Sourav - Selection to the squad!

Sourav, as we all know, is a left-handed batsman though he is a natural right hander. He converted to the southpaw stance at a young age so that he could use his left-handed brother, Snehasish Ganguly's equipments.

During the year 1989-90, Snehasis was at his peak form. Out of the 6 Ranji Trophy matches he played, he scored 439 runs with two centuries and finished with an average of 73.16. He was in the radar of the national selectors.

Sourav with his back to back brilliant performances in the U-19 tournaments was also knocking the doors of Bengal Ranji Team. The main problem it seemed was replacing someone. Since all the players were performing well it would have been unfair to replace anyone from the Bengal team with Ganguly.

He finally got his call in the Ranji final match. And fate it seemed was not without a sense of irony. The man who made way for Sourav in the team was none other than Snehasis Ganguly, his own brother. While entry in the Ranji team marked a beginning to Sourav’s career at the senior level, the dropping of Snehasis simultaneously spelled the beginning of the end to Snehasis’s career as well.

In the 1991 Duleep Trophy match against West Zone in Guahati, Sourav hit a tidy knock of unbeaten 124 runs. This innings earned him a place in the Indian Team, for the 1991-92 Australian tour, under the captaincy of Md. Azharuddin.

U-19 Tournament - A fighter is Born!

There was an absolute lull at the Wankhere Stadium of Mumbai. The spectators were shocked and silenced at the suddenness of the gory occurrence. Although the Stadium was less than half filled, it was still a record turnout at the U-19, India Pakistan final test match.

Sourav walked into the green arena, circling his arms to pump in the extra blood into the veins. He could see the previous batsman being helped out of the field. For a second Sourav’s eyes met his face. It was full of blood! Sourav, looked the other way....he tried to focus on the 22 yards.

He walked into the crease. But, what he saw gave him the second bolt. There was blood patches. Sourav tried to cover them up with dust. His wasn’t scared but he felt really bad for Jatin. He looked at the umpire and asked for guard. At that moment, he heard the Pakistani wicketkeeper shouting out to Liyak, the pacer, “Come on Liyak. Isshe bhi le lo. Yeh toh darr se kabu ho gaya”.

The first ball was a bouncer. Sourav ducked. The wicketkeeper shouted again, “mar le mar le! Sabash Liyak! Yeh darpok ko marr le!” Sourav’s jaws tightened, face steel like and eyes determined. He is not a coward, and he will prove that to the Pakistanis, as well as teach them a lesson for what they had done to Jatin Paranjape, the Indian skipper.

He decided to take the attack back to the opposition. The fast bowler was running towards him. Sourav, fixed his eyes and mind on the red ball only!

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Sourav’s consistent performance at the U-19 Bengal team, earned him the attention of Kailash Ghatani. Kailash was an ex-cricketer, who selected a team of promising players every year, and took them to England. In 1988-89, Kailash’s team for England included, Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli, Anil Kumble and Sourav Ganguly. To play in England’s weather and conditions is always a challenge for any batsman. And it is said that only class and quality can survive on the 22 yards in England.

The tour turned really well for Sourav. He was the second highest scorer in team, after Vinod Kambli. His performance in England earned him a place in the U-19 Indian squad for the 4 test match series against touring Pakistan team, under Moin Khan’s captaincy.

In the first test at Feroz Shah Kotla, India won by 3 wickets. The second Test at Kanpur and the third one at Rourkela ended in a draw. The final test match was at Wankhere, Mumbai. Pakistan batted first and scored 348 runs. Moin Khan was the highest scorer with 159 runs. Among the Indian bowlers, Jayedi and Kumble took 3 wickets each, while Ashish Kapoor and Paranjape took the remaining 4 wickets.

The Indian innings started. The Pakistan fast bowlers, Naim and Liyak were breathing fire down the Indian line. The Wankhere pitch had become lively, and the fast bowlers were exploiting that to the best. Ajay Jadeja, got out on 12, holding out to Moin Khan in Naim’s delivery. The other opening batsman Kaderkar got out on 3 as well. Jatin Paranjape and Agarwal, was at the crease with the score board reading, 22-2.

Liyak was bowling continuous bouncers to Jatin, as he was seemingly uncomfortable with those. Suddenly one good length delivery from Liyak, bounced on to Jatin’s face. Jatin tried to save himself with the bat. The ball took the edge, went on to hit straight on Jatin’s face and lobbed off to close-in fielder’s hands. Jatin was down on the ground. His face badly bruised.

