Sourav Ganguly, as a captain, brought the Indian team at the dawn of an exciting, new era. Ganguly instilled a sense of aggression, resilience and mental fortitude in an otherwise a mediocre, soft and delicate side which always crumbled under pressure.
The philosophy imbibed by Ganguly in his tenure still serves as a guiding principle for future captains of India. However, his career was full of trials and tribulations.
Former Indian cricketer Arun Lal has reminisced about an incident that made Ganguly a mature and more successful cricketer.
After making his debut in 1992 against West Indies in ODI cricket, the former skipper had to wait for another four years to enter the Test squad. However, he made a ton in his debut match at Lord’s and thus announced his arrival.
Lal believes that extended time away from cricket helped Ganguly in becoming a better cricketer.
“Sourav was gutted, devastated but when you look back and even at that time I said that if he wasn’t dropped from Indian cricket at that stage, he wouldn’t have become what he has now,” Lal said to SportsKeeda.
“Because a couple of years out of the team gave him time to mature, to understand and recollect himself and come back strong. And so you have Sourav Ganguly the captain and Sourav Ganguly now heading the BCCI.”
Lal also recalled an interesting anecdote from an exhibition match where Ganguly was hitting sixes with incredible ease.
“I have always been a fan of Sourav. Like Tendulkar, Sourav was special. I remember watching Sourav play an exhibition match at CCFC in Kolkata. This young kid hit about 6-7 sixes in that exhibition game. He was hitting them out of the club, onto the tramlines and with ease. He was all of 16-17 years old. So like Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly was born to play cricket. He had an extremely unbelievable amount of talent,” Lal concluded.
