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CRICKET
The Next Man In Poor team form, overbearing officials, low
morale. It is perhaps the worst of times to take over as captain. But
Saurav Ganguly isn't scared.
By Rohit
Brijnath in Bangalore
 The
boy, think of him, just for a while, a moment, nothing more. Think of his
stomach and the nervousness coiled there like a serpent. He calls the
newspaper offices. Once. Then again on his way to tuition. Then again from
his tutor's house.
Finally, they say yes, the Indian team list is out. The names are spoken,
one by one. He waits for his to be mentioned. It never is. Not in 1993 or
1994 or 1995.
During the 1996 World Cup, Moloy Banerjee,
former Bengal Ranji player, the boy's friend and adviser, meets Abbas Ali
Baig. Baig was manager in 1992 in Australia when everyone decided the
boy's cricketing future had hit a finish line. "Any chance of him
making it?" Banerjee asks. Baig thinks, then says, "No, I think
he's missed the bus."
| Ganguly's
Motivational Chart |
Three
years ago, Ganguly stuck a piece of paper inside the box in which
he keeps his kit. It reads:
Your mind is the most important factor.
If you dream of something and believe in it, it will happen.
If you're prepared to learn from
failures, you easily reach where you want to reach.
Courage is the most important mental
quality in life.
You must educate yourself because
only through education can you channelise your mind properly.
Every day try and learn new things.
Keep your eyes and ears and mental faculties open.
If your job is totally free of
problems that's no job.
If you learn to disciple your
thoughts you will see that things around you are also happening in
a disciplined manner. |
Screw the bus. Banerjee grins. "Looks like he took the plane."
He is Saurav Ganguly, boyish but no boy, and he's sitting by the pool at
Bangalore's Taj West End, two days before the second Test against South
Africa. And he's grinning too. Big grin, huge one, a this-is-a-good-life
kind of grin. Happens when a trembling caller to newspapers is now called
by them to tell him he's captain of India. "I never thought I'd play
for India again. Once, I was ready to quit. How could I even dream of
being captain?" he says.
Fame this fellow already knows. When he
wants to see a film in Calcutta he calls the manager of the hall, asks for
a corner seat in the last row, creeps in five minutes after the film
begins and creeps out five minutes before it ends.
That was fun. Now he's got the job that comes attached with a medical
prescription for antacids. So far, he's not led a day. But he's not
handicapped by fear. "I can never have more pressure than the day I
played in England in 1996. It was my first Test and, if I didn't score
runs, possibly my last." He scored a century that day, and again in
the second Test, indicating that the serpent in his stomach was dead and
gone.
Ganguly doesn't look like an athlete,
never has, but it camouflages, so we're told, a certain ferocity. College
pal Debang Gandhi points to his "analytical mind"; Banerjee says
he's instinctively attacking and Ganguly himself, tells you, flat out,
"I don't believe in draws." But in a nation where Tendulkar was
supposed to be Mike Brearley, myths unravel as fast as they are
constructed. Ganguly must know that the first time he is vaguely defensive
he'll get a mouthful of critical newsprint.
| Manjrekar's
Report Card |
Sanjay
Manjrekar, a columnist and commentator, was in the team in 1992
when Ganguly made his debut, was there again in 1996 when Ganguly
returned. His assessment of the new captain:
MOTIVATION: Good
He studies players well, knows their strengths and
weaknesses, who is confident, who's not. He has that gift. It
makes it easier to handle players.
VOICE OF INDIAN CRICKET: Good
We expected more from Sachin, what he felt about Indian
cricket. Saurav will reveal more things of interest.
LEADING BY EXAMPLE: Average
The question remains, when Ganguly is not playing well how
will he lead?
TACTICS/STRATEGY: Good
A fine student of the game, intelligent and has had to work his
way up on his own which always helps.
FORM: Good
He is extremely talented and has got the respect of his team.
WORKING WITH ADMINISTRATORS: Good
Surprised me with his maturity and temperament. Also, he's a good
communicator.
