The Bengal Renaissance!

[Trichromatic]

Quote

A stagnant economy. No new industrial investment for ages. Growing unemployment. Mass migration of intellectual capital to other parts of India. Deteriorating law and order situation. Clear loss of ground in arts and culture - areas which the state once dominated. But West Bengal has Saurav Ganguly.

Economy: the average Bengali is inspired as much by Ganguly’s feats on the cricket field as with the money he earns through his advertising contracts. Industrial investment: Ganguly is one of the few entrepreneurs who have invested in West Bengal in recent years, setting up a mineral water plant. Growing unemployment: thousands of Bengali middle-class parents are putting their boys through cricket coaching; cricket is suddenly seen as a possible career like engineering or medicine. Migration of intellectual capital: so what if the cream has moved out, Ganguly has no plans of shifting from his ancestral home in south Calcutta. The law and order situation and the arts and culture bit: well, not much of a contribution there by Saurav (unless you count wife Donna Roy, an Odissi dancer)...

Saurav Ganguly is far more than a cricketer in a West Bengal starved of good news. This young man, from the day he made his Test debut at Lord’s in 1996 with a masterful century, has been the embodiment of Bengali hopes and aspirations. The "prince of Calcutta" is Calcutta’s prince. When Ganguly scored 183 against Sri Lanka in the 1999 World Cup, a thousand people turned up at his Calcutta home with drums and horns to celebrate. So, naturally, the city of Calcutta raised the loudest cheers on his appointment as India’s new captain last week. Ever since Sachin Tendulkar’s shock resignation, Calcuttans had been eagerly awaiting the Saurav announcement. Bengali papers, which anyway report all cricket news with Ganguly as the focus, had built up a frenzy of anticipation. The appointment was expected, so when it came, the city was ready for the celebration. Ganguly has captained India in four matches before, but, like the only other India captain from Bengal, Pankaj Roy, Ganguly’s captaincies have been stop-gap arrangements, when neither Tendulkar nor Ajay Jadeja was available. This time round, it’s different. He is truly India’s skipper.

For the average Bengali, Ganguly is an obsession. People have kept meticulous track of every slight, every setback in Saurav’s career. Ask a man on Calcutta’s street, and he will tell you of every game when Ganguly was Man of the Match and yet the captain - Tendulkar or Azharuddin - did not speak highly enough of his contribution. He will recall Sahara Cup ‘97 when Ganguly was dropped in favour of Vinod Kambli. Thousands of Calcutta households simply switched off their television sets and did not watch the match. Former Bengal opener Gopal Bose, who never played for India due to selectorial whimsy, asked people to take to the streets in protest.

Predictably there’re already at least three biographies of Ganguly available in Bengali, all doing brisk business. This adulation, perhaps, is also related to the fact that the Bengali today sees the odds stacked against him. Then there’s the long list of keenly remembered injustices meted out to Bengal cricketers, from Shute Banerjee to Arun Lal. To the Bengali, Ganguly has always been the indomitable underdog, fighting in the face of the byzantine politics of Indian cricket, returning every slight with an even more marvellous performance with the bat or ball. (Point to note here: the Bengali cricket fan does not root for Bengali cricketers, he roots for cricketers playing for Bengal, whether he is Maharashtrian or Gujarati. Just ask Arun Lal, a Punjabi who was the most loved cricketer in Bengal in the 1980s). In fact, Ganguly’s success has seen something of a cricketing revolution in his home state. In the last four years, at least 15 cricket academies have come up in Calcutta for boys in the 8-19 age group, where hawk-eyed guardians monitor the progress of their wards, coached by the likes of Arun Lal, Ashok Malhotra, Sambaran Banerjee, Raju Mukherjee, Pankaj Roy, Pranab Roy and Gopal Bose. A bulk of the membership is from Bengali middle-class families.

The Sunil Gavaskar Cricket Foundation coaches some 250 boys for Rs 250 a month. Says Jayanta Chatterjee, the director: "Gavaskar visits us several times a year, often spending hours with the boys. Last year, our junior team won four tournaments in Bengal and we helped some boys visit England. Our infrastructure is being built, but already we have six concrete pitches and other equipment to match. But we do not make promises that our boys will make it to the Test team. They come from all economic groups and till now, we have spotted 10-12 very promising people." Sayantan Roy, class IX student of a south Calcutta secondary school, enrolled in one such academy last year. Just over five feet, he cannot negotiate his pads and gloves in comfort. "I see Saurav as a role model," he says, admitting that balancing education with coaching is a problem. But his parents see cricket as a possible career for Sayantan. In case the boy does not reach the international level, he could still get a job in a bank or the railways which have a quota for players. In a state without major industrial investments for ages, it could not have been otherwise. There is some method in the madness: cricket coaching is an investment.

