AS he stood with his arms crossed, gazing into the horizon, Sourav Ganguly presented a forlorn picture, much against his character. He is not known to give in timidly, but here he was losing the battle to himself. The batsman within had deserted the captain, who was only making a brave attempt to hide his failures.
Critics have been unforgiving when dealing with Ganguly. The carping attack on his overall cricket stems from the fact that the Indian skipper has not been able to rally the side in the last two series against South Africa and England. He has been under severe pressure on all fronts to perform and get the team to perform too, but the chemistry has simply not worked well enough to satisfy the followers of the game. It is another matter that he may still have some staunch supporters, but the number will dwindle fast unless the man decides to arrest the slide in the best form that one can visualise - by letting his bat do the talking.
What has happened to the batsman we all thought was grace personified on the off-side? He cannot even get the ball to beat one fielder now as his failures haunt the team and push it into a dark tunnel. It is a turmoil that can be tamed only by his bat and Ganguly knows it well, too. The man himself has no answers to the problems affecting his popularity. Runs elude him, as do victories, even at home, and that too is worrying Ganguly. His graph has dipped steadily but make no mistake, he has the support of the team, the coach, and the Board. And that keeps Ganguly going.
In the dressing room, he continues to be the 'maharaj' and on the field he has not completely been reduced to a 'pauper'. Ganguly is marking his time before he settles scores with a few people who have been gunning for his head. Cricket is a team game we all know but it is also a game where the captain and his form can be so decisive in shaping the image of the side. It is in this area that Ganguly needs to convince everyone.
There is no imminent threat to Ganguly's job as captain. It is a responsibility which was thrust upon him when Sachin Tendulkar refused to continue. Tendulkar has not shown any inclination to grab the captaincy even as Rahul Dravid, ever the trusted companion, waits for his time. But his support to Ganguly is total even though Dravid too has not found runs too easy to come by for some time.
That Ganguly has been experiencing a terrible bad patch is obvious, but how has he tackled it so far? He has not shown any confidence even though the efforts to improve have been honest and quite visible, like when he approached Mohinder Amarnath to sort out a few technical shortcomings.
It is not that Ganguly is the first captain to have suffered batting failures. Mark Taylor was a very significant example who became a shadow of himself following a total famine of runs. But he fought back and signed off in style. In the past, Mike Denness had stepped down from the post to concentrate on his batting. Stephen Fleming of New Zealand has had his long spells of batting failures, but he has not allowed them to affect his performance as a captain.
Ganguly's problems have been self-inflicted and have multiplied because of the man's temper. He never was a brilliant tactician, never claimed to have led from the front, but silently he was effective in his own way. By backing some youngsters all the way he showed that he had the quality to be a leader. But the same man also did little to push the cases of individuals who had come up the very hard way. His mishandling of Murali Kartik, and a few others, will always remain a sore point.
It is true that leading the Indian side can be the toughest job for a cricketer. Tiger Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar, Bishan Singh Bedi, Kapil Dev, Mohammad Azharuddin... have all, at different points, conceded that the Indian captaincy is a daunting test. Tendulkar justified their observations by giving up the responsibility, but Ganguly has made things tough for himself with some rebellious actions.
The Indian skipper is not popular with the National selectors. They seem to be at loggerheads most of the time. At the start of the Test series against England, he chose to take on the media and issued a whip preventing any interaction between the players and the scribes. He claimed the action was at the instance of the players themselves. The leader in Ganguly, and the rebel, had surfaced quite tellingly.
The temperamental Ganguly was the most sought after man in the country not long back when he packed off the cocky Australians, giving them a taste of their own medicine. He was painted, quite unfairly though, as brash but he had dealt with the Australians in the most appropriate manner. He met their aggression with fire and for once, the Aussies avoided direct contact with this aggressive skipper. Steve Waugh had met his match in Ganguly, who led India to a 2-1 series win, an epic triumph by any standard.
It was the high point of Ganguly's captaincy. "I did nothing exceptional," he told me in all humility, but there was no doubt that he had played the role of a motivator quite exceptionally. Just the way Nasser Hussain has by leading an average English side and making them believe that no opposition is invincible. If England had a winning chance against India at Ahmedabad and dominated the Bangalore Test, the credit had to go to Hussain's excellent leadership.
In comparison, Ganguly, with a near full side for a change, could do little against the Englishmen. On home pitches, the spinners were not consistently effective, let down as they were by shoddy fielding. Ganguly had failed as a batsman, and a captain too. He just failed to rise to the occasion.
Even as Ganguly battled with the decline in his batsmanship after becoming captain, there were shades of brilliance. The unbeaten 98 at Kandy was a matchwinning effort, bringing out the best of his gifted style. He played some gorgeous strokes that day at the Asgiriya. He has not been able to match that brilliance since.
Ganguly's aggression is what sets him apart. The Indian team needs this kind of belligerence. An example here would be apt. Having been subjected to pressure by Andrew Flintoff, the Indian skipper decided to pay back in the same coin. When the burly Englishman came to bat, Ganguly immediately posted himself at short mid-off and was soon presented with a catch. The joy was understandable, but such moments have been rare for this Prince of Calcutta. His kingdom is being rocked repeatedly.
It is sad that Ganguly has to reel off his scores to present his case. "I'm getting quite a few 40s. Maybe by my standards I'm not batting well," he says. It would help Ganguly immensely if he accepts the fact that he has been batting poorly. His batting record after taking over the captaincy has been most forgettable. Just three fifties in 16 Tests - one against Bangladesh and the other against Zimbabwe apart from the essay at Kandy. His batting average overall reads a healthy 44.00, but is a shaky 28.26 from the time he took over as captain.
"Will be sorted out soon," he said when asked to assess his lean patch as a batsman. The man acknowledges that his failure has had an impact on the middle-order and the inconsistent bowling has hardly helped the team's cause. The team has little complaints with Ganguly the skipper but it is Ganguly the batsman that we seek. His learning process, as a batsman and as a skipper, continues.
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