FOCUS ON PERIPHERALS: Average
He himself is not a great runner between wickets or a great
fielder. He can get India to improve but it will remain a
handicap. |
Time is the factor. As Kapil Dev says,
"You can't give the cap to one person, then to another, then
another." If we picked Ganguly to lead this stuttering side, then
he's deserving of his opportunity. We know that he studies the game well.
And himself as well. Ask and he admits, the grin back, "I love
watching myself hit a cover drive, I love watching myself hit a
hundred." Better still, it is said he studies his teammates carefully
too, quick to see overconfidence, fast to pinpoint strengths. This better
be true for if he says some of his team were intimidated in Australia then
he and the new team psychologist B. Ganesh Kumar (who is already having
individual sessions with the players) have to alter established mindsets;
if he explains it's not a question of lacking openers but that openers
lack confidence then he must help regain their composure.
Ganguly speaks with a cultivated
smoothness, his words as seductive as his strokeplay. As he faces awkward
politicking in his team and jousts with petty administrators, his
erudition should serve him well. Already he is gently disarming about the
BCCI, saying, "I will tell them what I want and I am sure the board
will listen." He articulates a long forgotten truth later when he
says, "If Indian cricket has to get ahead we must communicate
better."
Ganguly is a modern man, more comfortable
with the present than with the past. In one deep breath he can rattle off
the number of Man of the Match awards Tendulkar has won, the Test runs
Saeed Anwar has collected and what Rahul Dravid's batting average is. Yet,
the same man once amiably told an interviewer who questioned him on
Bodyline, "Didn't Ray Lindwall take part?" (Lindwall was an
Australian to begin with, and who played in a later era). He will say
without a trace of embarrassment, "I don't read, I don't have the
patience", which is no capital crime except that if he did he'd know
the sins of Indian cricket are inextricably linked to its past.
Unlike Australia (match fit, combative,
confident), South Africa (physically strong, team-oriented) or Pakistan
(talented aggression), Indian cricket has constantly lacked a distinct
personality. Are we wristy artists, will we ever evolve into athletes, can
we, like Dave Whatmore did and is doing again with Sri Lanka, take talent
and discipline it? We have been bereft of answers, and as Sanjay Manjrekar
wonders, "Can Ganguly find us our strengths?" It asks questions
of his imagination.
One thing though from the past that
haunts him like a ghost is the way at 17 he was dismissed as incompetent.
He knows every successful domestic cricketer may not possess a Test match
gene, that two Ranji centuries don't mean a player is ready for Allan
Donald. Yet he is sensitive enough to add a corollary: "If you're
going to pick someone, give him enough chances, play him in four-five
Tests if not more, not just one." Don't dismantle a player's
confidence he is saying, nor cheapen the Indian cap.
He must handle with care too his euphoric
home state. For decades Bengal felt that its cricketers -- Ambar Roy,
Subroto Guha, Gopal Bose, Sambaran Banerjee -- were persecuted by biased
administrators. Ganguly offers them an opportunity to redress the balance
and calls for Utpal Chatterjee's return are imminent. "I still feel
he's very good but whoever is better will play," says Ganguly,
"whether he's from Bengal or Tamil Nadu or Karnataka. This is
according to what I see or feel. I could be wrong but I have to trust my
opinion."
And so, a young man, a batsman with
glistening skills, a man of tested nerve and clever mind, embraces tightly
an honour he's been given. It is clearly the worst of times to be Indian
captain. An overbearing board, a team in disarray and a system rusted over
means every sinew of Ganguly's will be stretched and tested. Think of a
tightrope walker, walking across the Grand Canyon on one leg with a 50 lb
pack on his shoulders and a stiff wind in his face. That's what Ganguly's
next journey will seem like.
Says the man who's journeyed further than we thought: "I'm not
scared." You think, of course, he should be.
EXCLUSIVE
INTERVIEW: SAURAV GANGULY
"From first to last over , I want your 100 percent" |
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Relaxed, confident
and clear in what he wants, new Indian captain Saurav Ganguly spoke
to Associate Editor Rohit Brijnath in Bangalore. Excerpts:
You know there's going to be criticism if you lose.
