November 9th will be remembered in many Indian hearts. The day when Ganguly, ‘the god of the offside’ bid adieu to the world of International Cricket [1]. Sourav Ganguly [2] was India's most successful Test Cricket captain who is credited for having nurtured the careers of many young players who played under him.
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Sourav Ganguly: Image by Flickr user hashmil [3], used under a Creative Commons License [4]
Ganguly, also known as ‘Dada’ and ‘the Prince of Kolkata’ is still the idol millions associate their childhood with. This is more than just a simple sporting affair.
Sandman writes on what it means to be Dada’s fan, at his blog, ‘C’est la vie’ [5]:
I have always been a fierce fan of Dada. Fierce is indeed the word, for readers who might be smirking at my choice of the word. For ask anyone in class 12 B, batch of 04, Seth Anand Ram Jaipuria School, Kanpur, I once fought off an entire class of 50 in a heated debate over him on one of those not so infrequent occasions when our English teacher decided that English is better taught by letting people speak, rather than making them read. Over the years, the evolution of my own personality has mirrored that of Dada. That is probably why I am surprised that I actually feel this urge to write, on his last day in international cricket, to give an account of sorts, of what it meant to be his fan.
Vmminerva gets personal. In her post ‘Sourav Ganguly: What he’s meant to me’ [6]:
With Ganguly’s retirement today, I feel a sense of void, for apart from other reasons, his moving also takes away a bit of the childhood that I’ve continued to live to this day, for Ganguly’s India brings to me many cherished memories: the sneaking from school to find out the score, the discussion over whether Rani Mukherjee or Sourav Ganguly represented Bengal better, the yearning for rain in May just to reminisce the World Cup ’99, watching cricket at night from different time zones with red eyes and having to go to a ghostly early class the next morning, that fateful March ’03 night of the World Cup final, the stupid match day superstitions, and many more.
Praveen at Crusadertvm, recollects Ganguly’s involvement in the paving the way to the younger generation in his post, ‘Ganguly: Our own Dada [7]’:
He brought in several youngsters like Yuvraj, Harbhajan, Sehwag etc and started building a team for the future. He guided them in such a way that he instilled in them some of his own qualities. This change was evident in that epochal series against Australia when India, playing in Ganguly's home ground, made an improbable comeback and went on to win the series. That was when the legend of Dada was born. He really became the big brother to his team mates as well as to millions of young Indian cricket fans.
At ‘Silly Point’, ©hinaman writes a post to Ganguly titled, ‘where the mind is without fear – the head is held high’ [8]:
There are only a few, who really understands ‘Indian cricket’, will today disagree with you. It is also certain many of them will never acknowledge it in words. They either did not want you to be the captain or they placed you there to see you fail. Because of you we, as a team, are no longer a soft option – at home or on tour. Your team mates and players from the world over have acknowledged what you have done for us, for Team India.
You did it your way. You do not have to prove yourself to anyone anymore. Fare thee well.