olympic Gold to name a few.

South Africa won 11 of their 15 test matches this year, losing once each to India and England, while narrowingly drawing in India and clinching series victories in England and Australia.

Resurgent: India and Murray

Andy Murray seriously challenged both Nadal and Federer constantly throughout the year and made it to world no.4 , also winning 4 masters series titles.

Team India humbled Australia at Perth and drew honorably against South Africa.While they failed to tackle SriLanka,rather Mendis-Murali to be precise, they regained the Border-Gavaskar trophy without losing a test and beat England with the spectacular run chase at Chennai.India found a new charismatic,shrewd and mature leader in Mahendra Singh Dhoni,while Andy Murray found and kept his fitness going strong through the year.

So the new year 2009 holds lot of promise in Cricket and Tennis.....Hope it will be another historic and enthralling year ......

THE WALL....can never FALL.....

THE WALL....can never FALL.....

This blog is dedicated to all the critics of Rahul Dravid:

There's this very age old saying...."Quitters don't win, Winners don't quit". And this very appropriately fits into every aspect of life and every profession in life.

And when people speak about Rahul Dravid on whether where he shall be heading to, in future, this is what they must think of,if not anything else.

Come on....people have criticised Ganguly,Yuvraj,Harbhajan,Sehwag...or even Sachin for that matter...that they must be thrown out etc etc...But when it comes to test cricket, even the thought of dropping Rahul Dravid will be a heinous crime to perform.

It was this man who taught India how to bat in test cricket on overseas territories and win test matches. And I make no mistake in saying that he surpasses even Sachin Tendulkar,if one were to rate the amount of significance his knocks have had in India's fortunes abroad.For that matter,from the year 2000, Tendulkar,Laxman and Ganguly owe a lot- right,left and center- to Dravid for all the plundering of the bowling they did. Yes they are Great cricketers in their own rights,but when it comes to guts,determination,resilience,defiance and wearing down of the opposition, Dravid comes second to none.
Brian Lara famously said-"If i were to want anyone to bat for my life, i would go for Rahul Dravid".And he said this not for any nonsense reason.And for nothing is he called "THE WALL".

Starting from Kolkata 2001 all the way to Jamaica 2006...every Indian victory overseas and in India had a trademark Rahul Dravid stamp on it..in one way or the other.Be it run making or fabulous slip catching.Be it the Eden turn around,or the Adelaide thumping or the Rawalpindi run-athon or the Headingley battle....Rahul Dravid defined Indian victories.All this when he was in his prime and Indian cricket was on its rise on the World cricket ladder. For a change, I will not explain any of dravid's innings from my memory....Because if anybody does not remember what he has done to Indian cricket, then they do not deserve to be followers of Indian cricket.

Yes...he has had his ill luck hitting him now...but for heaven's sake take a look around and you see that not even a single great cricketer has been spared of this.Jayasuriya,Inzamam,Hayden,Steven Waugh...the list is hopelessly long.Yes he led the team to India's worst ever world cup campaign ....but there were reasons for it, that need to be better forgotten.But after all he has given all his toil and sweat for the country and one bad year in comparison to the standards set by him does not make him mediocre overnight.

Just that people need to give him some time to come out of this bad time.And not brickbats....As I write this blog, Rahul Dravid remains unbeaten on 65 at Mohali on day 1 vs England...and i sincerely hope this is just the beginning of another purple patch for 3 years.He is on the threshold of achieving the feat of most catches by a fieldsman in test cricket and if not for all those spilt catches in the last year,owing to an effect of his poor form,he would have been at the door of 200 catches by now.Beyond all this, the best gift Rahul would get on his retirement would be to see India at the no.1 position in the ICC Test rankings,which is now looking possible in one year's time.

So...it would be a sincere request to all his critics....please have some patience.If people had not had patience with someone called Sachin Tendulkar when he scored 2 ducks in his first two ODI innings, we all know what the cricket world would have missed.

