Maharaja...Dada and Cricket

As the title says it all, anyone who follows cricket to its least minimum would surely catch the person in context, yes its Saurav Ganguly, the most successful captain India has ever seen. The captain who took India to the world cup final in 2003 will be retiring in the next 3 days. This man who is referred to as the "Controversies Child" by the critics, has taken India to a platform where the team has vaccined a built in attitude to handle the mighty opponents.

The body language of this left handed giant is something which was not seen among most of the captains pre-Ganguly Era. The much needed attitude and a blend of arrogance was a oxy-mask for the young cricket lovers, especially when the home team goes down under. Ganguly has made one of the biggest come-backs by any cricketer of his stature. The leap pulled him to the test match and then to the ODI's and later became SRK's kingpin for the "Kolkatta Knight Riders" for the 2008 first ever IPL season.

The Shirt-Take-Off at Lords dragged a lot of controvieries for breaking the Lords protocol. But Dada had a quick answer by shooting the arrow at Flintoff who had earlier done that back in India.

I am not a very good statistician, but I am of the strong opinion that the seniors of the game namely Sachin, Dravid, Ganguly, Kumble and VVS should go on for some more years, but already Kumble has called it quits and Ganguly will bid-adieu in the next 3 days. Is there anything better than experience? We are loosing on the talent pooled over the last decade. Dont we have to transition this in a much disiplined manner? I do see a lot of young talent queued up, but why are we hasty in pushing out those who have pulled us so far.

You like it or not, the contemporary Indian mindset does'nt like to see someone on top, is that the reason for pushing out the so called "Fab Four". Already the seniors are sliding down the sine wave in much acceleration and why do we still have to catalyst that and that looks a nasty sign.

Today, when Ganguly is at his career best in his last test series against Australia, media has raised a question if he wants to re-visit on his retirement decision. Many indian cricket lovers ridiculed Dada during his poor form and during his Chappell-Ganguly controvery. Why are we so fickle minded in a small sporting issue. When we cant have clarity in such a small non-impacting issue, it is so frustrating to know what kind of an immaturd fan following this game has in this part of the world. Lets predict how frustrating the contributors could get.

The best thing we can hope for is to have Ganguly associated with the sport in its most active form. We will still see Dada represent SRK's high profiled team for atleast next 2 years. Lets all wish Dada all success in his future path. Thanks to all his contributions to this wonderful game called Cricket.