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

[saikatmaity]

I have had the pleasure of meeting Kapil in real life and my observation is bsed on that fact' date=' not the media or some b-b-b-b blog by a biased fan[/quote'] :Biased fan" .. for a change I won't mind that adjective. Regarding Kapil ... I did not have the fortune to meet him personally .. but during my 7 mnths stint with a leading media investment company in Gurgaon .. i knew colleagues who had worked with Kapil intensively in promotional campaigns .. and what they said is that Kapil has a towering presence and personality .. "Sher, jaisa hain" .. is what i heard them describing Paaji as ... I don't have any intension to malign or defame this great man of Indian cricket .. I can't .. coz with all humility i acknowledge that "mera aukaat nahin hain" .. But, given all that .. one can hardly know a person .. just by 'meeting' him or working with him for something else for a brief time ... He probably could have nurtured a different kind of ego .. when it came to interacting with his cricketing peers or juniors .. you and I would probably never know that! This reminds me of an incident in Kapil's life which later always pushed him to achieve the greatest feats ... i don't recollect the accurate count but here is a rough version: Kapil in those days was training very hard as an aspiring fast bowler at a coaching camp .. during the lunch time he demanded more rotis and better nutritious food .. which created a sort of fuss ... when the coach asked him why he was demanding more .. he replied that he needs more nutrition than others as he was a fast bowler .... at this the coach it seems laughed very sarcastically at the suggestion that India can produce any fast bowler! The incident left a lasting imprint on Kapil's mind .. which he acknowledged had always driven him to prove that there can be an Indian Fast Bowler who can create a world record! :two_thumbs_up:

[saikatmaity]

England tour 1996 The Indian Team dressing room had greater overcast conditions than the English weather. It was a prelude to a storm. The squad of 1996 sans Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri and Dilip Vengsarkar, had Navjot Sidhu as the only senior cricketer. A cold war was going on between Azhar and Sidhu. Sidhu was continuously being provoked by the “yes-men†of Azhar like Jadeja and few others, with the tacit support of Azhar. Finally Sidhu could take no more. He returned to India, in between the tour and announced his retirement. That gave rise to a series of criticism and controversies back home. Sourav’s inclusion had raised a lot of eyebrows. Cricket pundits across the country had already cried foul, and pronounced his selection as an evil outcome of political lobbying in BCCI. He knew his window of opportunity will be very small. But, somewhere deep down he knew the opportunity will surely come.... The complete post is available on the Blog. B->

[Fontaine]

BTW when I said you are narrow minded, it was in jest. FYI I'm not speculating or going by rumours but have heard it first hand from some players whom I catch up with every other year.

Don't worry mate, I know you well enough to know you were kidding around! I hear what you're saying and I'm not denying the events took place. I just think there's two sides to every story and senior cricketers in those days were notorious for hazing/punking out junior members of the side.

[saikatmaity]

The Indian Team dressing room had greater overcast conditions than the English weather. It was a prelude to a storm. The squad of 1996 sans Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri and Dilip Vengsarkar, had Navjot Sidhu as the only senior cricketer. A cold war was going on between Azhar and Sidhu. Sidhu was continuously being provoked by the “yes-men†of Azhar like Jadeja and few others, with the tacit support of Azhar. Finally Sidhu could take no more. He returned to India, in between the tour and announced his retirement. That gave rise to a series of criticism and controversies back home. Sourav’s inclusion had raised a lot of eyebrows. Cricket pundits across the country had already cried foul, and pronounced his selection as an evil outcome of political lobbying in BCCI. He knew his window of opportunity will be very small. But, somewhere deep down he knew the opportunity will surely come. The touring side started off by playing five matches against the county cricket sides. Sourav did not get a chance to play in the 1st match. In the remaining matches against NCS XI; Wistars, Glostershire, and Susex; Sourav wasn’t able show any outstanding performance. His best score was 64 n.o. in the second innings against Glostershire. This innings earned him praise from Richie Beno. The 3 match one-day series against England started. In the first match England batted first and scored 291. In reply, India was 16 for 5 at the end of 17.1 overs when it started raining. The match was abandoned. England won the 2nd One day by 6 wickets. Sourav was not in the playing XI for the first two matches. He got a chance to play in the 3rd match, where he scored 46 runs. India lost the 3rd match as well by 4 wickets. Sourav was selected in the playing XI for the 1st Test Match. In this match Sachin scored a brilliant century (122). But, India lost this match as well to the Atherton team by 8 wickets. By this time Navjot Sindhu has returned back to India. Sanjay Manjerekar was sent as a replacement. Vinod Rathod after scoring some impressive knocks at the start of the series had also begun to fail. Above all, the Indian team was plagued by injuries. Manjerekar injured his thumb in the practice matches. Left with no other option, the team management was forced to play Sourav and Dravid in the 2nd test match at Lords. Sourav knew the time had finally arrived. This was the opportunity for which, he had waited for four long years. He remembered the words of Arun Lal and Mike Stuart. The opportunity to settle all scores had unexpectedly come knocking. It is now or never!

[saikatmaity]

It was Sourav’s turn. Some of his teammates wished him luck as he proceeded. Sourav was descended down the stairs and walked straight into the field. Before him was the lush green velvet - Lords, the mecca of cricket! It was the first day of the 2nd Test match between England and India. The English bowlers had already drawn first blood. Vikram Rathod was out on 15. Sourav felt a shiver down his veins. Was it cold or the thrill of the moment? It was the moment for him. He had waited four years for this. It was time to give a suitable reply to all the controversies and allegations that was hurled at him. Even his selection wasn’t free of criticisms. Before the start of the test, the rumour went as “A new batsman from Kolkata has been included in the team. It is because of the Bengali quota’’. But what if he fails? Sourav, closed his eyes and moved his head in a sideways. Blood rushed up his veins...that put all these thoughts out of his mind. .. he encircled his arms, to warm them up. The pitch was coming closer and closer. He tried to think what Mike had told him. “Enjoy your game my dear boy.†He walked up to the batting crease and took guard. The bowler was running to him. Sourav could see only the red ball in his hand. __________________________________________________ B-> The complete story is on my Blog below.

[Mr. Wicket]

Before the start of the test, the rumour went as “A new batsman from Kolkata has been included in the team. It is because of the Bengali quota’’. But what if he fails?

I see you're not letting facts get in the way of your dramatic storytelling. Ganguly was picked as a bowler and a back-up seamer who could bat, given that the tour was picked with 4 spinners and 3 other seamers in Srinath, Prasad and Mhambrey. The previous domestic season he had averaged 23 with the bat, but under 22 with the ball in Ranjis. Nothing about him ever being put into the squad first as a batsman.

[saikatmaity]

I see you're not letting facts get in the way of your dramatic storytelling. Ganguly was picked as a bowler and a back-up seamer who could bat, given that the tour was picked with 4 spinners and 3 other seamers in Srinath, Prasad and Mhambrey. The previous domestic season he had averaged 23 with the bat, but under 22 with the ball in Ranjis. Nothing about him ever being put into the squad first as a batsman.

Well Wicket ... Sourav Ganguly was selected in the Indian Squad as a batting all rounder .. whose seam bowling would be useful in the overcast conditions of England. That is precisely why he was sent at number 3 spot in Lords. You are right when u said that in the previous domestic season his performance with the bat was not upto the mark. But, if u go by the domestic performance of Sourav from 1992-96 it is quite respectable if not the best. Below are his domestic scores. Read the entries as Total runs( Average) Ranji trophy Year Dravid Kambli Laxman Ganguly 92-3 583 (83) 495 (123) 17(8.5) 204(29) 93-4 644(80) 75(75) 24(12) 722(80) 94-5 191(191) 481(60) 532(76) 227(113) 95-6 460(57) 178(59) 775(86) 92(23) Duleep Trophy Year Dravid Kambli Laxman Ganguly 92-3 14(7.0) 43(21.5) (-) 7(3.5) 93-4 80(13) 173(58) 123(26) (-) 94-5 314(53) (-) 62(15) 286(40) 95-6 353(88) (-) 395(66) 308 (44) I have mentioned in my Blog that, had Jagmohan Dalmiya, not thrown his weight behind Ganguly, it would have been difficult for him to get selected in the England squad, as his current domestic season performance wasn't going good.

