Best Images of Saurav Ganguly - 1

I believe this should be an interesting excercise. To track down the memory lane and search for the images of the man, I suppose had a huge influence on me. Saurav did inspire me to the core and here's an attempt to recollect how it happened.

First Image:
This should be more than a decade back, I just have returned from school in the afternoon finishing that day's exam   Tuned into the TV just for a while and saw him clad in the white clothes with a thoroughly black background and saying "Everybody else walk out for tea, I would take a break for Tata Tea!" and the my immediate response was "Wow... Handsome!" Hardly did I know, that he was Saurav Ganguly playing his first test for India.

Somehow, I really can't get to the moment that I took him to the idol. May be there is no one such moment, probably it was a gradual process.

The Kochi Image:
He was out of the Kochi one dayer against Aussies, as he was penalized for denying the umpire with the ease he usually does. He was in the commentary box for a while and talked a bit, quite well. The one incident that he narrated which I still precisely remember, talking about the hawk-eyes of cameras on the ground.
"During a test match, the square leg was yawning uncontrollably and at the same moment the camera was focused on him. Realizing it the umpire got back to business, but I started giggling over it. In no time, I was the prey for the camera!"
 I also remembering him saying that the tender coconut is called as "Tata" in bengali. Now, I can't gurantee that! This match was so special because Sachin took 5 wickets and ruined Aussies party! Jadeja scored a fitting hundred.


The Bangladesh Trophy:
It was the season of Independence trophies, on the eve of 50 years of Independence in the sub-continent. Pak's trophy was taken by South Africa I guess. India's was taken by Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan's had to give it back to India. And in the Dhaka stadium, Pakistan and India were fighting it out to claim the Bangla's trophy! 300 plus target is daunting be it any team, but Saurav played a superb centurion innings helped by the masterly Sachin and timely Robin Singh.
It is was darkening out there in the east, Dhaka stadium didn't support full-fledged flood lights then, but undaunted by all the challenges, Saurav accomplished the task. He denied (it comes natural to him) to walk off while the opponents and the umpires wanted to call off the match, due to bad light! Bravo.. Saurav!!


Walking back in Eden Gardens:
It was almost lost, only formalities left when Saurav Ganguly was returning to the pavilion on the third day of that epic Kolkata test match. I surely lost hope, just was waiting for the castle to crash into pieces. Rahul is walking to the pitch to complete what can be called as the "last recognized batting pair." Saurav on his way stops him, hand shakes and pats his back. I didn't get a clue of it. "What the hell would Rahul do now? Agreed, he's the most capable in terms of batting out sessions, but here the team is in such a deep grave, how could he pull it! At the most he can bat all the day tomorrow, but then the rest of the team should hang on. Is that possible. To bat out almost four sessions, without losing as many wickets? With what confidence did Saurav wish him?".. so were my thoughts! Later what happened, is now part of history!

To be continued.. :-)