From Amber Sinha, India Never have the course of two cricketers run parallel in a manner as remarkable as in the case of Sourav Chandidas Ganguly and Rahul Sharad Dravid

Cricinfo25-Feb-2013Amber Sinha, India
Never have the course of two cricketers run parallel in a manner as remarkable as in the case of Sourav Chandidas Ganguly and Rahul Sharad Dravid. With Ganguly recently retired and if things don’t improve much, Dravid very likely to follow in his footsteps, this is a good time to reflect on their respective careers, both remarkable in their own right, but making even more fascinating a study when viewed in contrast with each other, something on the lines of the plot of many Jeffrey Archer novels.Their rise to the Indian team prior to their Lords debut ran parallel. Dravid served out an extended apprenticeship in the domestic circuit as Karnataka’s mainstay evoking frequent comparisons from the local press to G R Vishwanath and Brajesh Patel. Ganguly, on the other hand was never a major run machine in domestic cricket like Dravid and Laxman and came into his own on the international stage only. Unlike Dravid again, who was serious about cricket from his schooldays, Ganguly simply came from a family of club cricketers and took to the game seriously only after he was selected for the disastrous tour of Australia in 1992. The tour started Ganguly’s brush with controversy as talk of his refusal to carry drinks surrounded him. He remained controversial for his entire career winning more foes than friends in the international circuit, was hugely unpopular in his county stints and incurred the wrath of match referees more than any other captain in living memory.Off the field too, Ganguly was the more dashing, eloping with his childhood sweetheart in the face of family opposition and his much publicized affair with Nagma. Dravid, throughout remained the committed, model cricketer, universally liked, diligent to a fault and correct to the extent of being boring.There was a time when the face of the Indian batting was always that of a ‘Bombayite’. Right from Vijay Merchant to Dilip Sardesai or Sunil Gavaskar to Sachin Tendulkar to the much hyped Rohit Sharma, the city of Bombay has always staked a claim to the premier batsmen of any generation. The strength of the Bombay faction in the BCCI has always been paramount and has dominated the scene of Indian cricket, both on and off the field. Dravid and Ganguly were not only significant actors who were instrumental in breaking through the dominance of this clique and giving the Indian team a non-parochial face for the first time, they were themselves the most important part of it. That they replaced Vinod Kambli and Sanjay Manjrekar, two Bombay lads who were supposed to be the mainstay of our batting along with Sachin makes this all the more remarkable. Their Lord’s debut was not the ideal platform for a youngster looking to ease into the team. On a fast, swinging track they came together with India in a spot of bother. They could not have been more dissimilar in style. Ganguly, later to be described by his partner at the other end as next only to God on the offside kept easing the ball through the point and cover regions. Dravid, then a predominantly leg side player relied more on playing off his pads. Ganguly, as we all know scored a century on debut and Dravid made 95.In the next Test Ganguly scored yet another ton and Dravid missed out yet again being dismissed on 88. This was to be a reflection of things to come as they grew into two of India’s premier batsmen. While Ganguly was the leading run scorer in ODIs till the turn of the century even beating Sachin for four out of five seasons, Dravid established himself as rock solid Test batsmen. It was also to be Dravid’s fate for a large part of his career to be a pretty bridesmaid who gave numerous sterling performances only to be overshadowed by Ganguly or Tendulkar. The script continued into the new century when Ganguly was appointed captain and Dravid his deputy.The Kolkata Test in 2001 was, in a sense the turning point in many ways for both, for Ganguly as a captain and for Dravid as a batsman. Hitting his way out of a slump in the most dramatic of matches must have given Dravid a lot of confidence as his star soared thereafter and he gradually came out of the shadows of his distinguished peers to become India most valuable player for the next half of a decade. He scored runs all over the world, adapted perfectly to the one-day set up, filled in as a wicket keeper when required and was a great support of his captain. For Ganguly, this was the beginning of the golden period as a captain. He had the uncanny ability as a captain to back match winning performers and get the best of them. Many believe that had Ganguly not been made the captain, he would have achieved a lot more as batsman. It is possible, for the biggest problem with Ganguly’s batting was that it did not develop after a point. While Dravid and Sachin have constantly evolved as batsmen, made various adjustments to their game; Ganguly, once he has been sorted out, never managed to overcome his deficiencies.It is universally believed that Dravid was a clearly inferior captain to Ganguly. I am not entirely sure. Ganguly introduced a lot of self-belief in his team and helped us get over out timid chokers tag and that was what we needed then. But, he was never a great tactician. He was easily rattled as a captain and many a times let the momentum slip through out of a lack of imaginative captaincy. Dravid, was a much more collected man on the field. His captaincy on the field always has more of method to it than Ganguly’s who was tactically always on the whimsical side especially with respect to his handling of spinners and part-time bowlers. But what Ganguly lacked in on-field tactics, he more than made up through the way his communicated with his players and allowed them to flourish. Dravid tended more to lead by example through his own performances and commitment but despite the bulk of his runs never really had the aura of a leader.While Ganguly left on high, scoring significant runs against the top team in the world in his farewell series, Dravid has so far doggedly stuck around in the midst of calls for his head. In the past month, many a sports journalists have made a living out of stories on the lines of ‘the Wall crumbling’. His century at Mohali notwithstanding, despite being full of character and a testimony to his tenacity, I have a feeling Dravid will not have a swan song to end his career. If there is one thing that he has lacked in his otherwise illustrious career, it is the sense of timing that his longtime colleague and onetime co-debutante always had.