The Sourav phenomenon!

Adieus to the Cricketer I always admired and will admire the most. Dada aka Bengal Tiger aka Maharaja aka Sourav Ganguly for me is a symbol epitomizing endless struggle and resilience. Today I will dedicate this post of mine to this person whom I have never met in my life or stand a chance of meeting. Cricket, I started understanding this game when I was in my 7th standard at the NGHS. My brother introduced me to the cricketing world. I was a newbie then and had little knowledge of what Cricket was. I used to sit with him and be glued to the TV dumbstruck. Calculating averages, predicting scores… Oh my God I wonder whether I was a psycho at that time… Sachin Tendulkar was supposed to be the God and then immediately came Sourav… I became a die hard fan of this guy.

There have been lots of comparison between Sourav and Sachin and I don’t intend to do so as doing it will only belittle their individual performances. Both of them are gr8 players, but I will speak only about Sourav, me being a fan of him. There are many speculations in the media about this stylish lefthander and I will try to do justice to my words while writing about him. I can’t substantiate all the criticism pertaining to him or his personal life nor can I prove anything in favor of him. I would only like to put my thoughts across while saying adieu to the Cricketer I appreciate the most.

Right from my school days I never missed a single match in which India played. I remember we hardly used to even have food. Just be sitting in from of the idiot box. We didn’t have a cable connection at that time and the only source was the Doordarshan. The match interspersed with the advertisements was something we really loved to watch. We got lot of scolding from our parents for so called “wasting our time” in front of the TV that too for a Cricket match. But we bore all the odds and watched every single India match possible.

I always saw Sourav as a tough-to-break guy, Always surrounded by controversial environs. So much is said about him, yet he stands tall amidst all the muck. Sometimes he was accused for not getting the water bottles, sometimes written off for having problems with the coach. This Bengal Tiger stood the test of time and finally emerged as a winner. The events which happened latest in his career would have been devastating for any other player since the most successful captain in Indian history was not given his dues. Agreed that there are lots of youngsters in the game now and agreed that he made a few mistakes, but how can he be treated the way he was treated later in his life? The same thing happened to Sachin, but the man is getting all support to be back into the game even when he is termed “not fit” physically sometimes.

Sourav has always been given the step motherly treatment. This person I remember used to support his team members at all costs. Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh would be examples. The point I am trying to make is that he is no doubt a great player and deserves to be treated that way. He should have resigned a bit earlier considering the fact that he was not the selectors’ favorite. But he is a fighter and must have had full faith in himself. Anyways I don’t want to get into the intricacies of the selection procedure and the treatment meted out to any player.

Sourav will always be remembered in as the most successful captain India ever had and also as a fighter. Just as a Phoenix resurrects from its ashes, so will Sourav also do. But the only difference will be that he will no longer resurrect in the cricketing world as a batsman in Team India. He will no doubt do well in all his endeavors. This is only to wish him an eventful retirement period. But you never know when this person will be back with a bang… mite not be cricket… mite be something else. Till then and even afterwords, his fans will always have a special place for him in their hearts.