A Knight to Remember

As the murky white ball rose sky high, I could hear half a lakh people go quiet. The silent prayers were ringing out loud. All eyes were fixed on the white ball which still rose upwards. A deafening scream of ‘catch it’ broke the silence and more precisely broke many more hearts. As the ball came hurtling down and landed safely in a pair of hands, the collective gasp and sigh said it all. Was it the beginning of the end?

People were baying for his blood ever since the days he started plying his trade. No sustained brilliance, no youthful exuberance, no mature exertion on his part seemed suitable enough to those hawks. The very thought that the man who took Indian cricket to dizzying heights was never deemed competent enough stands silent testimony to the number of detractors he had. It perhaps sheer irony that his biggest critics were forced to eat their words when every time he led his country, the history books had to be re-written.

To harbour the hopes of a billion people- people of a nation where cricket is deemed to be a religion, is no easy task. And in spite of delivering time and again, he was very easily the target for any blip that occurred. Controversy’s favourite child, knives and scissors followed him like a shadow. But destiny had begged to differ. Every time he got dumped, the return was even more dramatic, the comeback stronger.

Yesterday’s match was perhaps his last in competitive cricket. The curtains may well be down on a very illustrious and glorified career. For the third time in succession, the Knight Riders bowed out in the league stage. But its icon Sourav Ganguly will go down in history as a Knight to remember!