Dada, I will miss you…

Many will say that I love Sourav, because he is a Bengali. That is a perception which almost everyone has about any Bengali liking Sourav. We don’t need to give any clarification to that portion of the society. But yes, I like him because India has not produced a cricketer of his stature. May be he was not a Wall, or a Little Genius - who broke all the records, or a person who gave his best against Australian, or a Golden Boy- who gave India a World Cup in 20-20, but yes his contribution to Indian Cricket is Unparalleled by any standard. He gave our cricket a new look, gave confidence and self belief to the younger generation. He never tolerated any nonsense from any rival captain or player. He didn’t believe to stuff the National Team with players from his state or zone, which was actually the system before he took over the mantle of Indian Team. He is an Indian, who believed in the true sense of the word INDIAN and practiced it. Sehwag, Harbhajan, Zaheer, Irfan, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Nehra, Parthiv, Agarkar and many others were not from Bengal, but he believed in them. There was a time when Dravid was almost dropped from Indian One Day team, but he retained him, showed faith in him and made him play as a keeper, just because he was one of the best batsman. When people and press were after Sachin's life because he was going through a bad patch, he supported him and requested everyone to leave him alone. This was all done in the interested of the team.

There are many who believe that he can’t play fast bowling or the rising balls, yes may be he can’t, but then how can someone make 7212 runs, 42.17 average, 16 centuries, 35 fifties in 113 Tests and 11363 runs, 41.02 average, 22 centuries, 72 fifties in 311 One Day Internationals. I feel that somewhere in our system still we are suffering from the colonial mentality. Still we can’t believe that how can we keep a white captain waiting for toss, no matter if they keep us waiting, how can an Indian Captain take off his shirt in an English stadium, so what if an English player does the same in India. The problem with Dada was that he gave tit for tat. He gave the Indian team what they lacked the most, the Killer Instinct. He gave the younger ones the confidence so that they always played the game with head held high. He stood behind the players who gave their best. He brought the concept of TEAM INDIA. He brought the concept of HURDLE. He brought the concept of MIRROR in the Indian team (if you look nicely at it will see a nice face, but, if you look with an ugly face, then you will see the same reflection in the mirror).

To be continued…