Sourav, took the fight straight to the Pakistani camp. He was hitting every bowler and scoring runs fluently. Agarwal, fell at a personal score of 38. Bhupinder Singh and Anil Kumble fell in quick succession as well. But, none of this could deter, the Sourav tornado. He kept on hitting the bowlers at will. He got into a good partnership with Biswal. Together Biswal and Sourav pulled India out of the mess. In that innings Sourav Ganguly scored a century!

A small Break!

It's early morning .. the usual morning! The birds are busy chirping. The crow is perhaps bullying them from time to time, with its harsh and authoritative crowing. He does it every morning and the little birds seems to have got used to him. Our 'garbagewala' is blowing his whistle somewhere near.

I was late from office yesterday. We were busy the whole day, over a story! At the end I did realize something. If two people write a story, it becomes Sholay! If a thrird one adds his mental inspirations to the boiling broth, it turns into "Ram Gopal Verma ki Aag"!

Coming back to the point! Drained out of all motivations, I was not quite able to motivate myself into, continuing with the motivating story of Dada, and hit bed a bit early. But, today morning I was really amazed to see all the hits on the Blog, and the comments on the Blog. I also had one new follower added.

Thank you everyone, who have visited the Blog and left comments. Thank you Partha, Neel, Sarika and Anonymous for adding as a follower.

Tonight, I shall post the next story - "U-19 tournament - the discovery" in the series of unheard stories on Dada.

As of now, I shall end on an optimistic note. "KORBO LORBO JEETBO RE" - KKR. I am not sure how much they have done, or how much they have fought, but I am sure that they have not won. So on an optimistic note, I was trying to calculate how can KKR still go through to the Semis! And I have come up with the right scenario. Its simple, with just 3 "Ifs" -

1)"If KKR wins all the remaining 6 matches, AND

2)RCB looses 5 out of remaining 6 matches, wining the only one with Delhi DareDevils, AND

3)Most Importantly, remaining teams DRAW all the matches between them"

KKR can finish as the 4th team to the semis. Bookha Naan, you may get inspired. Thats what I call going a step beyond optimism, its Utopian! Seems they ought to shift the venue to Cherapunji!

Hahahaah...

I have to sign off now. Will see you all later.

tata.

Cricket – Here I come!

It was a lifetime dream come true for little Sourav. He could see none other than the legendary Vivian Richards before him, walking past him with a majestic. Some yards away, it was the little master Gavaskar, facing ‘Paaji’ Kapil running to him like an express train.

Little Sourav was awestruck. He had taken so much risk by lying to his parents for this moment...Suddenly a cold wave ran through his veins, freezing him to the ground. He saw his father Chandi Ganguly walking towards him. He knew, he was caught ...................

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On Sourav’s 14th Birthday, his uncle gifted him a cricket bat. The 14 year old, held the bat and felt a strange sense of power and pride. It was a SG Cricket Bat, used by many legends of his time.

Though Sourav still considered football as his passion number# 1, he was slowly but steadily moving towards cricket. He was already playing for his school cricket team. Less than a year later, he was selected for the Under-15 Bengal Cricket team.

It was 1987. West Indies was touring India. After India’s historic win at the ’86 world cup, the West Indians had a score to settle. Eden Gardens was hosting one of the test matches. A day before the test match, cricketers of both teams were practicing at the nets in Eden Gardens.

It was a great opportunity for Sourav to watch his revered icons in flesh and blood. Snehasis was going to Eden. Sourav wanted to go with him. But the problem was that he had school the next day. He knew he would never get the permission from his parents to miss the classes. What would he do? After thinking hard, he got an idea. But it would be immoral and too risky as well. Finally the temptation to go to Eden got the better of him. He went to his parents and convinced them that the school had declared a holiday, the next day. Unsuspecting his parents happily allowed him to go to see the team practice with his elder brother.

But, luck was not with his side. No sooner had he gone to Edens the next morning, his classmate came to house to call him for school. Everyone was shell shocked. They could just not believe that Sourav had lied to them all. Chandi Ganguly asked everyone to take the incident lightly. He asked Sourav’s mother, to pack his school bag and uniform, and headed for Eden gardens.

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Chandi Ganguly did not scold, nor uttered a single word to the already scared and ashamed Sourav. He asked him to wear his school uniform, and straight away headed for school. While all the while Sourav was repenting for his act, his father knew that young Sourav had started developing an irresistible passion for the game!

Source: Inspired by the Book, “Saurav” by Shantipriya Bandopadhay