Shocking!!!!

End of the road for Sourav Ganguly


The Telegraph of Kolkata published this picture on October 14, 2005, when the Durga idol was immersed after the puja in Kolkata. The captaincy was given to Rahul Dravid from Sourav Ganguly that time.


One year later, the idol returned to give us joy. But Boycott's once favourite 'Prince of Calcutta' did not. Rather, with his poor performance in the Challenger Trophy and missing the Irani Trophy bus, he went down deep into the sea of many a crickter of India who did not know when to say goodbye to the game and walk out of the field gracefully. Sunil Gavaskar perhaps is the only exception.



A lot of people were passionate about Ganguly's achievements on and off the field, and why not they? Even Steve Waugh had once said he was the fittest person to lead India. Well, it was Ganguly who had the 'audacity' not to blink first against the gamesmanship of countries like England and Australia. It was this man who led the country to the World Cup final with a bunch of youngsters under much pressure. The 'Outlook' magazine published a converstory citing "10 reasons" why Ganguly should be retained India's World Cup team skipper when the odds were very heavily against him. Well, those were the days!!




Many of our icons start using their mouths off the field, when their bats fail to talk on it. And Ganguly is no exeption. Even at the helm, he enraged the national media by hobnobbing more with the Kolkata press and even allegedly leaking crucial match strategies. The email issue and the hostile relation with Greg Chappel coupled with his sliding form was actually flashing the red signal for him. No Sharad Pawar, no Jagmohan Dalmiya could do anything for him now.




The Durga idol will return again next year. But Ganguly's cricket career has been immersed
permanently. For those who has forgotten the records of this flamboyent left hander, here is a reminder