Sourav Ganguly: Bengal’s Greatest Sporting Icon, Beyond the Noise

 


Boria Majumdar

Sourav Ganguly is a friend of mine, and it is always difficult to write about someone close to you. Having said that, I still make the attempt, and this is one such piece. Today is his birthday, and yet I will focus on all the criticism that has come his way in recent times. It has, indirectly, been suggested that he is a failed administrator. His political allegiances have been questioned, and much has been written and said. Frankly, I am not a political person, and for me, Sourav the administrator isn’t really relevant. What remains relevant, and always will, is Sourav the cricketer and the Bengali icon.

For a second, take a pause and look around the state. Find me one sporting icon who can claim to have had an impact beyond his or her era. Perhaps the only other name is Jhulan Goswami. She has enriched the women’s game and will forever rank among the global greats. But Sourav is in a very different league. More than Sourav the batter, it is Sourav the leader that we continue to celebrate.

He took over as captain when the sport was grappling with the menace of match-fixing and led India to the famous 2001 series win against Australia. He went to England and chose to bat first at Leeds despite overcast conditions. He travelled to Australia, drew the series 1-1 and guided India to the final of the 2003 World Cup. These aren’t just results. They are moments that helped shape Indian cricket into what it is today. They were India’s soft-power statement to the cricketing world, and Sourav was at the heart of it all.

What is Sourav’s problem? His problem is that he is Sourav Ganguly and comes from a state that has little to show for in sport. He remains the reference point in Indian cricket even after two decades away from the game. Look at the advertising hoardings across the city and you will know what I mean. Half of them feature his face. Companies still find it hard to look beyond him, and I don’t fault them for it. There isn’t a second Sourav, and there never will be. Yet he isn’t perfect. No one is. He will continue to have potshots taken at him and will have to fend them off, much as he did when Wasim Akram charged in at him.

Let me say something deeply personal here. Sourav was the BCCI President when I served my ban, and he knows the reality of what happened. He knows the full story. Yet, at no point did I go to him and ask him to do me a favour by stopping the ban. There was an unwritten line. Do I hold it against him? No, I don’t. The reason is that the day after the ban was announced, he met me and said, “You will come back stronger. Mark my words. No one can stop you.” Yes, he couldn’t stop what I believed was an unfair outcome. But then he, too, is human.

Let’s celebrate Sourav Ganguly for being human. He isn’t a god, and that’s the best part about him. He is Bengal’s greatest sporting icon and, for the foreseeable future, he will remain so.

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