[saikatmaity]

Debut at Lords It was Sourav’s turn. Some of his teammates wished him luck as he proceeded. Sourav descended down the stairs and walked straight into the field. Before him was the lush green velvet - Lords, the mecca of cricket! It was the first day of the 2nd Test match between England and India. The English bowlers had already drawn first blood. Vikram Rathod was out on 15. Sourav felt a shiver down his veins. Was it cold or the thrill of the moment? It was the moment for him. He had waited four years for this. It was time to give a suitable reply to all the controversies and allegations that was hurled at him. Even his selection wasn’t free of criticisms. Before the start of the test, the rumour went as “A new batsman from Kolkata has been included in the team. It is because of the Bengali quota’’. But what if he fails? Sourav, closed his eyes and moved his head in a sideways. Blood rushed up his veins...that put all these thoughts out of his mind. .. he encircled his arms, to warm them up. The pitch was coming closer and closer. He tried to think what Mike had told him. “Enjoy your game my dear boy.†He walked up to the batting crease and took guard. The bowler was running to him. Sourav could see only the red ball in his hand. ************************************************************ It was June 20th 1996. England batted first. India used the overcast conditions to perfection as their seamers took four quick wickets in the afternoon session to grab the upper hand as England slipped to 144 for five at tea on the first day. Resuming after lunch at 39 for one, England lost opener Alec Stewart for 20 early in the session and then a dramatic middle-order collapse saw them lose three wickets for just nine runs. Stewart and first Test centurion Nasser Hussein, who went to the wicket with the total on nought after skipper Mike Atherton fell for a duck, put on 67 runs before the recalled opener left a big gap between bat and pad and was bowled by Javagal Srinath. Hussain became the first victim of Saurav Ganguly, making his Test debut in place of the injured Sanjay Manjrekar, when he was brilliantly caught at the second attempt at second slip by Vikram Rathore for 36. Graeme Hick spooned a simple catch to Srinath when he was on one, also off Ganguly, and Ronnie Irani managed just a single before he was bowled by Venkatesh Prasad to leave England at 107 for five. At tea, Graham Thorpe was on 47 and Jack Russell 21. From 107/5, Russel (126) and Thorpe (89) batted well to put score at 344. The Indian innings received early blows. Openers, Vikram rathod (15) and Nayan Mongia (24) departed early. From there Sachin and Sourav steadied the innings. However, Sachin too got our on 31. Azhar (16) and Jadeja (10) too fell in quick succession. It was left upto the two debutants, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid to steer India out of the crisis. Rahul unfortunately got out at 95. Sourav as the 10th player in world and 1st Indian player went on to score a century in Lords at debut. Finally, he was bowled out at 131 by Mullali. India scored 429 in their 1st innings reply. The match eventually ended in a draw.

[saikatmaity]

The last Post about Sourav on Blog As everything that starts must also come to an end! Since I had started with Sourav's childhood, I had to bring the series of story telling to a logical end with his historical feat in England tour. Read the remaining two Blog Posts - Century at Trentbridge and Homecoming at http://www.fakeiplplayer-decoded.blogspot.com I tried to retrace the path of Sourav from childhood to Lords, with unheard and unknown stories. The experiences of our life makes what we are! My true and honest intention in unravelling the lesser known stories was to discover the building blocks of Sourav's undying, unrelenting character - which was transfused into an ailing team through his legendary captaincy. :two_thumbs_up:

[Sachinism]

Bump (sorry I wanted to read some of the stories later, making thread easier to find :))

[thevortex]

There is a difference between an opinion (seemingly uninformed) and an inference. After reading through many posts above, I am surprised at how pretty much all other senior Indian cricketers have been painted in villainous colours. To elevate Ganguly one need not bring others down, do we?

[Fontaine]

There is a difference between an opinion (seemingly uninformed) and an inference. After reading through many posts above' date=' I am surprised at how pretty much all other senior Indian cricketers have been painted in villainous colours. To elevate Ganguly one need not bring others down, do we?[/quote'] Pretty ironic isn't it? Considering how Ganguly repeatedly cried to the media at every opportunity when he was dropped. The guy was a very very good player for us but it was pretty embarressing when he used every media opportunity he got to complain that he wasn't in the ODI team, or was dropped from the squad etc etc.