Good bye Sourav

To be honest, I've never been a big fan of Sourav Ganguly. At his zenith, he was one of the most elegant left-handers ever to set foot on a cricket field. Rahul Dravid once said "On the offside, there is God. and then there is Saurav". At his worst, he was reduced to a bumbling idiot by even the most innocuous of seam bowlers with a few well-directed short-pitched deliveries. He refused to admit that he had technical deficiencies, his fitness levels deteriorated and his actions eroded not only his confidence but that of the entire team. But all that was in recent years.

What I would like to remember of Sourav was the inspirational leader, who picked up youngsters in the raw, a la Imran Khan, and polished them into world class diamonds. When Harbhajan Singh, forced by poverty and lack of success at the domestic level, was considering moving to the United States and driving trucks for a living, Sourav fought for and succeeded in picking him up for the Australian tour of India. The rest, as they say, is history. Yuvraj Singh, after tasting initial success, let that get to his head, his performance dropped and consequently he was dropped. When everyone saw what had become of Yuvraj, Sourav alone saw what could be made out of him and fought for him. Yuvraj is now set to become one of the all-time greats. Zaheer Khan, Virendar Sehwag, Irfan Pathan, the list goes on.

As an Indian, he made me proud because he was the first Indian captain to get rid of the colonial mentality and face the English and Aussies on an equal footing. When he took off his shirt to celebrate an unbelievable Indian run chase at Lord's (to mock Flintoff who had gone topless on an English win earlier in India), he showed his finger to the tradition and snobbery associated with the ground. When he was late for every toss with Steve Waugh and got on his nerves, he made us laugh and shake our head with his guts and cheakiness. When he almost chewed his fingers off everytime India was in trouble on the field, you could see the raw passion on his face. That was Sourav - emotional, passionate and proud. You may love him. you may hate him. But you can never ignore him.

To be fair to Rahul Dravid, he's a better captain and an even better player than Sourav could ever be. He's well-mannered, meticulous on planning and preparation and is in a different league as a batsman. But there was something in Sourav that speaks to the animal in you, his 'go for broke' attitude and risk-taking was a thrill ride. You knew that it was either going to work out great or crumble all around us.

I did not want to see Sourav go the way he did. It was ironic that the first captain who got rid of parochialism and nepotism in Indian cricket, is now reduced to banking on the Bengali support to find his way back in. I wanted him to retire on his own terms, doing what's best for Indian cricket, and bowing with a last hurrah from the International stage. I would have liked to see him walk back proudly to the pavilion while the Indian dressing room and Eden Gardens stand up in ovation for one of their greatest sons. Good bye Sourav. We'll miss you...