Inside Sourav's mind
Quite often in his career, Sourav Ganguly has been seen as the scapegoat in India's failures and the latest instance was the forgettable Test series in Sri Lanka
Kanishkaa Balachandran
25-Feb-2013
Quite often in his career, Sourav Ganguly has been seen as the scapegoat in India's failures and the latest instance was the forgettable Test series in Sri Lanka. Pradeep Magazine in the Hindustan Times writes that the last fortnight, Ganguly found it difficult to sleep, wondering again and again, why he was invariably the first player to be targeted.
The sound of bat whacking ball would have Chandidas Ganguly waking up with a start in the middle of the night, only to find son Sourav batting in the drawing room with the domestic help bowling to him. “My son has gone mad,” the father would say and tell his wife to get her son to realise that there is life beyond cricket as well. But his mother never had the heart to tell her son that it was all over and “he could never make it back to the Indian team”.
In the Telegraph, the former Indian batsman Arun Lal pays tribute to Ganguly and feels his decision to quit was very well timed and couldn’t have been delayed any further.
While I didn’t think much of the shirt waving spectacle, he did bring the much-needed aggression and a will to win into the side. His leadership inculcated that focus of how everything should revolve around achieving victory and in that endeavour he backed the right horses and for the right reasons.
In Daily News and Analysis, Ayaz Memon appreciates the timing of Ganguly's decision and looks back at his successful captaincy career. Though he may not be in the same league as Dravid, Laxman and Tendulkar as far as his Test batting record goes, his contribution as a captain and motivator would put him above the three.
Ganguly showed remarkable chutzpah and ambition to build a team that would win accolades everywhere for its skills and attitude. He succeeded in infusing a sense of pride and purpose that finished off the fatalism which had always dogged sport in this country.
Kunal Pradhan, in the Indian Express, writes that no Indian cricketer has gone through all the gamut of emotions as often and as publicly as Ganguly.
Kanishkaa Balachandran is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo