"Bhule toe nahi may Sourav Ganguly" the famous ad when Sourav Ganguly was not in the team. A typical bengali guy with specs asking whole India this question when he was left out of the team after confrontation with Greg Chappell. Now on 10th of Nov 2008 when he got retired all cricket fan are saying Dada tumko nahi bhul payenge. You have brought smiles innumerable times to Indian masses. Sometimes you have won us matches single handedly & your captainship was incomparably marvelous.
Undoubtedly Dada was one of the best batsman in One day cricket. In one day cricket he matched Sachin's calibre. Even in test matches he was the pillar of middle order. His batting average never dropped below 40 that itself tells the high calibre of this man. After his test debut at Lords with a maiden test hundred Dada never looked back. With a maiden century he shut many critic's mouth who was doubting his inclusion in that England tour. Dada didn't stop with a maiden hundred, he followed it up at Edgbaston with one more ton. It was England summer with jumpers on but Dada was going hot which I am sure had made many English men to take it off. I was as usual was glued to TV seeing a maestro at work specially offside of the wicket. No surprise that Rahul admired him calling God of offside.
Who can forget that innings in Dhaka against Pakistan in final match, who can forget his towering long sixes ask Nicky Boje who has taken micky out of him. Then comes the captainship on this same day 10th Nov 2000. The team was in tatters even the great Sachin refused the captainship. In midst of the tumoil their comes a Dada, whom I say a charismatic personality. Looks are deceiving this man took bulls by horn & changed the style of Indian cricket. Agreat revamp came we started winning matches fromverge of defeat. He inculcated aggression, fire, passion in the team. Earlier for a greater part of 90's India used to depend on Sachin Tendulkar but not now there are Yuvrajs, Sehwags, Gambhirs.
Pinnacle moment of his captaincy came when he was able to take India's team to World Cup final in South Africa. It was like relaunching of Coke to India after its exit 1988. Here it happened after 22 years when India found themselve in World Cup final. Its a relaunch & we call it now Team India. Then onwards if we look into last 5 years India in most of the occasions played good cricket apart from 2007 World cup under Greg Chappell coaching & man management. Talking about man management can we find better person than Dada, yes I know Dhoni seems one step ahead but lets not forget Dhoni is just new to captainship he has tp prove a lot or reach Dada's stature as Captain. Sourav's man management was exemplory. Talk about Harbhajan, backed him to the core. Yuvraj Singh, nurtured under his captainship. Sehwag one of disastrous opener in world cricket in both forms of game. He was made as a Test opener by Sourav & see his statistics now. Master stroke was when Dravid was struggling with his form & India was looking for all rounder to make valuable contribution in middle order. Dada was realizing that & he made Dravid as a wicket keeper who was quite decent into it. Slowly Dravid came back to his best & wall was saved from breaking & India had some valuable wins that time.
Now when Dada has retired we can say India team is one of the best & lot of credit can be given to Dada for it. He must have told Dhoni the Obamaism- Yes We Can Win World Cup.
Salute to Dada. We will never forget you. You are the flavour of Indian cricket & it will be always cherished by all cricket fans.
It has been almost a year
10 years ago
