He wasn’t skipper but Ganguly was leader of the pack

He’s only the third batsman ever, after Tendulkar and Inzamam, to achieve the feat but strangely there was little joy on his face at the post-match press conference. He sat in a corner of the room, waiting his turn while the skipper Dravid finished his bit.

Eventually one reporter asked him: ‘‘Why are you so dejected Sourav?’’ His reply was brief: ‘‘The defeat has taken away the happiness.’’

But he opened up to the topic, going down memory lane to describe how he’d amassed those 10,000 runs, of which 7,927 had come as an opener. Which brought him to his favourite topic, the opener’s slot. ‘‘I had left my batting position, as a captain, in the interest of the team. It hampered my run-making but no regrets,’’ he said.

He recollected how Virender Sehwag would face trouble batting in the middle-order and how Tendulkar was reluctant to bat down the line. ‘‘It was my responsibility to vacate the slot,’’ he said. ‘‘I always wished that some day I’d return to doing the same.’’

He said he ‘‘felt sorry’’ for Dravid who looked like a desperate soul during Sri Lanka’s innings. ‘‘I did offer my inputs to the captain during the match. But I should say that we did not bowl well at all,’’ he said.

It’s been nine years for Ganguly at the biggest stage in cricket, never once has he let known what his off-the-field contribution to Indian cricket has been. Be it as a team-mate, a human being or a leader, in all of which he came out trumps.

After leading India through a glorious, though brief, period, Ganguly obviously wants the captaincy back. He won’t say it, of course, but his actions spoke louder than words today, whether batting or bowling — though his five overs cost 30 runs — or even standing at the third man fence.