Of course, Calcutta’s gaiety over Ganguly’s appointment as captain of India is mixed with a sense of foreboding. "A crown of thorns", cautioned a newspaper headline. Articles and interviews reminded Ganguly that he is taking charge of an Indian team at its nadir. Even as he savours his finest hour, Ganguly as well as his countless fans are aware that his work is cut out for him. Among purists, there is also a strong sense of deja vu. After all, Pankaj Roy too led the team at Lord’s in 1959 on an English tour every bit as disastrous as India’s trip to Australia this year (in one Test, India were four wickets down for zero). But then, optimists point out, the fact that popular expectations about India’s performance have never been lower may also work to Ganguly’s advantage. Now that both Azharuddin and Tendulkar have floundered, few expect much from their successor.

The Bengali media is already overflowing with articles suspicious of the level of cooperation Ganguly will get from his team mates. Says a former player and selector who knows a thing or two about how cricket is played in the country: "With all these different lobbies active, it will be a miracle if all the players support Saurav as captain." Says Pankaj Roy: "There is so much provincialism and unsavoury intrigues involved in the selection process and especially in the appointment of the captain, that I’d rather not talk about it. Saurav has made it on sheer merit." Says bestselling writer Buddhadeva Guha: "The campaign against Saurav by some former players and their media pals was scurrilous. They said everything they could. That he is lazy, wolfs his food, doesn’t play for the team. But except for Sandeep Patil (the India coach during Ganguly’s disastrous 1991-92 tour to Australia), no other detractor has owned up to his mistake."

Ganguly, however, has honed his diplomacy skills along with his cricket. Asked if he would be able to manage a team which has Tendulkar and Azhar, his reply was carefully non-committal: "Let us see, but aren’t such questions best avoided?" He would rather talk strategy. "I would watch the performance of a promising player for two domestic seasons before putting him into the first 11, but once there, he should not be thrown out on the basis of one or two bad showings, he must get a fair chance." There’s a personal touch here: as a 17-year-old, Saurav played in only one one-dayer on the ‘91-92 Australia tour and was relegated to the wilderness for four years after scoring a solitary run in that match.

Clearly Ganguly has been thinking of captaincy, while not gunning for it. "Someday, I’ll captain India, mark my words," that’s what he reportedly told his father, Chandi Ganguly, after the ‘92 disaster. "Talent he always had, but the hard work he put in to perfect his technique has not always been appreciated," Papa Ganguly told newsmen. He has a point. Saurav’s rich-kid background and the fact that he comes from a family long associated with Bengal’s cricket establishment has, to an extent, obscured the steely determination that has been the hallmark of his international career. Inability to face genuine fast bowling, can’t score quickly enough in one-dayers, weak on the on-side, too lazy to run the singles....Ganguly has answered every criticism by just playing better by the year. He’s still accused of being a selfish batsman, yet he remains the only Indian player who, while receiving a Man of the Match award, said he should be sharing it with two others. He’s also the only Indian captain who insisted on calling his entire team on the stage to receive a trophy.

ONE of his young admirers, college student Sriparna Ghosh, makes a different point in assessing the Ganguly persona. "Saurav has true grit. He should make a good captain, because he leads from the front, batting or bowling. He’s the latest of a new series of Bengali success stories, who are more determined, money-conscious and career-driven than past heroes. Mithun, Kumar Sanu, Sushmita Sen, Nayanika Chatterjee, are other examples. They are the new Bengali achievers, people who will not remain talented also-rans in a competitive context, nor merely content to look back in nostalgia on unfulfilled potential."

Now, if only the thousands of Bengali boys and young men who run round the block with banners every time their hero scores a century also tried to emulate the wonderful qualities that make Saurav what he is....Or is that wishful thinking?

 

 

 

 

https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/the-bengal-renaissance/209050

 

This was published way back in 2000.

[sandeep]

42 minutes ago, Trichromatic said:

 

 

https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/the-bengal-renaissance/209050

 

This was published way back in 2000.

And since then how many Bengal cricketers have made it?  Most have been pretenders - Deep dasgupta, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Manoj Tiwary etc.   

