Sourav Ganguly - One of our Greatest Captains!

[puneets]

What a fabulous return by Sourav Ganguly. In this year, he has played better than ever in test cricket and his ODI record (this yr) is also marvellous. He took the attack to the Pakistani bowlers and never let his guard down. His leg side strokes were a pleasant surprise...and his off-side play has been his forte for long.

[gbelday]

I think we should change the name of the thread or just freeze it!

[PKBasu]

Goodbye Sourav Ganguly. Today he begins his last test match at Nagpur, where he made his last comeback to the ODI side with a terrific knock of 98. I wanted to go to Nagpur but my son fell ill this week and his birthday party had to be postponed to the weekend. Family must take precedence over cricketing enjoyment.

Anyway, few can match the poetry and sheer perfection of Peter Roebuck in this beautiful valedictory paean to Ganguly:

http://content-eap.cricinfo.com/ci/cont ... 77000.html

I disagree, of course, with his assessment that "Ganguly has been neither a genius or a saint or a great batsman...", although I agree with the rest of that sentence: "but he has served with distinction and leaves Indian cricket in a much better state than he found it". Ganguly was a genius in the way he moulded a team and led it to untold glories (that the rest of Roebuck's article extols!). He was certainly a great batsman too, especially in ODIs. Even in tests, he is finishing with a record that is considerably better than those of Gundappa VIshwanath and Dilip Vengsarkar; if they weren't great test batsmen, then I would agree that nor was Ganguly. He only seemed slightly short of great (in tests) in the genuinely great company of his colleagues -- Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman and Sehwag, all of whom have to rank among the top-most tier of truly great test batsmen. What a fantastic generation we have had the pleasure of witnessing in full flower.

[prasen9]

I would not say that Laxman was a great batsman either. The other three of course have been great. Actually, both Laxman and Sourav have been very good test batsmen, maybe Laxman very, very good, but neither are world-greats. Laxman and Sourav are, of course, Indian greats. All that is subjective as is the use of the term "genius". Again, as a captain Sourav was tough and uncompromising. He achieved great results, but, I would use the term exceedingly sparingly (except while referring to our "genius" in the forum, whose capabilities I have no clue about ). So, among captains, I would say, maybe, only Warne is a genius for having won with that Jaipur team. Others, are very good and very very good but not genius-es. I understand these subjective things are where we individually draw our lines and I suspect if you talked to Roebuck, he would not necessarily rate Vishwanath and Vengsarkar higher than Sourav. I would not either despite the elegance of Vishwanath. Vishwanath's late cuts were, of course, genius-quality, but, not his overall batsmanship because sometimes he lacked termperament to keep going for mammoth innings and due to his throwing his wicket away a bit carelessly at times.

[PKBasu]

There will be a last hurrah for Sourav at Lord's (where he made his majestic test debut), when he leads the MCC (represented by an excellent group of international players, including Brian Lara) in a T20 fixture against Pakistan on June 27th:

http://www.cricinfo.com/pakistan-v-aust ... 62599.html

I will be at Lord's for this match, since I am in London that weekend (originally for Wimbledon, but good things happen to those who venture...).

[jayakris]

I srtill remember Sourav's start there.. "Gin Gan", they used to joke about his name on BBC radio that I heard commentary from, IIRC.. Ah, time flies.

Jay

[PKBasu]

I was at Lord's for the match yesterday. Sadly, Ganguly's innings didn't last long, as he was undone by a beautiful Umar Gul yorker after making just 2 (the same ball that undid Lara in his previous over) and a bit of gamesmanship by Afridi. Lara batted brilliantly for his 37, though, and it was interesting to see a couple of Afghan players in the MCC side (one of them, the spinner Nabi, a pretty impressive bowler). It was also disappointing that Ganguly didn't bowl (given the success he has had against the Pakistanis in particular over the years). But he marshalled his limited bowling resources well, and kept Pakistan to just 165, a target that his MCC side fell only 6 runs short of (primarily because of a splendid innings from the Victoria batsman, Blizzard).

[PKBasu]

This is an unexpected piece of news:

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1101113/j ... 171842.jsp

I remember Chuni Goswami took fully to cricket after semi-retiring from football at about the age of 32. And he distinguished himself, including one superb performance in the Ranji final that would have got him into the Indian side if enough cricket was played in those days. But for a cricketer to play his first competitive football (soccer) match at age 39 is quite another matter. The fact that Ganguly was able to hold his own for 60 minutes while playing East Bengal speaks rather well of his level of fitness (and footballing ability), but rather poorly of the standard of football in India even now.

[Omkara]

PKB it talks more of poor level of fitness in Indian Football and Kolkata league in general. But ya its commendable for Ganguly to play professional league at this age. I remember him playing football a few years ago but that wasn't a professional game

[kaustav]

He is a damn good football player and we know tat...Actually to be very honest if he had chosen football instead of cricket early in his career he would have been successful there too

[PKBasu]

I don't know who changed the title of this thread to say this (I certainly hadn't started this thread with that title -- although I believed it at the time). The baton has now well and truly passed, and Dhoni is without doubt the greatest Indian cricket captain ever, as Sourav himself acknowledges here:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc_cricket ... 09588.html

[jaydeep]

PKB, I did that ...

What about this new title or should I change it to original one?

[kaustav]

People tend to forget the past... This Indian team actually made by Sourav only...When Indian cricket was down and out with betting scandals he led from the front and made this team in 2000. He was the first captain who talks eye for an eye with the Aussies and South Africans...Shewag,Yuvi,Bhajji,Zak,Nehera was his team memers and not forget these are the guys who actually won the cup for us...Kapil Dev faced Windies in 80's with Garner,Marshal,Robarts,Holding,Loyed,Richards and Sourav faced the greatest team of the century The Aussies with Mcgrath,Warne,Bret Lee,Hayden,Gilchrist,Ponting... Dhoni and his team faced WEAKEST AUSTRALIA AND WINDIES....Dhoni is very good leader and may be beacaus of absence of 80's Windies and 1990-2007 unbeatable Aussies his success rate is the best as compare to Kapil and Sourav...But I don't agree with PKB and all and still believe that the contribution of Sourav in Indian cricket was more than anybody else...

[prasen9]

Can you please edit the title to "One of our Greatest Captains"? It is a bit ambiguous currently. Tx. --pm

[S_K_S]

Anyone got the book yet? I can imagine a few of our members being at the front of the queue.

ESPN extract - http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/ ... av-ganguly