Column

Inside Track

I am upset and aghast at the manner in which Sourav Ganguly has been ridiculed and vilified in the past few days. Okay, so he is no longer cricket captain, but that takes nothing away from the body of work he has put in over the last 10 years. He has been one of our finest sportsmen - and arguably the best captain in India's history - so he deserves some dignity and understanding, if not sympathy, when he has hit a trough.

But perhaps such hope is futile. We have no respect for our sporting heroes because we don't have a sporting ethos. We don't follow sports, only personalities. There are no shades of grey in assessing players, only black or white. If someone is doing well, he is God, if he fails, he is a cipher.

I remember Sunil Gavaskar being booed off the Wankhede Stadium after he had been dismissed for four in the first over of the 1987 World Cup final. Gavaskar by then was the world's highest run-getter, held the record for the most Test centuries and was playing the last innings of what had been a truly magnificent career.

Statistics apart, he had also been a symbol of Indian excellence, as it were, which could compete globally on equal terms. The import and poignancy of the moment, however, was lost on the crowd who could not see beyond his failure in that innings. Seventeen years of hard toil and outstanding batsmanship was drowned in the cacophony of mindless fan disapproval.

Today, everybody - and many of whom who won't know the difference between an off-spin and leg-break - has an opinion on the captaincy issue and Ganguly. Which is fine: he is in the public domain, and cricket is a national obsession. But this must be seen in the perspective of the man's skills and his achievements.

Ganguly has scored 5066 runs in Tests and 10123 runs in one-day internationals, which is a fine cricketing record by any reckoning. It may not be so well-known that he has been the fastest to 4000, 5000, 6000, 7000, 8000 and 9000 runs in one day cricket by an Indian (yes, quicker than even Sachin Tendulkar) but also the quickest in the world to 6000, 7000, 8000 and 9000 runs in the history of one-day internationals.

But that again, is only the statistical aspect of his cricket life. Of greater significance is how he fared as a captain, taking charge in the wake of the match-fixing scam which had debilitated Indian cricket, and moulding a team to beat Australia in 2001, reach the final of the 2003 World Cup, and beat Pakistan in Pakistan in 2004.

In this period, Ganguly often showed mercurial temperament, but also superb leadership qualities - especially in nurturing young talent, many of whom are now seen as lynchpins of Indian cricket even by coach Greg Chappell.

I am in agreement in Ganguly being deposed as captain simply because he does not currently fit into the team, largely on grounds of fitness and somewhat on form. I don't agree with Chappell that Ganguly is 'mentally unsound.' I do believe their celebrated spat will have a tremendous positive impact on Indian cricket because issues like fitness cannot be swept under the carpet any more. But I don't believe that Ganguly can be written off just like that.

There is the chance that he may never wear the India cap again. But he will remain a hero nonetheless.

Email: ayaz@dnaindia.net