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Sourav Chandidas Ganguly aka the Prince of Calcutta aka Bengal tiger aka captain courageous aka...if one goes on mentioning all the names this great player was known by, one might run out of space or should I say superlatives. So I will resign myself in calling this great Indian talisman by the name of 'Dada' (big brother in Bengali). One can still hear the chants of ‘dada dada' echoing from the crowd at Eden gardens or for that matter any other stadium in India. He was without a doubt one of the best players and probably the best captain India has ever produced.

Born in 1972, to a princely family in Kolkata, Dada like most people brought up in Bengal was more inclined towards football than cricket. It was only later on th at he decided to take cricket as his main sport and something which he should try and represent the country in. How thankful we are that he chose cricket, else we might have never seen this new face of Indian cricket, the aggressive never say die attitude that Dada brought into a bunch of talented but directionless individuals.

Many might know, but the first time when he was picked for the Indian team was in the 1991-92 tour of Australia. He was just 19 then and was not picked for any of the test matches, but made his ODI debut against the West Indies at Brisbane. He did not fare that well in the game, scoring just 3 runs. He was subsequently dropped from the team, and one felt that like many young players that might be the last one sees of him. But then the trademark of Dada has always been his ability to come back fighting, especially when he is down and out.

He made a comeback in 1996 against England and boy did he make an impression or what!!! On his test debut against England at the Mecca of cricket - Lords, he scored his maiden test century. All present to witness that great hundred were in awe of the shots he played in that innings especially on the off side. No wonder that he was called 'only next to god on the offside' by the other gentleman who also made his debut in that game, Rahul Dravid.

This marked the beginning of an illustrious career, one which saw both ups and downs but more importantly gave India one of its true legends. Soon after his remarkable debut, he also made his way into the ODI team where he was promoted up the order to open the innings along with Sachin Tendulkar. This partnership turned out to be one of the most lethal combinations which bowlers throughout the world started to fear. They single handedly won India matches and Ganguly was soon renowned as one of the best ODI players. No wonder by the time he ended his career he had over 11000 runs in his kitty.

In 2000, after match fixing allegations had hit Indian cricket and there was a need of a new strong leader, Dada was the one who was picked as the new captain of the team. There were lot of questions raised at that time as to whether such responsibility can be handled by a young player (at that time 28 years was still considered youth in Indian cricket). This turned out to be one of the best decisions by the Indian cricket board, because to the helm of the Indian team was brought a person who was uncompromising, tough and someone who knew how to get the best out of each player. Under his captaincy, India achieved some great victories and more importantly, the team was no longer considered as walkovers abroad, but as an aggressive unit that can match upto any team in the world.

In 2001-02, he led the Indian team to a memorable series win over Australia in a home series. Till date he recalls that series as one of his best, though the way he lead the Indian team till the finals of the world cup in 2003 might come a close second to matching that feat. Under him India started winning test matches abroad, beating Australia in Australia for the first time in 16 years. Dada's own test record is exemplary to say the least, scoring over 7000 runs with 16 hundreds and 35 fifties.

With all great stories there is always a sad part to it, and so it was in Ganguly's case as well. His spat with coach Greg Chappell along with his awfully bad run of scores led to his removal from captaincy. Soon he lost his spot in the team and was told to prove himself again to stand a chance of playing for India. Many players would have probably given up and resigned to their fate. But Ganguly was never one to go down without a fight. He decided to play for Bengal and earn his spot in the team. He soon impressed, with his old form coming back and his revival started under the captaincy of old friend Rahul Dravid in the Pakistan series, where he scored gritty 30's and 40's. But the team's overall failure to win the series led to his removal again. Some felt he would never get another chance. He, as always thought otherwise and was once again vindicated when he was included in the Test squad for the away series in South Africa in 2006-2007. He ended as the highest Indian run-scorer in that series and capped his fairytale comeback with four half-centuries on his return to ODIs. He continued his fine run in England, where he finished as the second highest scorer in Tests, and went on to slam back-to-back hundreds against Pakistan at home, the second of which was a glorious 239 in Bangalore.

But with age not on his side and young players coming thick and fast, one could sense his end was near. He was dropped from the ODI team that toured Australia in 2007-08, though he continued playing test cricket. As the year progressed his imminent retirement could be seen, and after not being picked in the Irani trophy team, Dada decided that his series against Australia would be his last.

He played some outstanding cricket in his last series scoring a century at Mohali and helping India achieve a famous win. Many felt that he could possibly still play atleast year or so for India, but it was great that he was retiring still near the top of his game, on his own terms.

He will always be remembered as one of the best cricketers produced by India and the image of him taking off his shirt and whirling it around in the balcony at Lords will stay etched in ones memory forever.

WELL PLAYED DADA, INFACT VERY WELL PLAYED...