The Making of the Phoenix - Unheard Stories of Sourav Ganguly!

[saikatmaity]

U-19 Tournament - A Fighter is Born ... Contd. Sourav’s consistent performance at the U-19 Bengal team, earned him the attention of Kailash Ghatani. Kailash was an ex-cricketer, who selected a team of promising players every year, and took them to England. In 1988-89, Kailash’s team for England included, Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli, Anil Kumble and Sourav Ganguly. To play in England’s weather and conditions is always a challenge for any batsman. And it is said that only class and quality can survive on the 22 yards in England. The tour turned really well for Sourav. He was the second highest scorer in team, after Vinod Kambli. His performance in England earned him a place in the U-19 Indian squad for the 4 test match series against touring Pakistan team, under Moin Khan’s captaincy. In the first test at Feroz Shah Kotla, India won by 3 wickets. The second Test at Kanpur and the third one at Rourkela ended in a draw. The final test match was at Wankhere, Mumbai. Pakistan batted first and scored 348 runs. Moin Khan was the highest scorer with 159 runs. Among the Indian bowlers, Jayedi and Kumble took 3 wickets each, while Ashish Kapoor and Paranjape took the remaining 4 wickets. The Indian innings started. The Pakistan fast bowlers, Naim and Liyak were breathing fire down the Indian line. The Wankhere pitch had become lively, and the fast bowlers were exploiting that to the best. Ajay Jadeja, got out on 12, holding out to Moin Khan in Naim’s delivery. The other opening batsman Kaderkar got out on 3 as well. Jatin Paranjape and Agarwal, was at the crease with the score board reading, 22-2. Liyak was bowling continuous bouncers to Jatin, as he was seemingly uncomfortable with those. Suddenly one good length delivery from Liyak, bounced on to Jatin’s face. Jatin tried to save himself with the bat. The ball took the edge, went on to hit straight on Jatin’s face and lobbed off to close-in fielder’s hands. Jatin was down on the ground. His face badly bruised. Sourav, took the fight straight to the Pakistani camp. He was hitting every bowler and scoring runs fluently. Agarwal, fell at a personal score of 38. Bhupinder Singh and Anil Kumble fell in quick succession as well. But, none of this could deter, the Sourav tornado. He kept on hitting the bowlers at will. He got into a good partnership with Biswal. Together Biswal and Sourav pulled India out of the mess. In that innings Sourav Ganguly scored a century! :two_thumbs_up:

[King]

Ganguly is a terrific fighter and a classy batsman. But please don't make comparions of Ganguly to Tendulkar or Rahul Dravid and make a mockery of Ganguly. He has his own place in Indian cricket and not everyone has to be "The Best" to be hailed.

[King]

Oh BTW Sai, good read. Thanks for posting. I haven't visited your BLogs yet but will do sometime.

[Gambit]

How do you know about these episodes Saikatmaity?

[Kohum]

Sai - very good read - all of your posts are ! Thanks !

[saikatmaity]

How do you know about these episodes Saikatmaity?

Thanks for all of your support and comments. Thank you Nandya. Thank you King. Gambit, the series of stories i am putting on my Blog is primarily based on a Bengali Book called "Sourav" written by Shantipriya Bandopadhay in 1998. I am rewriting the story in my own words in English. Apart from the Book, I also have taken help of some secondary research for facts and figures. I have mentioned the source in my Blog.