 

Now Gangu is pushing hard for that Bannerjee fella, let's see if he gets any further than a quota slot on A tours.

[Forever Indian]

47 minutes ago, sandeep said:

And since then how many Bengal cricketers have made it?  Most have been pretenders - Deep dasgupta, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Manoj Tiwary etc.   

 

Now Gangu is pushing hard for that Bannerjee fella, let's see if he gets any further than a quota slot on A tours.

The only legitimate one is Shami although he is not originally from Bengal

[Malcolm Merlyn]

1 hour ago, sandeep said:

And since then how many Bengal cricketers have made it?  Most have been pretenders - Deep dasgupta, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Manoj Tiwary etc.   

 

Now Gangu is pushing hard for that Bannerjee fella, let's see if he gets any further than a quota slot on A tours.

 

Who bannerjee?

[Malcolm Merlyn]

57 minutes ago, Forever Indian said:

The only legitimate one is Shami although he is not originally from Bengal

Lives and plays for bengal.

[sandeep]

2 minutes ago, Malcolm Merlyn said:

 

Who bannerjee?

Some middle-order bat who's half-decent, but by no means spectacular.  Was selected for the A tour to SA ahead of arguably more deserving candidates. 

[Malcolm Merlyn]

9 minutes ago, sandeep said:

Some middle-order bat who's half-decent, but by no means spectacular.  Was selected for the A tour to SA ahead of arguably more deserving candidates. 

There was no Bannerjee in the team in both the unofficial tests in SA.

[Laaloo]

Bengalis love to live in the past...

[Forever Indian]

1 hour ago, Malcolm Merlyn said:

Lives and plays for bengal.

As I said originally he is from UP, but moved to Bengal for his cricketing career.

[express bowling]

Wriddhiman Saha and Md. Shami playing now.

[maniac]

5 minutes ago, express bowling said:

Wriddhiman Saha and Md. Shami playing now.

Yeah Saha should have a mention...if you consider Shami being originally from UP then based on records Saha is already the 2nd greatest cricketer from Bengal and 2nd best wk-bat we have ever had already.

 

He is quiet and unassuming So gets ignored often.

[maniac]

Any reneissance for 

 

[sandeep]

3 hours ago, Malcolm Merlyn said:

There was no Bannerjee in the team in both the unofficial tests in SA.

Check the squad and the ODI games.  I'm pretty sure he played.  Was in the squad regardless.  

[Malcolm Merlyn]

Check the squad and the ODI games.  I'm pretty sure he played.  Was in the squad regardless.  

There is no Bannerjee.

[tweaker]

6 hours ago, sandeep said:

Some middle-order bat who's half-decent, but by no means spectacular.  Was selected for the A tour to SA ahead of arguably more deserving candidates. 

Sudip Chaterjee

[Khota]

Full disclosure, I am a huge fan of Saurav.

Reason I like Saurav is first and foremost he redefined Indian cricket with in your face attitude and aggression. He did evrythingthe right way and was not scared of anyone.

Another reason he was the least partisan cricketer India had. He did not get involved in regional quotas and did his best for India. Nothing but utmost respect for Mr. Ganguly.

[maniac]

We hear stories of very talented players who fall away because they don’t have powerful lobby or players with mediocre talent who have powerful backers but Ganguly was the rare case of a very talented player with a powerful lobby.

 

Prior to Ganguly only players of note from Bengal as far as I can remember were  Pankaj Roy,Arun Lal and Subroto Banarjee(pardon me if I am

missing out on anyone)...All 3 of them were sole representatives at various eras.

 

Ganguly was the first real superstar. During Ganuly’ s playing era there was the odd Laxmi Ratan Shukla but that’s about it.

 

Post Ganguly we saw atleast 4 International cricketers all in the scheme of things around the same time Ashoke Dinda,Md Shami, Manoj Tiwary and Wriddhiman Saha. They did break through the ranks with quality performances even though some of them failed at the highest level.

 

So definitely there is a Ganguly influence here but from what I have seen since Ganguly’s administrative run in Bengal cricket has not been very promising so far...I was really disappointed with the WT20 game last year and the washed out Ind vs Sa game in 2015 because of poor drainage from overnight rain. Hopefully it is early days and things will get better.Alsonare there any promising youngsters who will be in the scheme of things in the upcoming years? I am not hearing too many names. Looks like the era before Ganguly’s administrative run is the Renaissance where he influenced cricketers but shouldn’t the article make sense if there are any huge developments since his take over???