Its been an awesome journey, starting since 1996. The dream debut itself hinted what the world was going to witness over the next few years. And to say the least, we got a lot more than what we expected. Sourav Ganguly, Will always remain as a legend in the hearts of all Indians. He was not the greatest of Indian batsmen. But still, his career will be remembered forever to be cherished by all cricket-lovers. Simply because of his guts, grit and determination. These  are his qualities which have been talked about a lot already, but he possessed these attributes to such an extent that it cant merely be described by mortal words. Sounds exaggerating? Well, we’re talking about Sourav Ganguly here. Who could just think about wining when the entire dressing room is trying to find a way out to save and defend a match. Who never looked back or down in the face of evident defeat. Who was a remarkable inspiration to his team-mates. Who could just pay back an opponent in his own coin.

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Under him, we saw an Indian team we’ve never seen before. The team spirit was really unmatched by any other Indian team before. The team simply looked as if they we’re out to win. Much of which is like Dhoni’s team has been looking like off late. People may talk a lot about his failure to handle specific deliveries, of his putting-personal-achievements-before-team attitude, but who cares. We had in him one of the greatest of Indian captains. He doesn’t have anything to prove after his tons of runs. True that his form dipped during latter part of his captaincy, but he was a greater born-leader than a batsman, its evident.

His tiff with Greg Chappell grew louder and louder, a person whom Ganguly himself visualized would add great value to the country’s cricketing infrastructure. But its really unfortunate that it was just the other way round. The team which went through the finals in just the previous world cup, went crumbling out of the very first round under his coaching. Months later we’re really back in our incredible form, winning T20 World Cup, beating Australia comprehensively, and now looking for a whitewash for England.

Sourav Ganguly’s comebacks are another cause what he will be remembered for. Its  been a fairytale for him. Sometimes it looked like as if he’s not human. How could someone possess such steely mental strength. Unaffected by whatever happening around, unaffected by repeated insult by dropping him out of the team ! Truly, he’s a true champ. For Bengali Kolkata's like me, he’s all the more a favorite champ….Hats off to you Dada !!!