Tigers Roar Back

You can hate him you can love him, but you just can’t ignore him.

Ganguly has been on India’s sports cover pages for well over a decade now. For refusing to carry drinks as 12th man, scoring back to back test centuries on debut, captain of biggest sport in India, waving his shirt on Lords balcony, shouting at his teammates, getting tamely dismissed at short pitch stuff to even unlikely bowling heroics in Toronto. He has been under severe scrutiny. Ganguly the leader, Ganguly the batsman, Ganguly the person; but the fact remained – he was (and still is) the best captain India ever produced.

Ganguly had charisma around him. He had the arrogance(?) to comment that, “Everybody seems to know what Indian caption should do rather than the captain himself”. He had defiance to walk late for toss, he had ability to envision and build for future. His contributions to India cricket’s future in terms of Sehwag, Yuvraj, Harbhajan is tremendous. He backed people. Succeeding more often than failing.

But, suddenly(?) things went berserk. Once upon a time Greg Chappell had actually helped Sourav get his technique right. Greg was endorsed by none other than Sourav himself for coach position. And then came the Zimbabwe tour. After half a dozen “secret letters” going public and lots of politics and fight, Chappell stayed while Ganguly had to go.

Trouble with Indian cricket is that people would either worship you or just condemn you. Ganguly was never as good as he was celebrated while he was at the helm, and never as bad as he is portrayed now.

Statistically, he is next only to Sachin Tendulkar as best ODI batsman. Agreed he has been on decline in last couple of years. Skipper’s burden finally getting too much? Complacency? Whatever the reason, but he truly deserves a chance in Indian team on sheer merit; especially after looking at his "so called" replacements. What Ganguly makes of this opportunity should decide his career.

He was hailed as the Prince of Calcutta and Bengal Tiger. Here is your chance to prove Sourav! Because when prodded, Tigers Roar Back!

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It doesn't matter if you've won before,
It makes no difference what's the half time score,
It's never over until the final gun,
So keep on trying and you'll find you've won,
You grab your dream and then believe it,
Go out and work and you'll achieve it,
If you think you can, you can,
If you think you can, you can!
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