[saikatmaity]

Selection to the Squad Sourav, as we all know, is a left-handed batsman though he is a natural right hander. He converted to the southpaw stance at a young age so that he could use his left-handed brother, Snehasish Ganguly's equipments. During the year 1989-90, Snehasis was at his peak form. Out of the 6 Ranji Trophy matches he played, he scored 439 runs with two centuries and finished with an average of 73.16. He was in the radar of the national selectors. Sourav with his back to back brilliant performances in the U-19 tournaments was also knocking the doors of Bengal Ranji Team. The main problem it seemed was replacing someone. Since all the players were performing well it would have been unfair to replace anyone from the Bengal team with Ganguly. He finally got his call in the Ranji final match. And fate it seemed was not without a sense of irony. The man who made way for Sourav in the team was none other than Snehasis Ganguly, his own brother. While entry in the Ranji team marked a beginning to Sourav’s career at the senior level, the dropping of Snehasis simultaneously spelled the beginning of the end to Snehasis’s career as well. In the 1991 Duleep Trophy match against West Zone in Guahati, Sourav hit a tidy knock of unbeaten 124 runs. This innings earned him a place in the Indian Team, for the 1991-92 Australian tour, under the captaincy of Md. Azharuddin. :yay:

[saikatmaity]

Destiny's Step Child Sourav has always been destiny’s step child. As his legendary skills, his bad luck has also been way apart from the rest. The series of malicious propaganda and controversies which a 19 year old budding talent had to endure was never heard in Indian cricket before, and shall possibly be never heard again. In the words of Sourav, “The controversies which arose during my Australia tour had left me completely shattered. It was told that I had reminded the team management that my nickname is Maharaj, and that I won’t bring water and towel to the field (as a 12th man), since such work is done by Ramu servant at my home. I belong to a good family, and it was extremely difficult for me to withstand such things..†Read all the Controversies and other details of the Australia tour of India in 1991-92, at my blog.

[saikatmaity]

1992 Australia Tour The Indian Squad was declared for the Australian Tour of 1991-92. The players named were, Md.Azharuddin ©, Ravi Shastri, Kapil Dev, K.Srikanth, Dilip Vengsarkar, Sanjay Manjrekar, Sachin Tendulkar, Manoj Prabhakar, Kiran More (W), Venkatpati Raju, Sourav Ganguly, Javagal Srinath, Subrata Banerji, Narendra Hirwani, and Chandrakanth Pandit. The first opportunity to play came very soon, in the India vs Australia Board XI match. Board XI batted first. In 50 overs they amassed 254 runs at the loss of 6 wickets. In reply, India could score only 225 runs at the loss of 7 wickets. Jeoff Marsh hit a century in that match. Dilip Vengsarkar was the highest scorer for India with an unbeaten knock of 58 runs. Sourav couldn’t perform in that match. He got out at 2 runs only. Sourav didn’t get a chance in the playing eleven for the subsequent match against West Australia and the 1st Test at Brisbane. India lost the first Test at Brisbane. Before the 2nd Test Match, India played a 4 days cricket match against Queensland. Sourav got a chance again in that match. India batted first and scored 450 runs at the loss of 9 wickets. Sourav batted 5th down and scored 29 runs, before getting run out. He didn’t get an opportunity to bat in the second innings. That was the last match Sourav Ganguly played in that Australian tour. He was dropped from the Indian Team soon after returning to India. A young cricketer, like him was rejected without giving him a fair chance to prove himself. And worst, his stay was marred by false allegations and controversies which left a deep scar in the mind and heart of a 19 year old. :omg:

[saikatmaity]

Explosive News from KKR Camp Explosive News from the KKR Camp! Even with the worst performance in the history of Indian Premier League, the KKR camp is never failing to gather the media bytes (for all wrong reasons, though). Latest in the series of incessant controversies (thanks to Bookha Naan and Phoren Babas), Ajay Jadeja has revealed a sensational news from the KKR camp in a private news channel. Jadeja said that the foreign coaching staff members of the KKR team are ill treating the Indian cricketers. It was also alleged that racist comments were being hurled at an Indian cricketer. The cricketer was asked to come out of the field, by a coaching staff member. When the cricketer questioned him, the coaching staff supposedly replied, “You Indian ... do what I say.†:whack:

[saikatmaity]