Finally.... with a hope that my final farewell blog on Rahul will nowhere be within another 3 years and

with lingering memories of Rahul Dravid kissing the crest on his baggy Blue at the Adelaide Oval in 2003...my final word goes.....THE WALL always stands TALL !!!

An inspiration in true sense......Thanks Sourav

An inspiration in true sense......Thanks Sourav

This blog might seem like a cliche to those who would take the effort to read this, since lot of such blogs have come up on the internet as well as in the form of newspaper articles.However this is just a honest appreciation and tribute to one of India's greatest leaders ever.This will be my longest blog ever...and one of my most cherished blogs.....:-)

March 22,2001....a tense battle at the MA Chidambaram stadium...It would not be necessary to mention what was the occasion, but the celebration by the Indian captain on beating the world champions-Australia, is still etched in my memory.It truly symbolized what we call "Fire in the Belly".

Aggressive,street fighter,maverick,flamboyant....Various adjectives have been used to describe a certain Sourav Chandidas Ganguly in the last 13-14 years. Whatever may anybody say, the definition of the word FIGHTER in the Oxford dictionary needs to be changed to Sourav Ganguly. Indian cricket never saw such a persona, such oozing confidence,most of the times infectious to his mates and the cause of opponents' envy.

Whenever he was abandoned, he rose out of the ashes like a Phoenix. When nobody gave him a chance, it made him furthermore determined and his critics just had to watch in awe and surprise.If one had to make a long list of Indian leaders who made the country proud,who fought with valour,courage and pride, it would be a disgrace if Sourav's name would not be in the list.He wore his heart on the sleeve and did not bother to understand what fear meant.Sourav showed us all a new dimension of leadership. The attitude,fearlessness,never-say-die spirit....well let me put an end to all adjectives and begin with my recall of all the things that riveted around the man who was the most talked about in the last 13 years in Indian Cricket.

My first memory of Sourav Ganguly,as most of the people have,definitely is his debut century at Lord's in June 1996.The other debutant who made 95 at the other end,was a now legendary Rahul Dravid ,who aptly made a statement-"On the off side,first there's God,then There's Sourav Ganguly".Magic flowed in his silken smooth strokes,after he made his debut under,again,difficult circumstances.Navjot Singh Sidhu abandoned the England tour under controversial circumstances after a fall out with captain Azharuddin and his place was taken by Sourav.Everyone pointed at it beng a regional selection,rather than on merit.Well, at Trenbridge in the next test match,he proved all people wrong...And this saga of proving people wrong started then......


In 1997,he began opening the innings with Sachin Tendulkar in ODI's and they both went on to torment bowlers all round the world.And in the Sahara cup in the same year,he became a thorn in the Pakistanis' flesh,with 4 successive man-of-the-match awards,shining with both bat and ball.However,for me,the best ODI innings played by Sourav is the 124 he scored at Dhaka vs Pakistan in 1998, when India chased 315 to set a world record for the highest successful chase.In 1999,Sourav acted as stop gap captain for an injured Sachin in the DMC cup in Toronto against the West Indies and led the team to a 2-1 victory.To all those people who thought Sourav was a selfish individual, his comments after this series would make it clear..."When Sachin comes back,we will have a team ready to go for the kill"...

Things did not go as Sourav stated and India slid down both with respect to on-field performances and the off-field controversy of match fixing.Sachin quit as captain with it having affected his batting,and after having followed Indian cricket since the India's tour of South Africa in 1992,as a 7 year old,8 years hence in 2000,my interest in cricket dwindled out of sheer desperation.Never did I think that i would follow cricket again with the same vigour and passion,but the passion grew even more bigger....all thanks to a great new Team India,led by Sourav.

My first memory of his as full time India captain was his worried look at an ODI at Kochi against South Africa, where Herschelle Gibbs was toying with the Indian bowling.But then he was never the one to give up without a fight,and came out with a blistering attack on the SA bowlers,enabling India to clinch a thriller.This might have been written as a one-off win,but Ganguly defied all logic,batted with tremendous aplomb right through the series and won,leading by example.



