Farewell to Dada

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I had to write this post.

I was in college when he made his ill fated debut,scored 3 runs and was dropped. I rememeber by girlfriend of that timedefending the honour of Bengal by naming Ganguly as one of the emerging players. I had the laugh in that series.

Four years later Dada made me swallow my laugh ( and he has been doing that ever since to all and sundry). I fell in love with his batting.

The point when I became an admirer of Dada was when he was made the captain. It was the worst phase in Indian cricket( with the match fixing, Sachin resigning from Captaincy etc..) and our hero goes for a ODI tournament with all new comers in the side.

Well Yuvi looked the Aussies in the eye, Zaheer showed what bowling was about and we did well ( ok so we didn't win it, but it showed a new side of the cricket team). Ever since then, I have always followed this mercurial and charismatic cricketer. His shirt waving in Lords just helped build the aura around him and resonated with most of us in an India finally getting the colonial chip off our shoulders. The master of mental disintegration - Waugh was made to wait for Dada at the toss for all matches, Dada got under his and the Aussie teams skin and they never did fulfill Waugh's dream of conquering the final frontier in his playing days.
Dada the astute captain, politician ( one has to be in order to survive the murky workings of BCCI), cricketer, pride of Bengal, Prince of Kolkata etc..is finally retiring.Now that he is retiring, I am suddenly feeling empty. VVS, Dravid and ( oh no!!) Sachin will follow soon. They were Indian Cricket to me all my life, and now, I have to adjust to a new team. Its almost like having to make friends again with the Indian Cricket Team.

I hope he becomes a commentator , cos I think he will be brilliant there.

Well, farewell Dada and thanks for all the memories. You was the best and I'll definately miss you.

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