Shirtless

October 8, 2008 | Filed Under Point of View 

The morning started on the wrong foot. It spoke about an Indian man in LA shooting himself and his entire family because of the Lehmann meltdown. It was quite sad, the boom had bought the man many riches and the bust had taken it all away. Being a poor poet like me is at times charming. There’s not much to lose.

Heard another news that made me extremely sad but I won’t talk about that here. But it added to the low feeling.

I also read that Ganguly would hang up his boots post this series. I don’t usually read blogs the first thing in the morning. In fact at times I don’t read them for days. But I had a feeling Greatbong would write something about it. I wasn’t disappointed. It was an unusual post – not taking digs at anyone, it didn’t bring out any guffaws, but it resonated with me. It’s a very well written blog post and houses the feelings of a generation who grew up on the cricket of Azhar-Sachin-Ganguly. Do read.

If you have read the foundation series by Asimov – then Dada reminds me of the Mule. An anomaly of sorts in the system, who challenged it and showed us that cricketers could be daredevils and not just gentlemen. He also showed that you can be a cricketer in an Indian team, if you have nothing but a beautiful square drive and a lot of will. Ganguly played cricket like I did. He was left handed, bowled slow medium pacers with his right hand and ran slowly between the wickets. He wasn’t a very good fielder either. Watching him play cricket, I would at times get angry that if he could be there, I could be there too. But since I am an Indian, I will be forgiven for thinking so. Everyone does. (Not forgives but thinks so.)

It was his captaincy that made him. Or rather his will and grit. The Australian series has now become all the more interesting. The tiger would come out with his bat and grit to play for sure. I am not a big fan of Ganguly but he has given a lot to Indian cricket, a lot of which is ingrained in the team even today. And that’s an exemplary contribution.

As a tribute we must all watch the last test – shirtless.

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