I always felt Sourav Ganguly was overrated as a batsman and as a captain. The Indian media tries to create heroes according to their own whims and fancies. Religion, creed, and region becomes the important factors in determining the value and fan following of a particular player. Unfortunately, for some unknown reason the number of players from Bengal that have represented India have been negligible and that made Sourav Ganguly a bigger hero than his caliber.
Sourav Ganguly was a very good player, but he was projected as a great player. I always rated Vinod Kambli higher than Sourav Ganguly. His career saw a boost after he was promoted to open the innings in One Day cricket. Otherwise he would have struggled to retain his place in the national team.
Similarly, I thought Sourav Ganguly was a good captain. He was never a great captain and not the least the best Indian captain of all time. Mohammad Azharuddin, Pataudi, and Mahender Singh Dhoni are the better captains than Sourav Ganguly for sure even if one is not sure of others.
Because Sourav Ganguly was part of a strong Indian team, his flaws were rarely noticed. If was a great captain, he would have got the Kolkatta Knight Riders to the semi-finals, at least in one of the three editions. Kolkatta Knight Riders is the only team that never made it to the Semi-Finals in any of the first three editions of the IPL.
Kolkatta Knight Riders looks a totally different team without Sourav Ganguly. The fans should be realistic and accept the truth. Let us hope Kolkatta Knight Riders wins this edition of the IPL and bring joy for their fans.
Sourav Ganguly was a very good player, but he was projected as a great player. I always rated Vinod Kambli higher than Sourav Ganguly. His career saw a boost after he was promoted to open the innings in One Day cricket. Otherwise he would have struggled to retain his place in the national team.
Similarly, I thought Sourav Ganguly was a good captain. He was never a great captain and not the least the best Indian captain of all time. Mohammad Azharuddin, Pataudi, and Mahender Singh Dhoni are the better captains than Sourav Ganguly for sure even if one is not sure of others.
Because Sourav Ganguly was part of a strong Indian team, his flaws were rarely noticed. If was a great captain, he would have got the Kolkatta Knight Riders to the semi-finals, at least in one of the three editions. Kolkatta Knight Riders is the only team that never made it to the Semi-Finals in any of the first three editions of the IPL.
Kolkatta Knight Riders looks a totally different team without Sourav Ganguly. The fans should be realistic and accept the truth. Let us hope Kolkatta Knight Riders wins this edition of the IPL and bring joy for their fans.
1 comment:
Regarding your statement that 'His career saw a boost after he was promoted to open the innings'
India struggled to get a good opening partner for Sachin,so Ganguly was tried and he succeeded,why can't you accept that truth and concede that he was indeed a great ODI batsman(The best after Sachin and Yuvi for India.)instead,you imagine a hypothetical situation where Ganguly wouldn't have succeeded.
While it's partly true that Ganguly's been hyped up a bit mainly because he's a Bengali;your own over-evaluation of Azhar's abilities seem to be influenced by the religion he belongs to.Or else,how would you call Azhar as India's best captain?
How many Test matches did India win Overseas under Azhar's captaincy?
Is it because of many ODI tournaments won under Azhar? Most of them were single-handedly won by a man you won't have the balls to accept as an All-time Great or as India's best match-winner(Despite 60+ MOMs);and the rest were won by Sachin-Ganguly partnerships.(Stats prove it.)
Name a few strategic decisions worth talking about taken By Azhar.
As for Ganguly,he's India's 2nd best Captain(After Dhoni),it's under him that India managed to get rid of that 'poor travelers' tag and started becoming favorites to at-least win a match on a Tour,if not the Series.Once that stigma was removed,we won regularly even under Dravid's captaincy and then more emphatically under Dhoni's.
By the way,I'm not a Ganguly,but when an Azhar apologist derides him;I must counter it with the truth.I agree though that India under-achieved as an ODI side under him,but at-least the over-dependence on Sachin was reduced under him.
The reason why Ganguly couldn't succeed with KKR is that,he has aged and he couldn't accelerate the strike as required for a T20 game.Do you think Azhar would have played fast and scored big if he batted in T20 during 2001-02?
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