The path-breaking team of 1971
Michael Ferreira, the former world billiards champion, says DilIp Sardesai's heroics sowed the seeds for Sourav Ganguly's assertion of the Indian identity, in The Times of India .
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
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Michael Ferreira, the former world billiards champion, says DilIp Sardesai's heroics sowed the seeds for Sourav Ganguly's assertion of the Indian identity, in The Times of India.
The developments in the West Indies, took us all by surprise. If memory serves me right, Dilip scored a double century - (212, was it?) - in the first Test and then followed it up with another in the second. He did with such resolute batting, showing no fear.
Ferreira, reflecting on a team that suddenly went on from wanting to draw matches to winning them, feels it’s all to do with one’s mentality.
In the earlier days of Fred Truman of England, we Indians, I guess, suffered from a gora complex. Instinctively, we'd bow down to the gora. Nineteen seventy one, changed all that. I remember once speaking to Ravi Shastri and he told me how in his time, they weren't afraid to give the white cricketer a mouthful, asking him to f*** off to the dressing room once they got his wicket.
Now Ravi came from over a decade from Dilip's, and much later, Sourav Ganguly did his bit in asserting the Indian identity and putting the white cricketer in his place, but I guess it all began off from 1971. And, from Sardesai, purely by the words of his deeds much like a Kapil Dev in 1983.
The proud, independent Indian was born then.
Mathew Varghese is sub-editor (stats) at Cricinfo