Ganguly: Doing It His Way

Sourav Ganguly’s surprise announcement on October 7, that he will retire following the Australia series, was like his trademark offside drives, impeccably timed. What better way to go out than against the top team in the world, playing at home, and with nothing left to prove.

The added needle of the presence of Greg Chappell, who in a ham-fisted way, pushed Ganguly out of the side, as “Advisor” for the opposition should spice things up nicely.  Ganguly already made a mockery of his dropping from the Test side, by scoring the most number of runs of any Indian Test batsman since his comeback in 2006, and this could be the perfect platform for him to rub it in some more.

Ricky Ponting has gone on record as saying Ganguly’s retirement will be a distraction for the Indian team.  He probably is thinking of how Steve Waugh’s last series, with the thousands of red hankies in the crowd, and the emotional farewells, overshadowed the cricket at times.  Waugh was accused of usurping his teammate’s of applause when after he bolted out to the middle to replace him, and then he was accused of running out another teammate, before himself departing for a blob.  There may have been an undercurrent of animosity towards all the attention Waugh was getting among his teammates.  Australian’s generally prefer to go out rather less melodramatically than a prolonged farewell tour.  Usually an announcement before the last match, and a pat on the back by teammates and maybe a standing ovation from the crowd, and the player walks off into the sunset.

India on the other hand lives for melodrama.  A glance at Indian TV serials, Bollywood movies, or even the headlines from the sports pages, shows the extent to which India is obsessed with melodrama.  If anything this announcement by Ganguly is likely to fire up his teammates, especially Tendulkar and Dravid, who along with Ganguly, formed the “Three Musketeers” of Indian batting for the past decade and more, and who are also nearing the end of their careers.  Both have already expressed how privileged they have been to play with Ganguly. 

For the Indian cricket fan, too, this is a chance to once again hail the trio, and back them whole-heartedly, as they battle to snatch back the Border-Gavaskar trophy.  Let us enjoy them together now as soon they will never be together on a cricket pitch in a Test match.  One hopes that like England in 2007 it is once again “All For One, And One For All” for the Three Musketeers of Indian cricket.