The darkest days of life - shattered Morning is a reflection of one’s state of mind. And when the ego is bruised, self confidence is shattered, mind is filled with remorse and haplessness, future too bleak and fearful; every morning seems to be an ordeal in which one wakes up into, with sleep seeming so distant yet so cherished. The gloom and darkness all around suddenly seems to engulf one, draining out every bit of adrenalin from the veins. It seems too inevitable to slip into the vast emptiness, and stare at the ceiling endlessly. Sourav was passing through such a state of mind, after the Australia tour of 1992. It was supposed to have been ‘the moment’ of his life. His first Indian cap was supposed to be recognition of his potential and hard work. Sachin had done it. So had Kumble and Kambli, his fellow mates from the Kailash Ghatani U-19 team. But, what did he get? Slander and sarcasms, false allegations which inspite of his best efforts, he was unable to refute. Even before he could get a chance to prove himself, he was stigmatised and discarded forever. The chasm before him seemed to colossal to cross, and his dreams of becoming a Indian cricketer seemed to fade out beyond those high walls! It seemed to tempting for him to slip into the vast abyss of hopelessness. But, the rebel within could not be reconciled with. He was vehemently protesting and was trying too hard to turn things the other way round. Something within him was making him too desperate to break the wall in his way and prove the whole world wrong! Complete story on the Blog.

[punjabi_khota]

Morning is a reflection of one’s state of mind. And when the ego is bruised, self confidence is shattered, mind is filled with remorse and haplessness, future too bleak and fearful; every morning seems to be an ordeal in which one wakes up into, with sleep seeming so distant yet so cherished. The gloom and darkness all around suddenly seems to engulf one, draining out every bit of adrenalin from the veins. It seems too inevitable to slip into the vast emptiness, and stare at the ceiling endlessly. Sourav was passing through such a state of mind, after the Australia tour of 1992. It was supposed to have been ‘the moment’ of his life. His first Indian cap was supposed to be recognition of his potential and hard work. Sachin had done it. So had Kumble and Kambli, his fellow mates from the Kailash Ghatani U-19 team. But, what did he get? Slander and sarcasms, false allegations which inspite of his best efforts, he was unable to refute. Even before he could get a chance to prove himself, he was stigmatised and discarded forever. The chasm before him seemed to colossal to cross, and his dreams of becoming a Indian cricketer seemed to fade out beyond those high walls! It seemed to tempting for him to slip into the vast abyss of hopelessness. But, the rebel within could not be reconciled with. He was vehemently protesting and was trying too hard to turn things the other way round. Something within him was making him too desperate to break the wall in his way and prove the whole world wrong! Complete story on the Blog.

Cmon dude...he must be smoking something really bad to think that "The moment of his life" had come when he was 19 years old. And I am pretty sure he would have not thought that being dropped at 19 means he will never get into the team again.

[zubinpepsi]

oww sourav the poor baby.... everyone in the world were out to pull him down.. how sad is tht... btw u forgot to mention a fact tht he refused to carry drinks in tht 92 tour....

[saikatmaity]

oww sourav the poor baby.... everyone in the world were out to pull him down.. how sad is tht... btw u forgot to mention a fact tht he refused to carry drinks in tht 92 tour....

Zubin and Punjabikhota .. thanks for your comments ... well I haven't posted the "Controversies" part on this forum .. i am posting them for you .. perhaps that will help answer some questions.

[saikatmaity]

