A blog by Â(c)hinaman

A section of NZealand Ganguly fan/hate club considers him a knob.
For the reason, primarily, it is alleged,

It was around this time that it emerged that Mr. and Mrs. Ganguly, and probably a house-boy or butler, were travelling around in a limo, while the rest of the team were in the bus.

Although I have not read of this elsewhere, I am unable to refute this,
so I have to take the author’s word for it.

This morning I read an article written by another New Zealander.

Sourav Ganguly: Victim of a revenge cult

Trevor Chesterfield | Cricketnext.com columns | Posted on Oct 16, 2008 at 09:57

Unjustified criticism is a popular media pastime in most parts of the world. Knock over the hero image and belittle his or her achievements by humiliating their performances. The more public it is the better for those would-be assassins who, for the sake of stirring controversy have the comfort of their offices or studios in which to sit and fire sniper-like vitriol at the intended victim.

…  

It was in early December 2004 during the Kanpur Test that involved South Africa when NDTV asked me to become involved in a discussion on Sourav Ganguly, his perceived lack of form as well as leadership skills. The way questions were posed brought the realisation that on the other side was a hit squad with an obvious grudge against Ganguly. It also made me wonder why I had been asked to take part in this show and in the firing line of Raj Singh Dungarpur, who came across as someone who didn’t enjoy the Ganguly style at all. Maybe because articles I had written much earlier, as well as those during the 2003-04 Australia tour for the Indian Express, had praised Dada and the way he had not backed off from a challenge against the Australians on that tour.

It has rarely ceased to surprise me that in the past fifty years or more, how players who have performed well for their country have been ridiculed by those who have not played a club game let alone a Ranji Trophy match or in a Test. Yet they sit and pontificate as though they have scored over 6,000 Test runs and taken more than 100 wickets.

…  

There was also an awful feeling earlier this year in Sri Lanka that there were those media types who wanted Ganguly to fail. Want to point fingers and loudly say, “We told you… We told you… He is finished. Good… Good. Get rid of him now; forever.”

Yet this was in a three-match Test series where most batsmen, not only Ganguly, fudged their lines against mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan. As with the NDTV episode with Dungapur, you felt they want him to fail, so that they could get out their rusty sabres and use his back as their personal dart board.

…  

What needs to be appreciated here is that there is far, far more to Ganguly’s style of play than statistical jargon and metaphorical branding. He needs neither a register of meaningless allegories nor statistical lists that categorise who he is and from where he comes.

…  

There was agony in Australia in 1991-92 where he was largely misunderstood by a self-indulgent team management system; then a heroic debut century at Lord’s a little more than four years later. These are all part of the often haphazard journey.

Yet as he is about to say adieu to a Test career, Ganguly deserves fresh descriptions and a new landscape as a tribute to his skills and leadership: not old clichÃ(c)s or tired metaphors that have long failed to describe his style of game or intense personality.

It is one though that deserves a far better epithet than it is receiving from a malevolent sniping media.

To read: the full article

Ganguly was given the name “Prince of Kolkata” by Mr Geoff Boycott -
little did he know of the grief his name would cause.

trevor chesterfieldgeoff boycottsaurav gangulyÂ(c)hinaman