The fourth and the last test match between India and Australia will go down in history for many reasons-Sourav’s last international match, V V S Laxman’s 100th test match, and Sachin’s 40th 100. Dada’s contribution to Indian cricket will be difficult to match. Only during Sourav’s time Indian cricket went through major transition into a team ready to take on any eye to eye challenge – winning on and off the cricketing field.
To me, Sourav’s main ability has been to identify the right talent, empower him and nurture him. Taking test and one day matches together Sourav’s total score has been one of the highest in the world. He is still considered the lord of cricket on the offside. His huge cover drives and towering sixes and even his peculiar stance will be missed forever. Captain Sourav has been so successful and talked about that we failed to take note of batsman Sourav even though it is always a treasure to watch his game. The new gen cricketers also must learn from his comeback spirit and ‘never say die’ attitude. Several times on little pretext the selectors and the board officials mercilessly threw him out of the contingent. Even though in the last two years his performance was one of the best in the world and he just received the best batsman award for 2007, he was ridiculously dropped from the Irani trophy team. This prompted him finally to call it a day even though I feel he still has more than a year’s of cricket in him going by the current form and performance.
Sourav is a player who was forced to perform in each match to qualify for the next. He woke up each day to begin a new day. Other players never had such a challenge. For instance , Dravid has been consistently failing with a score of 11, 11 and 0 in the last 3 innings, but will he be dropped in the next test series against England ? May be Sourav was destined to set example before the youngsters on how to come back and what a better way to demonstrate it unless you show it yourself in your own life. This must have been his mission to get dropped sisnce only then you can show how to come back . So ,right from the time of NatWest series in 2003 when Sourav did the Salman Khan act of going shirtless at Cricket’s Mecca Lord’s ground , making a world record of being fined and warned for the maximum number of time in cricket , his aggression signaled the beginning of Indian cricket era.
During my school days I grew up with the heroics of West Indian Cricketers. Then, the last ten years, it has been the Australian team dominating the world cricket. Now is the time for the Indian team to rule the world , given the huge reserve pool of talented players we have today.
I must commend M. Vijay, opener from Tamil Nadu for his debut. Only time his defense was broken when a bouncer was bowled at him and he appeared totally unsettled. He fell to the very next short delivery . This is where the experience counts. Experience brings temperament, and to gain experience you need to consistently perform so that you are in the team. That’s why the fabulous four are called so because they consistently performed match after match facing each delivery from variety of bowlers worldwide and proving their patience and stamina (we get fatigued even by watching it) to be on the 22 yards for hours sacrificing their personal lives for cricket career in different regions and in different climates. This calls for tremendous fitness and resilience possible only through regular training. Apart from this , a player has to adjust with the internal and external politicking that goes in the Indian cricket, the emotional upheavals of being away from family and friends, microscopic scrutiny by the media and the critics , and also winning over the lure of unholy world of drugs , betting, gambling ,women and the likes.
Most of our players fail to manage all these aspects in their cricketing life and that’s why many talents disappear after a few sparks. Remember Vinod Kambli? Many such stars come with great promise but go into oblivion unless they are mentored properly. Cricket after all is not just scoring runs or bowling good deliveries. That’s why Sachin, Dravid, Ganguly, and Laxman are called the Fab Four.
How can I also forget Anil Kumble who is a rare breed of cricketers showing tremendous fighting spirit? In his last test match we saw him coming back to the field with the bandaged injury in his left hand. And also a few years ago ,similarly he came to bowl with a fractured jaw. Such fighting spirit becomes folklore in Indian dressing room and must touch the hearts of our newgen cricketers.
Having said this, let us give a hero’s farewell to Dada and I wish….
1. Dada could score a century in the last test match where he got out at 85
2. BCCI had given him the opportunity to captain the last test match of his career as an honour who has done so much for the country.
3. Sachin Tendulkar dedicated his 40th century to Ganguly, after all , Sachin and Sourav opening pair has been the best in the world in the history of one day cricket.
4. I could watch this match being in the ground.
5. Shashank Manohar, the current BCCI President who has been the worst critic of Sourav , named one of the stand in the new Vidharbha cricket ground after his name.
The Indian calypso has just begun. When M Vijay got out in the Indian first innings at Nagpur match after a brilliant start and was leaving the crease dejected , I saw Virender Sehwag coming out from the non striker end to pat on his helmet , comforted him like an elder brother and said something to him that could be , “well done brother and surely you would do better next innings.”. I did not see any reporting on this incident in any of the newspaper next day . But such incident definitely takes us down the memory lane . Decades ago Sourav nurtured Harbhajan, Yuvraj , Kaif ,Sehwag and many upcoming young players the same way . We never heard of such ‘grooming the juniors ‘ by seniors like Gavaskar ,Wadekar or Pataudi . Sourav led the way. Let us hope this calypso lasts for a long long time.