Destiny's Step Child - Controversies Sourav has always been destiny’s step child. As his legendary skills, his bad luck has also been way apart from the rest. The series of malicious propaganda and controversies which a 19 year old budding talent had to endure was never heard in Indian cricket before, and shall possibly be never heard again. In the words of Sourav, “The controversies which arose during my Australia tour had left me completely shattered. It was told that I had reminded the team management that my nickname is Maharaj, and that I won’t bring water and towel to the field (as a 12th man), since such work is done by Ramu servant at my home. I belong to a good family, and it was extremely difficult for me to withstand such things..” Some of the major controversies which had hit headlines during that time were: 1. Sourav’s attitude was like that of a Maharaj. He doesn’t want to practice, nor was he interested in carrying his own Kits Bag. 2. One day, when Sourav was looking for someone to carry his Kits Bag, a frustrated Kapil Dev carried his bag to the team bus 3. He refused to bring water and towel to the field as a 12th Man. These rumours spread like wild fire. They were reported in all leading newspapers across India, including Kolkata. Sourav did not find any support from anywhere, not even in his home state. People and media believed the propaganda, not contesting or disputing for a moment, that it was the same Sourav who toured England with Kailash Ghatani, and no one complained of his attitude before. No one suggested that all these were perhaps master minded by one of the most crooked minds Indian cricket, who had put the cricket to shame through his nexus with Bookies and betting – Mohammed Azharuddin. A 19 year old, who had just started his international career with big dreams and promise, was thrown out, denied of a fair chance, humiliated and maligned. At 19 years of age, when you and me, was perhaps in the first year of our college life, another promising teenager was subjected to acute stress and humiliation, malign and slander from all quarters, and even his home crowd. There is an old saying in Russian that one has to pass through fire to become steel. The fire of humiliation, and agony which had burnt Sourav for four years, from 1992-96, is what made him what he is – A phoenix who can rise from ashes, again and again and again!

[saikatmaity]

And I am pretty sure he would have not thought that being dropped at 19 means he will never get into the team again.

As you can see Punjabi Khota, when Zubin still believes with conviction after 17 odd years .. tht Sourav actually had refused to carry drinks and it was not a false propaganda against him .... imagine what a 19 years old must have felt, when the whole world had believed in the same propaganda with conviction and have written him off!

[Gambit]

There is an old saying in Russian that one has to pass through fire to become steel. The fire of humiliation' date=' and agony which had burnt Sourav for four years, from 1992-96, is what made him what he is – A phoenix who can rise from ashes, again and again and again![/quote'] Loved this part! Thanks for posting these nuggets saikamaity.

[saikatmaity]

The darkest days of life - complete Post! Mornings are reflection of one’s state of mind. And when the ego is bruised, self confidence is shattered, mind is filled with remorse and haplessness, future too bleak and fearful; every morning seems to be an ordeal in which one wakes up into, with sleep seeming so distant yet so cherished. The gloom and darkness all around suddenly seems to engulf one, draining out every bit of adrenalin from the veins. It seems too inevitable to slip into the vast emptiness, and stare at the ceiling endlessly. Sourav was passing through such a state of mind, after the Australia tour of 1992. It was supposed to have been ‘the moment’ of his life. His first Indian cap was supposed to be recognition of his potential and hard work. Sachin had done it. So had Kumble and Kambli, his fellow mates from the Kailash Ghatani U-19 team. But, what did he get? Slander and sarcasms, false allegations which inspite of his best efforts, he was unable to refute. Even before he could get a chance to prove himself, he was stigmatised and discarded forever. The chasm before him seemed to colossal to cross, and his dreams of becoming a Indian cricketer seemed to fade out beyond those high walls! It seemed too tempting for him to slip into the vast abyss of hopelessness. But, the rebel within could not be reconciled with. He was vehemently protesting and was trying too hard to turn things the other way round. Something within him was making him too desperate to break the wall in his way and prove the whole world wrong! The world is always too cruel to the vanquished. It derives a sadistic pleasure, by feeding on the carcass of the dead. Sourav was facing this world every moment. Wherever he went to play, a group of people would flock together to hurl abuses at him. Then one day he lost his patience. It was the Eastbengal vs Mohanbagan match at the Amar Ghosh Tournament. A section of the crowd was constantly abusing Sourav. The 20 year old lost his composure. He hit back at the spectators by making improper gestures. That added fuel to the fire. The next day, the incident was made the headlines in every local newspaper. Everyone said that the younger son of Chandi Ganguli is just an arrogant waste. He has brought bad name to Bengal Cricket. Another incident worth mentioning was the Ranji Trophy semi-final match against Haryana. Haryana had scored given a steep target to Bengal. Bengal was in pressure, after losing some quick wickets. Sourav was batting, with a determination and desperation to prove his point. Suddenly, there was a miss and a strong appeal from the Haryana players. Umpire declared him out. Sourav’s desperation got the better of him. He vehemently protested against the decision. This provoked the spectators and within a moment, the situation at Eden Gardens turned extremely unpleasant. An infuriated Kapil Dev sarcastically signalled Sourav to bat again, and said, “Bat karr..dekhta hoon kitna bada player bann gaya hain tuâ€. The controversy was savoured well by the media and junta at large! It made big news in all the dailies. During this bad phase in Sourav’s life, Arun Lal stood by his side. One day he asked Sourav, “Maharaj, why are you behaving like this? A cricketer should always be calm and composed in every situation. Have you forgotten that?†Sourav looked up, in silence. His eyes were desperately seeking help. An experienced Arun Lal, comforted Sourav, “Have faith in yourself. You are too young, with the whole life ahead of you. Don’t rush and be desperate. Wait for the right time, opportunity will surely come. And when it does, grab it with both hands and prove your point. But, you need to prepare yourself for that day. I believe you shall be a great cricketer one day. I believe in your potentialâ€. Sourav's eyes lit up. Someone still believed in him. Can he get back his self belief? ... To be continued :nervous:

[saikatmaity]

Metamorphosis Interactions with Mike Stuart brought about a sea change in Sourav’s state of mind. He understood that the battle must be won in the mind before it can be won on field. And the key to it is to relax, and not be desperate. Chance will surely come one day, to settle all scores. However it is more important is to enjoy the game, than settle scores. Pressure of expectations, are part and parcel of every sphere of life. But, if one doesn’t enjoy what one is doing, he is surely too burn out. The change that Mike Stuart could bring about in Sourav can be best explained by another incident in his life. He was playing club match at Kolkata. Sourav was fielding in the deep. Suddenly someone from the spectator threw an orange at him. The orange hit him and fell on the ground. Sourav was surprised and hurt ... but now he knew how to answer back better! Read the complete story on the Blog B->

[zubinpepsi]

The series of malicious propaganda and controversies which a 19 year old budding talent had to endure was never heard in Indian cricket before, and shall possibly be never heard again. In the words of Sourav, “The controversies which arose during my Australia tour had left me completely shattered. It was told that I had reminded the team management that my nickname is Maharaj, and that I won’t bring water and towel to the field (as a 12th man), since such work is done by Ramu servant at my home. I belong to a good family, and it was extremely difficult for me to withstand such things..” Some of the major controversies which had hit headlines during that time were: 1. Sourav’s attitude was like that of a Maharaj. He doesn’t want to practice, nor was he interested in carrying his own Kits Bag. 2. One day, when Sourav was looking for someone to carry his Kits Bag, a frustrated Kapil Dev carried his bag to the team bus 3. He refused to bring water and towel to the field as a 12th Man. These rumours spread like wild fire. They were reported in all leading newspapers across India, including Kolkata. Sourav did not find any support from anywhere, not even in his home state. People and media believed the propaganda, not contesting or disputing for a moment, that it was the same Sourav who toured England with Kailash Ghatani, and no one complained of his attitude before. No one suggested that all these were perhaps master minded by one of the most crooked minds Indian cricket, who had put the cricket to shame through his nexus with Bookies and betting – Mohammed Azharuddin. A 19 year old, who had just started his international career with big dreams and promise, was thrown out, denied of a fair chance, humiliated and maligned. At 19 years of age, when you and me, was perhaps in the first year of our college life, another promising teenager was subjected to acute stress and humiliation, malign and slander from all quarters, and even his home crowd.

why wud azharuddhin want to spoil the career of sourov???I dont undst why azharuddhin tried to sabotage his career and why the others dint say anything abt this.. why everyone were against sourov??