India's next biggest destination was the ICC Champions trophy in Nairobi,where India surprised Australia and South Africa , only to be denied by a counter-attacking Chris Cairns in the final.India discovered 2 new heroes in the series- Yuvraj Singh,with an 84 on debut against the aussies and well....I can never forget Zaheer Khan clean bowling Steven Waugh in the dying moments of that quarter final.

A new and young India was emerging to challenge the world.Sourav's first assignment as test captain began nightmarishly with Bangladesh scoring 400 in their first ever test.India was however saved the blushes,thanks to a Sunil Joshi all-round effort.

Come March 2001,the whole world was waiting for the Australian juggernaut to trample the Indians and conquer their "Final Frontier".Aussies had won 15 test matches in a row and India were still struggling to come out of their troubled days.Steven Waugh bragged of a whitewash in India,to which Sourav's reply came:"What does he know what's going on here,sitting in Australia??".Never have Indian captains done this before and never will anyone ever.DADA was not gonna be prey to the Aussies.India's greatest match winning bowler, Anil Kumble was out of the series with a shoulder injury and India's spin bowlers were really, nothing but average.It was here when Captain Sourav fought for a certain Harbhajan Singh to be included in the team ahead of many other contenders.What was to follow was an epic of a series,the best I have ever seen in my lifetime,with India clinching the series thanks to a mammoth turn around by the VVS Laxman-Rahul Dravid duo at Kolkata after following on,and Harbhajan pickcing up 32 aussie wickets,including a hat-trick as well.

India mentally won this series,and not only was it on the field.Sourav did not allow the aussies to get under his skin, rather he got under Steve Waugh's skin,who at Chennai,got out handling the ball.


The way I followed Indian cricket now began to take different dimension after this series.This series led to India's best ever batting middle order to get established in Dravid,Sachin,Sourav and Laxman.Harbhajan Singh became a bowler for the future and most of all, India now making the Australians get the feeling of losing a test match and a test series.

Well...for a short moment i got carried away with the 2001 epic series,without noticing that the blog was meant to be wriiten on Sourav.The same also happened with Sourav's batting.As the Times of India aptly put it,he was the "Robin Hood of his mavericks" around,taking all the brickbats from all corners while making his team grow from strength to strength.India was now HIS team,not to forget how equally it was John Wright's.John worked on the background with the player's skills and Sourav acted the motivator.


In 2001 in South Africa,Sourav promoted a certain Virender Sehwag to open the innings at Bloemfontein,who scored a hundred on debut.The rest as all know is history.Sourav faced his first biggest test in the series with the Mike Denness controversy,which he handled with aplomb and let the world know that India would not succumb to anything like that.India beat the SriLankans in Kandy in 2002,where the team was without Sachin and Laxman.From here India began to show that we are not meek travellers.A win in Port of Spain in 2002,to go ahead in the series in the carribean,was only floundered by losses at Barbados and Jamaica.Then came one of the biggest series of all,which really kick started India's rise back on the cricketing ladder.The Natwest triumph brought about by 2 new kids on the block,Yuvraj-Kaif,leading to a bare-chest act on the hallowed Lord's balcony by DADA and the drawn test series which heralded the greatness of Rahul Dravid was only an indication of things to come.


Well, this is supposed to be a tribute to Sourav, but all i have written so far is about Team India.That is what it actually was!! A tribute to how he made India believe that overseas tours are not only for sight-seeing!!! You've got to go and win test matches abroad.In the midst of these important victories,there was a huge decision Sourav had to make,and it was keeoing Anil Kumble out of the playing eleven in overseas Test cricket.It was really difficult to comprehend for everyone,but Sourav had his way.It had nothing to do with Kumble's performance,but it was to do with the theory of playing 3 fast bowlers and an in-form Harbhajan Singh.And Sourav also admitted recently in a TV interview that it was the most difficult decision he ever took in his career.