A. Yes, I know if we lose, the captain will be blamed. But I've
always said -- even when I was not captain -- that a captain cannot
be given all the credit for winning or all the blame for losing.
It's a team game and the captain is as good as his team.
You are aggressive -- will that be your style?
A. I'm ready to take risks. I don't believe in draws. Either
you win or you lose. I may try out something and if that doesn't
work, I'm willing to take the blame for that.
If you ask player X or Y to do something and he doesn't, are
you willing to be tough?
A. I might tell player X that on this wicket you have to play
the cover drive but if tomorrow he proves that a cover drive is
not necessary to score runs and scores off cut shots, I'll be happy.
My bottom line is performance in the centre. How you score runs
or take wickets is not my problem.
Are you willing to drop a player if he's not committed?
A. If I see over a span of time that a player is not improving
then obviously. If you give your best on the field, even if you
fail, I won't say a word. You don't give your best and fail, then
...
Discipline is something you clearly want.
A. Yes, discipline, cricketing wise. You do whatever you want
after the game, don't come back to the hotel, don't eat, don't sleep,
that's not my problem. But from 10 a.m. on the ground, from first
over to the last, I want your 100 per cent.
Can you give me an example?
A. Well, it's about doing the right thing at the right time.
If you're a Test match bowler and you bowl six overs at a stretch,
that's 36 balls, I expect you to bowl 32 balls outside off stump,
on a good line because you're an international cricketer. If you
bowl four balls in an over down leg side I won't tolerate that.
That's not discipline. If you bowl a good length ball and the batsman
hits you for four, bad luck, that happens, he's also come here to
play cricket. Same with batsmen. In a one-day game if someone scores
10 runs when it's required it's more valuable to me than a 100.
Forget the system, talent wise we seem behind the world.
A. Not behind the world, behind certain countries. We're behind
Australia overall as a team, we're behind South Africa probably
in fast bowling, but I still feel our batting and our spinners are
better than theirs. We feel we're as good or better than Pakistan,
and we're better than New Zealand and Sri Lanka. I won't say we're
the worst team in the world in all departments but we have to improve
in some areas.
Like what?
A. Like upgrading the fielding by 10-15 per cent. Our lower
order has to bat more sensibly. And in the slog overs the basic
thing is to bowl up in the blockhole. If the batsman hits you for
six off a yorker no problem, but at that time if you're bowling
short that's wrong. Similarly, if you've not scored in the last
three games and go out there in the 48th over and start defending
and saying I'll be not out 5, that won't solve our problem. But
if you score 10 runs and get out I'll pick you for the next game.
You're known for expressing your displeasure on the field if
someone makes a mistake.
A. If someone is doing something wrong on the field you have
to tell him then. There's no point telling him in the dressing room
when the match is over because we have lost it already. There's
no harm. If I make a mistake and someone says so I'll accept it.
Mentally where do we stand?
A. We need to get stronger -- not everybody, but some guys.
When we toured Australia, and I'm not naming anybody, I felt a few
of the guys felt, "Oh, it's a quick wicket", or "Brett
Lee is sharp" or "McGrath is bowling a great line".
But this is a sign of mental weakness. If he's bowling a great line
you have to go and bat -- you just go and play. If Lee is bowling
sharp he's bowling sharp. Hell, he'll hit you what else, break a
bone. That is lacking. At certain points during the tour we got
intimidated and we have to get rid of this mental block. If that
fellow is good he's also a human being. Today Tendulkar is a great
batsman but he's also a human being. I'm not saying you're going
to reach the same class as him but at least you try and reach 70
per cent of him.
Azhar is apparently resented by members of the team. How will
you handle it?
A. See, it's plain and simple. He has been selected in the team
to play for India. He has to go there and score runs and he knows
that. That's the bottom line for everyone from captain to the 14th
man.
Captaincy seemed to affect Sachin's batting. How will you manage?
A. I have a simple theory: when I'm batting I'll bat as a batsman
and when I'm captaining only I'll lead the side. What's the maximum
thing that can happen, I'll lose my captaincy and I'm not scared
of that.
Read
the full-text of the Interview
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