So Saurav Ganguly a.k.a Dada has finally snailed his way past 10,000 runs in ODIs. Its been an extremely agonizing wait for the former Indian captain (dunno if I can use that term yet?!?) to reach the milestone taking as many as 8 matches to move from 9936 to 10,000. Dada has overcome an incredibly big ebb in his graph, redeemed himself with a stint with Glamorgan and is now back. I have never known anyone who has had so much criticism during their lean period. From the open public outburst to the 2-minute Maggi recipe jokes and featuring the most in discussion forums of IT majors, Ganguly has faced it all. The matches which Ganguly has won for India with his batting were forgotten and its been criticism, criticism and criticism all the way! Just imagine anyone's way of playing being likened to Krish Srikkanth's hindi. That's the level of insult Dada has faced.
But Ganguly has remained Ganguly and that has helped him bounce back. His blazing 124 ball 142 against a strong Surrey outfit, though on a losing effort, set the tone and he hasn't looked back with the 50 against SL in the last game being a major fillip to his much needed confidence and peace of mind. Scoring 10,000 runs is not something everyone can do and Ganguly has been such a prolific scorer in ODIs that it was only a matter of time before he would scale the landmark. Perhaps the ebb can be called 'Drishti'. I know people are waiting to kick me after reading the previous sentence. Ok, take it for a Bengali... :-)
Last week I chanced to treat myself with Ganguly's classic 144 at the Gabba. Sir Geoffrey Boycott would say 'My prince is back, my prince is back' repeatedly during that innings. He would perhaps like to repeat that now. Well, if the prince is back, its certainly great news for the struggling men in blue in the emerald Isle.
7 comments:
Dada sodha nahin hoga!! ;) but even when he was scoring, i never used to like him. the amazing sixes he hits stepping out to spinners attracted me... otherwise... i am not a great fan of dada. but one can't forget the '5 run edutha thappa?' and 'venam valikudhu' kinda jokes on ganguly.
first time here....Ganguly should atleast now try to get back to his form.
In btw:I did a blogpost on Ganguly. check it here : http://saithilak.blogspot.com/2005/08/prince-of-calcutta-is-back_04.html#comments
yes KG, even i liked him only for the way he steps out against the spinners... one of the best players of spin...
I was quite surprised to know that the former captains of India and Sri Lanka were on the verge of 10000. I always thought Ganguly was 6K - 7K. It didn't seem as if he piled up so many. Same with Sanath.
Jayasuriya India kittaye 2000 kitta adichiruppan... namma bowling-na avarukku full meals thaan.. :-)
Whether Mr.Dada is playing well or not, or he will play well or not, he has contributed to India's successes in the past. He should take cue from the dogmatic steve waugh in retiring with grace. Remember steve hitting a century in his last test and saving the match for australia. As VK would agree, it is important to say hi appropriately- even more important is to say 'bye' in the right way.
I too hope that dada gets back to his old form..
with Dravid at the helm, and Sachin and Saurav back to form.. we can again mount a good challenge to the Aussie ODI side..
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