Then came the season 2003-2004....My favourite season in Indian cricket for various reasons.India got a serious drubbing in New Zealand and everyone had written off the Indian team,when it came to the ICC World Cup in South Africa.After scratching to beat Holland,the Aussies humiliated the Indians at Centurion.It was now that the fans back home burnt effigies and the captain was the main target.Sourav showed extreme resolve and held the team together,led from the front,inspired the youngsters,Zaheer and Nehra, Srinath delivered outstandingly and the batting held forte with Sachin leading the pack.

England,Pakistan,Newzealand,Sri Lanka all were knocked off and only the Aussies were now reamaining to be defeated.On March 23,2003 as all India waited with breathlessness, the nerves got the better of the team and a certain Ricardo Ponting took the World cup down under once again.SOURAV had took his team to the World cup finals and it was only the 2nd time in Indian history.Sourav's thinking rubbed off on the team...the ability to rise out of the ashes and show the world what you are capable of....

As the season ended,India had to travel to Australia with an attempt to retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy.Any Indian team travelling down under was labelled as mere tourists, and the prediction this tiem was a 4-0 whitewash for India.This after India struggled against the Kiwis at home and were beaten by Australia in the TVS cup.I was extremely apprehensive of India doing well in Australia,and was not liking the idea of watching cricket live early in the morning from 5.30 AM,with the mindset that India will not fare well.Well....Sourav Ganguly showed what guts and determination meant with his scintillating 144 at Brisbane,which for me was the turning point of the series,MENTALLY.

When India won historically at Adelaide,with heroics from Dravid,Laxman,Kumble and a certain Ajit Agarkar ,Sourav's celebration was a calm and composed, clap of hands as he walked out to congratulate Dravid and Agarkar on the field.The look on his face said " I told you so....!!".The next moment of the series came when he walked out at the fag end of day 1,ahead of Sachin,who was struggling for form at Melbourne and took some blows on his helmet.Earlier Indian captains would have sent a nightwatchman....But not Sourav....He liked to fight it out in the middle....Although India failed to seal the series at Sydney,they showed all the world that Aussies are not unbeatable....Rahul Dravid was the man of the series...YES...but for me it was Sourav...he set it up at Brisbane and the other followed suit....


This was followed by a first time series win in Pakistan,both in Tests and ODI's.All this amidst pressures of all that is associated with the environment in Pakistan.


However after this,things were to change....India lost to Australia in India,and Sourav was criticised from all corners for sitting out of the Nagpur test,citing an injury.Pakistan came to India,saved the Mohali test and lost at Kolkata.However India managed to lose the bangalore test and the way Sourav got out to Afridi on the 5th day there,made me think....is it the end of all this glory of 4 years?? India also lost the ODI series 4-2, after being 2-0 up.John Wright's tenure came to an end,and with that the end of a successful combo that took Indian cricket miles ahead.




The next Indian coach was backed by Sourav, and he was none other than Greg Chappell,who was in a way instrumental in Sourav's 144 at Brisbane.However in a span of 6 months things started going downhill and the relationship between them soured due to various reasons.Sourav was struggling for runs and a dogged hundred against minnows Zimbabwe was not meritorious enough for the people who mattered.


This is where things hit him badly and unfairly....He backed Rahul Dravid when he was going through a lean patch in 2000-01,he backed Sachin in West Indies and Australia,He backed Laxman when he was the target always by the selectors....Now he was left unsupported and in solitude...

I have always looked up to my parents when it came to learning lessons and how to go about various things in life.Further my teachers and friends have influenced me in various other ways.Apart from this,if there was anyone whom i always admired,it has to be Sourav Ganguly.Most of the times,i tend to go by instinct and this was learnt by me from the way Sourav exhibited himself.I also took a leaf out of his book when it came to another aspect.That is, "You always support and appreciate people when they do well, but it matters more than anything else,when you support the same people in time of distress"....I have taken lot of flak from most of my friends for supporting Sourav when he was getting support from nowhere....I was taken to be joking when i said that he would come back into the team with a bang.Everyone thought he did not deserve to play for India.Moreover,they all labeled him selfish,stubborn and what not!!!And in a matter of few days,all forgot what he had done for Indian cricket all these years. Well....if an engineering student scores a 60 percent in a semester after getting 80 plus till then,does he become useless and unworthy overnight??? This was the same situation that Sourav was in.....

