Dada's Dadagiri

Dadagiri is a word in the Hindi language which is used to notify a bossy trait. Generally, it is a negative word but in cricket, it was used to define the aggression and passion of Sourav Ganguly towards the game. Instances of such Dadagiri in cricket held time to time during Ganguly’s prosperous career. The most controversial and celebrated career in the Indian Cricket began in 1992 and ended up 2008.

Saurav Ganguly was born and brought up in Kolkata, West Bengal therefore he was known as Dada of Indian Cricket. Dada made his international debut against West Indies in January 1992 at Brisbane. It wasn’t a memorable innings, the left-handed batsman just managed for score 3 runs before he was given LBW to Anderson Cummins. Ganguly was dropped from the Indian side and did not get selected for the next 4 years.

It was summers in England in June of 1996 and Dada with Rahul Dravid made their test debut together at the Lords. Sourav scored two centuries in consecutive tests. He scored 131 runs in his first test and made 136 runs in the second test. There was no looking back for the elegant left-hander after the England tour.


The better of Sourav as a Cricketer came when he became the Captain of the Indian team. Dada was assigned as the Captain in the year 2000 after the match-fixing scandal. He led the side in the Champions Trophy 2000 and team India were the runners up in the tournament and India was the joint winner of the Champions Trophy 2002. Under Dada’s captaincy, team India played their first World Cup final since the 1983 win. India was defeated by mighty Australia. India lost the match but Sourav won the hearts.


Sourav is regarded as India’s most successful captain. Statistics might not support the earlier statement but Dada was the one who taught India the way to win test matches overseas. Captain Sourav won the Leeds test, the Adelaide test, and the most famous test series win against Pakistan in Pakistan in 2004. With a career with so many highs, Sourav saw some lows too.

John Wright was the Indian coach during Dada’s success and when Wright left in 2005, Dada recommended Greg Chappell for the post of coach. Greg was very dear to Sourav before his tenure but he became Dada’s Number 1 critic during his tenure. After India’s tour of Zimbabwe in 2005, firstly Sourav was removed as the captain and then dropped from the side in 2006.


India’s most celebrated captain was retreated like some other first-class player when he was dropped. He would play local domestic tournaments just to make a mark and to come back to the national side but after a devastating World Cup campaign for India in 2007, Sourav too retired in 2008.


The man who made Steve Waugh wait at the toss, the man who pulled his t-shirt off at the Lord's Cricket ground, the man who fought against the BCCI and Greg Chappell, the man who backed players like Dhoni, Yuvraj, Harbhajan, and Zaheer. That man after his extravaganza of a career became Cricket Administrator. In the 2nd innings of his life, Dada became the President of West Bengal Cricket Board, he mentored an IPL franchise, and he was the member of the elite panel of CAC.


The former leader of the Indian Cricket Team is the leader of the BCCI and now leading the way he used to lead his team with full Dadagiri.


Also Read: 

37 Years of Glory! 

Ball Tampering: The Sandpaper Saga


 

 


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