Define leader and leadership. It was one of the questions in my external exam paper of Organizational Behavior. I thought for few minutes and then wrote, "a leader is someone who has that natural instinct, the fire in the belly or the passion with which he can drive his team towards the untouched heights of success and to achieve its goals. When i thought of a real life example, the name which popped up was "Sourav Chandidas Ganguly" !! The best leader Indian cricket team ever had.
What exactly comes to your mind when you hear this name??Aggression, Thrill, Passion, Excitement or An eye for an eye!!!There would be numerous thoughts which will hit the interiors of your brain because his cricketing career was filled with so much of masala that all the news channels couldn't stop talking about him even when he was out of the Indian side. He ruled the Indian cricket from 2000 to 2005.He did whatever he wanted to make a brilliant side. The likes of Sehwag, Yuvraj, Harbhajan, Zaheer and initially Dhoni as well, all were nurtured under him. He was more kind of a transformational leader who believed working on people rather than tasks. He gave a totally new look to the Indian team. A Team which was not scared of Pakistani fast bowlers, which could win test matches on foreign soil and which could give the Australians the taste of their own medicine (sledging). He took over the captaincy after the match-fixing exposes in 2000, started winning Test matches away, and put together a splendid streak that took them all the way to the World Cup final in 2003.
Besides being one of India’s all time greatest Test & ODI Captains, he is the best left handed batsman India has ever produced, the lord of off side or in Rahul Dravid's words " On the off side first there is god and then there is Saurav".He has given exceptional batting performances on many occasions for India. Just to tell you few facts, he is the fastest to make 6000,7000,8000 and 9000 runs in ODIs. He is the first Indian player to score century against Australia in Australia(who says he is scared of bouncy pitches?).The only player to win 4 consecutive man of the match awards in ODIs. Highest ODI runs scorer in the world (in a calendar year) in 1997, 1999, 2000. The best part is that he has played many match winning knocks, 18 of his 22 ODI centuries have been in winning causes.
But in spite of all this track record, dada had to fight out a place in his own team .So what went wrong?? He was out of form, just a rough patch for any cricketer, but for dada, it meant losing out captaincy, infamous Dada - Chappell spat and no place in the squad. This was bound to happen, because whoever reaches the zenith leaves behind many people who just wait for a single opportunity to grab his leg and pull him down. The truth is, that in order to make a fearless team and the attitude of working on his own terms, Sourav interfered a lot in selection matters, which most of the selectors never liked, because these things had rarely happened in Indian cricket before. Sourav snatched the power from selectors and backed players according to his own instinct. Also his loss of personal form coincided with India's insipid ODI performances. And in 2005, when selectors got the chance, they made no mistake in ensuring that he never gets back to that position. Everyone was more interested in showing their affection to the new coach Greg Chappell who repeatedly gave irresponsible comments against Sourav.
In just few days, the best ever captain became a person who wanted to divide the team into groups to enjoy more time in Indian team. What rubbish!! He was left all alone by his own teammates. No one was with him when he was thrown out of team, when he was out of form, everybody mainly media was in total opposition and most of the senior cricketers were suggesting him to take retirement. I remember Bishen Singh bedi saying that “Sourav should retire, some might call it unfortunate, but what other option does he have?”So this was the gift which Indian cricket was giving to his most admirable captain, a death in exile. And this was not new, this has happened with most of our legendry cricketers but none of them could thought of writing a comeback script unlike Dada. Arjuna Ranatunga was quoted saying” Nobody can take away his (Dada’s) record or the esteem in which he is held worldwide. India must learn to respect its heroes lest they look like pirates, who can only destroy a legacy.”As said in cricket that if you want to hang out there in the middle, you need to show a lot of character, and that what Dada had in plenty. Overcoming all the mental trauma, stress, frustration, Sourav pulled up his socks and started practicing and playing state level cricket. He had this belief that one day he will get back to the team even if every second person had other opinions. He stayed alive in such an extreme darkness of sadness with the hope of a ray of light that could help him re-born from ashes like a phoenix.
That ray of light came when he was recalled by selectors for SA series in Jan 2007 after India’s dismal performance in Champions trophy. Dada, as always, pounced on the opportunity like royal Bengal tiger and made the most out of it.He hit a superb knock of 85 in the first test and saved India from losing the test. He emerged as the highest run-getter for India in the series. The Prince made a brilliant comeback in one-dayers also with an explosive match winning 98 off 110 balls against WI. And then it was no looking back. He changed the most impossible looking thing to the best ever comeback by any player in the History of Indian cricket. No one can match up to his will power with which he reached back to the glory and position that he once enjoyed. He became the highest run getter in the world in combine One-day and Test in 2007 with 2346 runs. After SA series he continued his fine run in England, where he finished as the second highest scorer in Tests and then went on to slam back-to-back hundreds against Pakistan at home, the second of which was a glorious 239 in Bangalore. What more could, a diehard fan of dada like me, had ask for!! He brought the smiles back to his millions of fans and also added many to his fan list after his fairytale comeback.
But then, his life can’t run smoothly as smooth as his cover drives. Nothing was constant from him, the only constant thing about him is that his career has always been in transition and almost as unpredictable as the game of cricket. He was surprisingly omitted from India's ODI squad for the CB Series in Australia and was out of one day side. Selectors blamed that on to his poor fielding. I guess that they wanted a 36 yr old legend to go back and learn fielding, which in his whole career he was never good at. Come on man, India has never produced any Jonty Rhodes. India has good fielder but we can’t say they are a brilliant fielding side.
Anyways, after a poor Test series in Sri Lanka, (in which all other batsmen also failed) there were reports of Dada considering retirement but he was given a lifeline in the Tests against Australia at home. Two days before the first Test, he said the series would be his last. He knew that this was the time to hang his shoes. He showed that he is the Maharaja, the Prince of Kolkata, so it was him and only him who could have decided the right time to step down. He retired from International cricket exactly a year back. For some it was retirement of another legend but for me it is an end of an era.
I would say his contribution to the world of cricket can never be forgotten, he still remains the Maharaja, as he was always!!
