The 'I' in Ganguly

From Ganguly Fan, India
And so Ganguly's era comes to an end and for some reason I am sad. I was never the greatest of admirers of Ganguly. "He is a decent test batsman but he is the weak link among the Fab Four" I would tell my friends. "His strike rate in ODI's is only in the seventies", I would smugly remind my friends when someone said he was a great one day batsman. I would argue with friends for hours that Ganguly is past it now and should be replaced for the forthcoming Test series. But still I am sad to see him go. Is it the sentimentalist in me taking over? I don't know.

But one thing I do know is that no one divides opinion like Ganguly does. If there is a reason to celebrate Ganguly's career I think it should not be because of the runs he scored or the number of Test matches in which he led India to victory. It should be because he believed in himself when others did not, right from the time he was picked as a 17 year old to tour Australia and jettisoned after a single ODI appearance.

He had to wait more than six years to make his golden comeback. Lesser mortals would have fallen by the wayside. Even in his comeback test match there were whisperings that he was only there because of Dalmiya. Contrast this to Tendulkar who made his debut at an age younger than Ganguly but was always treated with care. Contrast this to Dravid who was under less pressure than Ganguly when he made his test debut. And this to me has been the hallmark of Ganguly's career. He took great pride in proving people wrong.

For those who said he was there in 1996 at Lord's not because of his ability, two centuries and a 90 were the answer. For those who said he could not score against quality bowling, his century in the first Test down under in 2003/04 was the answer. For those who said he was finished after he was stripped of the captaincy, his umpteenth comeback was the answer. And therein lies an inspirational story to budding cricketers. If you have a strong enough mind and will to succeed you will.

Pete Sampras once said "For so long people have just taken what I do for granted. It is not easy to do year-in, year-out". Yes and for so long we have taken Ganguly for granted. There will be questions asked as to whether he had an agreement in place with the selectors for bidding adieu. But I am more interested in watching Ganguly play for one last time. And this time I wont utter a word even if he gets out to a short ball. I will enjoy it one last time.