Book Review | A Century is not Enough: My Roller-Coaster Ride to Success

Book: A Century is not Enough: My Roller-Coaster Ride to Success
Author: Sourav Ganguly with Gautam Bhattacharya
Publisher: Juggernaut
Pages: 254 
Price: Rs 699

Knowing Bengali journalists' penchant for any news relating to Sourav Ganguly – even now, well after his playing days – it is unlikely that anything about the Kolkatan is not already in the public domain. Yet, 'A Century Is Not Enough...', co-written with veteran cricket journalist Gautam Bhattacharya, has much from Ganguly's glorious cricketing career that not many would know.

It's not been a smooth ride for Ganguly. Right from his first overseas tour with the Indian team to Australia in 1991-92 as a raw, but talented 19-year-old, where he was reduced to a net bowler and got to play only one ODI in three months, to his highly influential and successful stint as India captain, and now as cricket administrator. Yet, Ganguly gives respect where it is due and also shows anger and disappointment in equal measure.

Ganguly remembers the conversations he has had with greats like Imran Khan of Pakistan and Desmond Haynes of the West Indies or even a little-known psychologist from Worcester, Mark Craig, and shows his gratitude to them for their advice that has helped him immensely. He was unafraid to seek them early in his career and was constantly learning to better his game.

He also reveals his fan moments when he was first picked in the Indian team for the home ODI series against South Africa to mark the Proteas' readmission to international cricket in November 1991. "I am a bit of a fan boy," writes Ganguly.

He also discloses the lashing he received from "now good friend and fellow commentator" Sanjay Manjrekar for his attitude and behaviour during his first senior India overseas tour to Australia in 1991-92. For the kind of stories that were circulated from that tour about Ganguly refusing to carry drinks and throwing tantrums in the dressing room, Ganguly writes that he was once "late in carrying drinks as he sat down watching TV replays and had to be ordered by (manager) Abbas Ali Baig to carry drinks at the fall of a wicket". Going from his early diffidence after a "legendary Indian cricketer" told him that Australia was a difficult place to play and he should never have made that trip, to later years, when he had made runs aplenty Down Under, Ganguly says Australia has a special place in his heart – except for one man. "I conquered the country, but not one of their citizens," Ganguly best sums up his relationship with former Australian captain Greg Chappell, who during his tenure as India coach from 2005-07, made a few friends in India. Yet, Ganguly gives Chappell the credit where it was due when he writes: "I had immense respect for Greg's cricketing acumen…. The Greg Chappell I would see later in my career was completely different from this man."

Ganguly had gone on to earn everyone's respect over the years. To note an instance that this scribe was witness to, during a domestic limited-overs tournament in Bengaluru in the early 2000s, then chairman of selectors Chandu Borde, himself a former captain of repute, asked the Prince of Kolkata, "Sourav, if you don't mind, can I say something about your batting?" Ganguly, stretching on the ground, gave his senior the go ahead and listened carefully to the flaws in his batting that Borde was pointing out.

Ganguly's exploits with the bat, scoring a century on Test debut at Lord's and going to score one more in his second are well chronicled across the 254 pages. His satisfaction at having earned his mates' respect is established when he says that Tendulkar offered to tape his bat during a break after scoring his maiden Test hundred to captain Md Azharuddin gifting him a wrist watch at the end of a series.

While Ganguly has gone onto earn everyone's respect over the years, in this book, he also opens up about his weaknesses. Such as the fact that the inability to score big runs on his home ground, Eden Gardens, pushed him to the extent that he refused eye contact with everyone, from the catering staff who pampered him with extra fish or additional biryani, to his personal masseur and even his mother, a day before a match. "So much love and affection made me weak," he writes.

Ganguly has always spoken straight from the heart, be it during his playing days, at press conferences, and later, as television commentator and expert. Though in the later chapters, he writes about taking over as India's captain and wanting "to create a new template for success".

Ganguly, who changed the way other countries viewed Indian cricket through his dynamic leadership, 'hand-holding' talented youngsters and giving them the long run to make India an aggressive unit that began to win Tests outside the Asian sub-continent consistently, deserved a better-written book. A second or third look would have helped avoid misspelt names such as "Klusner" (for Lance Klusener), or "Davies", whose first name is not mentioned, for Winston Davis, or Kapil Dev's epic World Cup score against Zimbabwe printed as "175", when it should be "175 not out".

While the book is about Ganguly and his playing days that ended about six years, a chapter or two as an administrator and sitting in various committees including the Cricket Advisory Committee to appoint the coach of the Indian cricket team, his so-called misunderstandings with current head coach Ravi Shastri would have made it a more interesting read.

Ganguly ends the book on a strong note for the current generation. "You should not give up. Be patient. You have to wait for your turn, and when it comes, you must remain prepared." After all, didn't Ganguly wait patiently for more than four years after his first taste of international cricket and make his second innings count big and loud?