How Sourav Ganguly and Nasser Hussain revitalised India and England

[ahilya]

How Sourav Ganguly and Nasser Hussain revitalised India and England

These captains of industry introduced pugnacity, backbone and bottle to Test sides that were languishing in the rankings Former England captain Nasser Hussain, left, poses with the NatWest Trophy with the then India captain Sourav Ganguly at Lord's in 2002. Photograph: Getty Images On Thursday, when Andrew Strauss and Mahendra Singh Dhoni walk out for the toss at Lord's, the waiting finally comes to an end and the most keenly anticipated England v India series in memory will begin minutes after the captains' blazers are draped on their dressing-room pegs. Whether this is an unequivocal shoot-out for the title of the best Test team in the world is best left for the mathematicians. But as far as bragging rights are concerned a win for the tourists would fortify their position at the summit while an England one would be proclaimed in spirit as an uprooting of India's standard at the pinnacle and its replacement with the union flag, South Africa's claims notwithstanding. Twelve years ago the fortunes of both sides were bleak. England were ninth in the rankings, rock bottom beneath Zimbabwe and New Zealand, and India, led reluctantly by Sachin Tendulkar, were fifth with barely half the points of Australia. Two men in the commentary box for their home audiences for this seductive series, Nasser Hussain and Sourav Ganguly, were the catalysts for the progress made over the past decade and while they have been eclipsed by their successors, both sides owe a debt of gratitude to the men who transformed their character. Mentally weak and meek teams with soft underbellies were ruthlessly exposed by Australia throughout the 1990s but the mettle and combativeness injected by Hussain and Ganguly succeeded in ensuring that though the captains might be outplayed and out-thought, never again would they roll over and be outfought. They introduced pugnacity, backbone and bottle, the latter in the old cockney rhyming slang sense of "bottle and glass" – ****. By choosing to take on Steve Waugh's bullet-eyed squint and remorseless aggression with such a degree of arsiness they left themselves open to accusations that they honoured the spirit of the game as much in the breach as the observance. Hussain would stand at silly mid-off and chirp away at the batsmen while Ganguly would get under the skin of his opposite number by persistentlyturning up late for the toss and dishing out a few choice insults of his own when stationed near the bat. Temperamentally both were scrappers but Ganguly brought a hauteur to his needling that riled opponents even more because they suspected his air was patronising and contemptuous. India's coach, John Wright, and England's Duncan Fletcher were instrumental in improving the teams and central contracts were a weapon denied Fletcher's predecessor. But both realised that their captains' personalities were the fundamental building blocks on which progress could be built. Hussain, a former outsider himself, harnessed the talents of other misfits such as Andy Caddick and Graham Thorpe, and was dispassionate enough to stick to plans such as bowling to Tendulkar with an eight-one offside or instructing Ashley Giles to target a line of attack outside leg-stump beyond the point that tedium set in. During his captaincy England's toughest battles on the subcontinent were more exhilarating in their results rather than their execution. Obduracy became a byword and he revelled in sticking two fingers up at his critics, or more momentously three fingers after scoring his only one-day century at Lord's in 2002 from No3. Ganguly had more spectacularly talented players at his disposal and playing at home gave him further advantages. By instilling toughness and discipline he gave Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Harbhajan Singh opportunities to shine. He was a fine player himself, too, so imperious between point and mid-off that Dravid proclaimed: "On the off side, first there is God, then there is Ganguly." His Lancashire team-mates criticised his aloofness but he did not lack humour, responding to Andrew Flintoff's shirtless lap of honour at Mumbai in February 2002 when England squared the marathon ODI series with a semi-strip of his own at Lord's when India won the tri-series five months later. The best captains empower their team-mates and trust them to perform. Ganguly was better at this than Hussain, who fumed at mid-off when his side were struggling in the field during the 2002-03 Ashes tour, vainly attempting to micro-manage his bowlers. Ganguly focused his ire on the opposition while Hussain in martinet mode could rarely resist kicking the turf when something went wrong. Retirement from the captaincy predated England and India's final pushes towards the peak but they deserve credit for replicating the role played by Allan Border for his heirs under the baggy green in toughening up moribund teams. And like Border bad manners played a significant part in their work. On Thursday the Sky commentators will relentlessly twit Hussain for his miserliness and big nose and doubtlessly continue to refer to Ganguly as "Lord Snooty", but without the feisty pair who established sound foundations this series would not be as mouthwatering as it is.

[mishra]

:hatsoff: dada Nasser was a WUM and still one. Never liked the guy. How dare he tell me who should i support. Who the hell is he to tell me what to do? I think he became one because of Aussies. But yeah I dont think Indian cricketneeded to be revitalized. But yeah, When Dada took over it was at historical low. It definitely needed someone like Dada. Before Dada our player used to be met injustice and captain and Board used to just take Gandhian approach. Indian media used to cry foul each time we were meeted one. Dada did tit for tat. He told the world treat us equal....