Sourav's reply with the bat
When the going gets tough, the tough gets going, we know. We wanted to re-confirm. Sourav ‘Dada’ Ganguly demonstrated it on his beloved home ground on Thursday.
By Kashinath Bhattacharjee
He didn't need a tweet to express himself. He has his bat. And that bat talks!
On all fool's day, it was ideal for him to make his critics fool. Sourav's innings of 88 off 54 balls (9x4, 5x6) made them live in a fool's paradise.
His stature as a batsman came under scanner. Even the undisputed most successful skipper in the history of Indian cricket was criticized for his captaincy. He was taunted, twitted. But he had a bat in his hand. And he let his bat talk. That's the best a batsman can do.
An innings of substance, of sheer determination. To show to the world that he still can do it. That the 37-year old can still bat like this in the shortest version of cricket, among the youngest generation of cricketers, was to be shown again.
The 54-balls 88, punctuated by 9 boundaries and over boundaries, was undoubtedly a match winning effort. Reading between the ‘runs', however, you find Prince of Kolkata's evergreen statement, "My name is Dada. Don't ever write me off, you fools"!
What had prompted this sudden burst? Was it the extended net-session the day before where Wasim Akram, too, had a bowl against him? Was it the tweets from the owner which had said enough of the excuses? Or, was it a poster that appeared in Kolkata bashing Kolkata's most beloved icon?
The poster said, "Dada theke dadu bhai / tabu cricket khela chaai" (Dada has become a grand-dad, yet he wants to play cricket. The poster had a clear instruction for the team owner Shah Rukh Khan, "Souravke tara re/Kolkata jitbe re"(If you want Kolkata to win, fire Sourav).
It is hard to believe such a poster can appear in Kolkata. The New Alipore Cricket lovers' Association, under whose banner the poster appeared, even painted Sourav's picture with his hairs white and a walking stick on Sourav's left hand, the hand that holds the bat.
There were incidents like this in all parts of India. Even the batting-God Sachin Tendulkar's posters were ‘garlanded' with shoes, some frustrated fans attacked Mohd Kaif's home in Allahabad. But, Bengal had never done this with their most affectionate son in the last 18 years.
Despite Sourav's highs and lows, his state has always been behind him with their full support. Though this was a stray incident, the image of Bengal certainly was tarnished.
Sourav had a plan to go to Kalighat to offer his "puja" before the match on Thursday. He went there in the noon and came back. And the posters were there in that same area. So, there was no doubt about the fact that these people knew Sourav would come to Kalighat temple and they wanted their message to reach Sourav.
After winning the match single-handedly, Sourav, however, was not ready to give it any importance. "I did not know of this till 5 pm when I was in the team hotel. The details are still to be known (of what happened exactly). One of my friends called me thinking that my car was attacked by the demonstrators! What I know is, Bengal has always been behind me right through my career. Their love and affection shown towards me is something I cherish. So, once in a while ..."
Later, after Sourav's another ‘reply' with the bat, the buzz was, those ‘cricket lovers' had said that they wanted to ‘fool' the world on the All fool's day and that it was a joke and nothing else.
What they should be reminded sternly is the world around them can be a fool's paradise, but there is certainly no need to involve the Bengal Tiger!
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