People better than I will write paens and create magic with words to describe the life and times of Saurav Chandidas Ganguly and the impact he had on India's cricket.
For me, a gesture made at the end of an obscure tournament defines the man
There was one heartwarming moment at the very end. Ganguly was called to the dais, and the trophy presented to him. Rather than take it in his hand, he stood there, took the mike and said, "I'd like the boys up here please". And he waved the entire team forward, had them lift the trophy while he stood by, underlining his little speech earlier about the way the team had played as a unit.Go well, The Prince of Kolkotta, with the thanks of a grateful nation!
16 comments:
micro cricket at its best. good one Homer.
Naked,
For some reason the memory stayed.. maybe because I had not seen an Indian skipper do it before or since..
Cheers,
Didn't Dhoni :-) do the same thing recently at the end of the CB Series?? He asked "sabse chota kaun" and then everyone lifted the trophy.
Getting back to dada..
he was my fav of the Fab 5. Really sad to see him go.
Leela,
Thanks for your comments and welcome to the blog.
I always thought the Dhoni statement was an apocryphal story .. but thats just me!
As far as Saurav goes,he is going out on his terms ( for the most part), unlike 2005.
Cheers,
It is true.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHxJfxE4AHU pay attention at 6:33
Thanks for the welcome.. great blog.
Sad day, not a huge fan of Ganguly but He has done a lot for India. I still remember him and Dravid in England back 96 or 97 their first ever tour abroad or debuting I think. Some of that off side play was sublime.
Managed to get up the Aussie noses.
A career fulfilled. Hopefully he has a good series to cap off the career!
Thanks for adding me!
Homer
I remember that moment .. and thought that was definetly different from any other Indian Captain did .. good to know somebody else thought so
Hail the Prince
cknaidu
Thanks for the link and your kind words Leela.
Cheers,
Anytime Damit - cant wait to for the culmination of who is most likely to lose his balls :)
Cheers
Yeah ck.. It was one of those moments that seem to endure ..
Cheers,
He will be the best captain India ever had!
That's a beautiful memory of Ganguly, Homer. Thank you bringing that to mind.
Q,
I would hope not :)
Cheers,
Cheers vmminerva :)
Haha I didn't mean it in that way. I think his record will remain untouched for some time and even if it goes, his legacy will be tranforming a team suffering from the rut of match fixing, regionally motivated selections, reliance on one man, and lack of self belief.
He changed all that.
He was India's Imran Khan, Clive Lloyd, Micheal Vaughan, Steve Waugh all rolled into 1.
Q,
He was the right guy at the right time(remember that Rahul Dravid was also in the captaincy mix at that time) and at the right place.
I doubt he would have made much headway if Greg Chappell was coach instead of John Wright and Shashank Manohar was leading the BCCI instead of Jagmohan Dalmiya.
But yes, his contributions to Indian cricket wont be forgotten in a hurry.
Cheers,
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