The Hindu : Ganguly, Ponting: different strokes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 23, 2003

Sport

Sport - World Cup

Ganguly, Ponting: different strokes

By PETER ROEBUCK

Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly have been the captains of this competition. As men they are as different as meat pies and dhal. Ganguly is a sophisticate from Calcutta, a city of the intellect from which have emerged nobel-prize winners as well as great artists like Tagore, the poet, and Satyajiyit Ray, the famous maker of films.

His counterpart is a typical Australian from a blue-collar suburb who enjoys punting on horses, hooking fast bowlers and the company of comrades. Neither man has any pretence. Ganguly has no airs and graces. He was born this way, in a style and comfort, and could lead the life of his choice.

Background does not matter in Australia and Ponting has been able to emerge from Mowbray and build the career he has wanted. In their own ways they have fought against supposed limitations. Both have emerged triumphant.

Both leaders have fought in their country's cause. Ganguly has batted at first wicket down and sent down some serviceable mediums. Once he even considered diving after a ball only to decide the time was not yet ripe for this final concession to contemporary thought.

Ponting comes from a smaller, less ambitious community with fewer pretensions but he has realised the need to enter a wider world and has done so with distinction.

Ganguly has been misunderstood, especially in Australia where his apparent haughtiness upset a nation that travels in the front seat of taxis.

Not that Ganguly has minded ruffling antipodean feathers. To the contrary he has made a point of it.

Busy in the rooms and losing track of time, he was late for the toss for the first Test against Australia in Mumbai. Such an uproar ensued amongst opponents and followers that Ganguly decided to continue the habit.

Greatly to the amusement of his players, he kept wandering out five minutes late and in apparent confusion. Of course he was also defying the western powers, and the mighty Australians to boot. It worked. His opponents became furious and India won the series.

In many respects Ganguly is a product of his birthplace. Calcutta is a proud and independent city that has produced many great thinkers. It is the Paris of the sub-continent.

The rest of India tolerates the Calcuttans with some bemusement for somehow these fellows put themsleves above the struggle yet they have courage and cannot be crushed.

Neither Ganguly nor his hometown has changed much over the years. When he toured as a junior player in the Indian team he was not so much offended as nonplussed to discover that he was expected to carry the bags of the senior men. Rather than lowering himself, he remained disdainful and paid the price.

Calcuttans must win their arguments, especially those against the colonialists. Details are not for them for they have a grander vision. Ganguly and chums would rather lose than give ground. It is ideal preparation for meeting the Australians on the field of play.

Nothing in Ponting's early career indicted that before his thirtieth birthday he might be leading Australia in a World Cup final. Although his cricketing abilities could not be missed, especially his crisp and daring batting and brilliant fielding in any position, he seemed to be too raw and rough for the requirements of the contemporary game.

In those days he led the life of Reilly, drinking and fighting and gambling in a manner not exactly unique amongst youngsters from his country, particularly those with spirit and the resources required to put into practises the requirements of their imagination.

Ponting lived and played hard and commanded a regular place in the Australian team without ever suggesting he was about to take over as captain.

Not for the first time the low point in the career of a young sportsman was also a turning point. Caught in a fight outside a nightclub in the early hours of the morning by a professional photographer presumably on his morning run, Ponting found his picture spread across the national papers.

Rather than attempt to deny his colourful lifestyle, Ponting admitted everything, said he had a problem with drink and set about putting his house in order. Ever since he has impressed as a man capable of taking charge of himself and his teammates. He has arrived not as a saint but as a reformed drunkard, a man who has lived and grown and understood.

Now the paths of this contrasting couple have crossed in this World Cup and respect has grown. At the opening ceremony Ponting spent a long time talking to his Indian counterpart and afterwards said that he was a fine fellow. Ganguly, too, has an open mind for he was only playing games before and the insults were not meant. The aristocrat and the worker led their teams with equal distinction and their players responded with huddles and fighting performances.

From the start it seemed almost inevitable that one of them would lift the trophy.

Perhaps this will be the start of a keen rivalry founded upon mutual understanding between men from different backgrounds, the superstitious Hindu with his relations and his Gods, and the practical Tasmanian with his dogs and jeans.

The Indians tour Australia in October and the pair will cross swords again in some capacity or other.

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