Thursday, February 1, 2007

Dada's comeback


Alright, lets make it a couple of posts for today then !!


This is something especially close to my heart. Saurav Ganguly is back! A man who went from being the most successful captain the country has ever had, to being accused of destroying the morale of the team through his selection policies and also accused of faking injuries. His bad form and inability to get over his technical weaknesses were an added factor. And so Dada went out of the team, and even out of the Indian squad. Initially, he seemed to have lost the taste for a fight. There was a great deal of pressure on him to prove the selectors wrong, and by skipping out of the regional games he seemed to be letting himself down. He decided instead to go to England and play county cricket, but barring a couple of decent scores, his trip was unsuccessful.


At that point, even this devoted fan had lost faith in his ideal. The assumption was that Dada had thrown in the towel. It was expected that he would announce his retirement from cricket soon.


There was a lot of anger and resentment I personally felt at the treatment being meted out to Saurav. I felt, and still feel, that his policy of supporting his team mates through thick and thin, was something which should be respected rather than ridiculed. Some of Chappell's main allegations were that Saurav would overrule the selectors when they wanted to drop out of form players that Saurav had groomed. I expect this list would include the likes of Yuvraj, Zaheer (who was ousted about the same time as Saurav) and Bhajji. But I can understand a captains need to provide stability and time to his team to improve rather than ejecting them out. That fierce loyalty was a characteristic of Dada as a skipper. This stability also meant that the young players were allowed to prosper and gain valuable experience on the basis of which they have proven themselves.


Contrast that with the era of Gavaskar's captaincy, when players like Dilip Doshi were cut out because they would not bow down to the skippers fancies (no puns intended!).


But three innings into his return to One Day cricket, and Dada is again being hailed as one of the best ODI batsmen in the game. Just a couple of months back into the Indian team, and his performances have been decent enough to allow his fans to breathe a deep sigh of relief, and also to sport a goofy grin. Dada's back and all's well with the world.

1 comment:

  1. Dada is BACK!!!!! What with winning the Man of the Series against the Lankans & all. Just hope that he takes his form forward in the World Cup too.
    In the current setup, I think he is a more important batsmen in our lineup than either Dravid or Sachin.
    Rishi.

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