ডাকবাংলা

I was quite young when an uncle took me to Lord’s to see Saurav Ganguly.  He said, ‘There’s this young Bengali boy making his debut’, with that tone that said just doing that was enough-participating.  I remember growing up in a Calcutta when there was a lot of talk about how Bengali cricketers were ignored in national selections. And for a cricket obsessed part of India, it was as if we (Bengalis) were relegated, like in everything else, to the intellectual side of the sport. To the discussion, the analysis, the arguments- not the actual doing of it. 

It was Lord’s. Hallowed soil for an India still enamored by post Empire-identity. A recently liberalized country, trying to break the socialist shackles of the 1980s, still unsure of its standing on the world’s stage, still suffering from a bit of an inferiority complex to all things British. Still a bit poor and in awe of the West. As a people globally, we were shy, well-behaved, studious, head bowed down. Participating and grateful to be there. 

All that changed on a cloudy June day in 1996. Sourav Ganguly made 131. And another century in the subsequent test. We couldn’t believe what we were seeing, because we didn’t think such things were possible. A Bengali man from Calcutta taking charge of events, guiding the direction of an Indian innings, and doing it not with self-effacing participation but owning it, with a confidence that hadn’t existed in us Bengalis till that point, or in us as a nation abroad. From that moment on, we felt everything was possible. Like so many of us in our early years in college, about to begin life, he changed the way we approached the world because of the way he played, and was. Something new was born. And with him, a generation got the confidence to pursue dreams. 

26 years on, Sourav Ganguly is today a household name. India is a very different country. Respected, powerful, rich, proud. 

And we are in no way shy or inferior abroad, in fact quite the opposite. I’ve always felt Sourav Ganguly was part of that pioneering generation that built this new India. Helping break the shackles of socialism, fear, apologies, and lack of entrepreneurial spirit, into what became/ has become a fierce global powerhouse. Whatever followed from there, the calculating genius of Dhoni, the energy of Kohli, it all began with Ganguly. Today, we take it for granted that an Indian cricket team abroad will stride the pitch like Kings. And win or lose, would still behave like Kings. Today , our youth take it for granted that we have malls and skyscrapers and hundreds of TV channels, thousands of multinationals operating here, smartphones and foreign conveniences, a seat at the G7 nations and treat the US and UK as equals and not places to bow before. It wasn’t always like this. Someone had to ignite the flame. Today, the flame that burns of a new confident India, where the world comes chasing IPL money, came from the spark Ganguly and a generation of leaders, ignited. 

When we won that incredible victory at Lord’s years later (2002 Natwest final) when he was captain (and took off his shirt and waved it around), or when he took us to the final in South Africa (Word Cup 2003), or those record innings with Sachin facing all sorts of pace attacks, all of those were tentpole transitional moments. We didn’t know we could have those moments, we didn’t know we were allowed to have those moments.  Ganguly made it clear that we didn’t need permission. We didn’t need apologies. We didn’t have to bow. We’d arrived, new, and confident. There was a bridge between the demure middle-class gentlemen that were Gavaskar’s India and the aggressive millionaire beasts that are Kohli’s India  – Ganguly built that bridge. 

Also, Bengal is now no longer on the cricketing sidelines but at the heart of things- Eden Gardens is a power center. He made it so.

I went back recently to Lord’s in 2022, now in my 40s, to see India-England. Both teams very good but a different world. England strode out shy, with their head bowed down, now a smaller economy than India’s. The Indians came out with the entire stadium cheering (now UK’s wealthiest migrants, filling the stands), and all the sponsors being Indian companies. The British audiences were now in awe. My generation now automatically assumed we would win, a certain overconfidence perhaps, but definitely no inferiority complex. Almost 30 years had passed and the world order had reversed-we were free now. Lest the kids forget, Ganguly fought for that freedom. And made India what it is today. 

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