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Journalism of Courage
SOMEWHERE in the strangely perverted, sharply polarised and ridiculously overhyped world that surrounds Indian cricket, there would have been a group of people smirking in silent satisfaction at the defeat of national team in Kanpur on Friday. Just as, over the past few years 8212; and especially in the past few months 8212; there8217;ve been enough people to gloat every time Ganguly has failed and/or India have lost. Depending on which part of the country you live in, Ganguly, 32, is either a sinner or a saint. It8217;s a supreme irony: the man credited for unifying the Indian dressing-room, for cutting across boundaries and regions, is the symbol of the deeply divided cricket fraternity, the loose collection of administrators, writers, fans, agents and professional hangers-on.
Maybe, though, it8217;s the harvest of a captaincy that has flourished by constantly pushing the envelope, by living on the edge, by getting under opponents8217; skin. For the abiding legacy of Ganguly8217;s captaincy 8212; and this is not an assumption that it is over yet 8212; will be the aggressive confidence of the team. In a matter of months the Indian cricketer turned from Mr Meek to Mr Mean, ready to scrap for every inch of his territory. And the captain led the way. If that meant stripping off the shirt at Lord8217;s, so be it; if Steve Waugh had to wait for the toss, big deal. Tradition could wait, there was a revolution to lead. Indeed, one factor in that epochal turnaround against Australia in 2001 was the Ganguly-Waugh sideshow, in which the wizened, hardened old pro was trumped up by the upstart. Where, Waugh probably wondered, was the roll-over-and-play-dead Indian team they8217;d walloped just a few months ago?
Aggression hasn8217;t just been a tool with which to beat the enemy; there have been more positive uses. For example, his decision of late to field at forward short-leg; when was the last time you saw an Indian captain stand in the position meant for the team rookie? And the exuberance of an Indian team celebration began in his reign; so infectious that, in only his second Test, Irfan Pathan gave us one of the more unforgettable sights of that famous series when he yorked Adam Gilchrist at Sydney. And never was the hard edge more apparent than at Multan last year when stand-in captain Rahul Dravid declared, result in mind, with Sachin Tendulkar on 194.
Yet those who live on the edge know they are a step away from the void. Climbing out on a limb, having played one game of hardball too many, Ganguly finds the limb being cut behind him. He8217;s as much a victim of his own poor form as of the general climate. It8217;s been a long, frustrating series for the average Indian fan who has spent most of it searching for a target. It8217;s no longer hip to boo Pakistani players; why not simply boo your own?
