Sourav Chandidas Ganguly

Some felt he couldn’t play the bouncers, others swore that he was GOD on off-side, some laughed at his lack of athleticism, others took pride in the way he led his band of men to glory. Juxtapose his captaincy with his batting, and he emerges as one of the best players that the game of cricket has ever witnessed. Ganguly has been the best Indian captain ever, and not just for his impressive results but also for the shift in attitude that he influenced which was the more crucial factor back then. Having taken over the reins at a time when Indian cricket had hit a trough following the match-fixing scandal, Ganguly showed remarkable audacity and ambition to forge a team out of a bunch of talented individuals that would win accolades everywhere for its skills and attitude. Here was a man who had succeeded in injecting a sense of pride and more importantly a sense of fearlessness which played a pivotal role in ending the fatalism that had dogged the sport off late. Sourav Ganguly tugged at the heartstrings in a way that no Indian cricketer has before or since. As he walked off the pitch for one last time; the entire nation must have felt the agony of losing a true champion; a champion who was leaving when the team was in a much better state than he found it. At that moment, his glorious past was something we all could see but not touch and everything we saw was so indistinct and blurring. Indian cricket will remain eternally indebted to him.