Sourav went back to domestic cricket,county cricket....slugged it out at unknown venues and showed the hunger to fight back.

And one fine day,in Johannesburg , the same old Sourav of Lord's surfaced and had all his critics running for cover and gasping for breath.India defeated South Africa for the first time ever in a test match in South Africa and my joy knew no bounds.I was extremely happy for him and for myself, for DADA had proved me right !!!!

Again he was dropped in Pakistan, for unknown reasons,despite scoring runs and this was extremely frustrating.However once the World Cup debacle got over in the Carribean in 2007, Greg Chappell was ousted and with that ended the dark days of Indian cricket.Sourav kept scoring runs, played superbly in England,where India won a series after more than 20 years.Rahul Dravid resigned from captaincy post this series and Anil Kumble took over the reigns.
It was in December 2007,that Pakistan came to India.Sourav scored a hundered at Eden Gardens,his first at his home ground.So the expectation was more at Bangalore,the venue for the 3rd test.I had never watched a test match Live at the stadium and i wanted to go this time to watch India v Pakistan.India were 69-4 on day 1 at Lunch,and it was Sourav and Yuvraj at the crease.I was wondering whether it would end as a nightmare day watching India paly below par.But it turned out to be one of the most memorable days of my life.Sourav scored a hundred and watching it live was really a dream for me.Not to forget Yuvraj's belligerent hundred.Sourav went on to score his first and only double hundred the next day and it was an extremely cherishable moment for me.I shall never forget December 8th 2007...the day i watched my hero perform valiantly.


India were supposed to tour Australia in early 2008 and i had this bet with one of my dearest buddies,that he would score atleast one test hundred on the tour.I was extremely disappointed when i lost the bet as Sourav could not manage one,although he came close in the acrimonious Sydney test.However he batted fluently throughout the series with confidence.The bombshell came at the end of the test series when he was dropped for the ODI series and this was extremely disappointing when he was the highest run scorer in ODI's for India in 2007.But it was also true that he would not go on to play the 2011 World cup and hence the decision looked logical with a futuristic sense.
He continued to play well in tests,scoring a match winning 87 on a dustbowl at Kanpur vs South Africa.


Then came the SriLanka series in July 2008,where Indian batting looked all at sea against Mendis and Muralitharan.
Sourav was the scape goat again and was dropped for the Irani trophy game.Everyone predicted the end of the road for Sourav,but i still felt he still had a year to go.A world ranking of No.1 for Team India was what i expected when Sourav would retire.Krish Srikkanth handed Sourav a lifeline and picked him for the Australia series in October 2008. I felt somewhere inside me,that Sourav would have his swansong in the series...It was Australia and the last test was at Nagpur....the same venue which haunted him in 2004.The same old foe whose skin he got under and what more than signing off with a win against Australia.I renewed my bet with the same buddy of mine,of Sourav scoring a hundred in the series.And barely 2 days after this, came the news that Surav had retired. It was extremely shocking and difficult to digest at first.But i expected a drubbing for Australia(Refer to my pervious blog)....All this for Sourav....
He proved me right once again...a match winning hundred at Mohali and a series win at Nagpur.


The image of Mahendra Dhoni asking Sourav to lead the team for one last time before he left was extremely touching.


Finally the moment had arrived...India beat Aussies 2-0 and one of the greatest chapters in the history of World Cricket had come to an end.


This is an image i would never forget...Sourav being carried for a lap of honour fittingly by Laxman and Harbhajan..one who changed the fate of Sourav's captaincy and another who was one of Sourav's biggest contribution to Indian cricket.




Finally....I still could have written lots and lots on Sourav...Well,he will always remain in the minds and hearts of all the people......even those who "Hated to love him and Loved to hate him"....


Indian Cricket will dearly miss you Sourav....There can never ever be another Sourav Ganguly.!!!