YOU MUST HAVE often come across forums supporting the Indian cricketer Ganguly and other cricketers with references to their state of origin, Bengal. I take the liberty of precisely quoting someone: "I am concerned about how healthy is the fanatical support for Indian cricket. Selectors and administrators, should be able to freely discharge their duties, without fear of political interference and intimidation". All these words came out as a response to a comment in a Bengali daily by Gopal Bose, a retired first-class cricketer from Bengal. The quotation that was in question (as translated) is as follows: "10 deers, arrayed behind a tiger, can be transformed into tigers."

 

After reading the posted articles like that, it seems that any non-Indian reading the same will feel that the fans of Ganguly are undermining the vary health of Indian Cricket for their support of a cricketer of no caliber. It also appears that the retired first-class cricketer from Bengal is not qualified enough to make any such comments. Putting aside the discussion on Ganguly’s caliber let us dig deep into the cricket scene in Bengal and find out what these retired cricketers from Bengal signify.

 

Have any of the so-called pundits ever looked into the cricket world of Bengal? Do they know any story of neglect and disrespect from 1940s? Do they know of a bowler called Shute Banerjee? In the long list of unlucky cricketers, originating from Bengal, Shute Banerjee would probably find the place of pride. He toured England in 1936 and 1946 without playing a test match. He played in an unofficial test as early as 1935 against Jack Ryder’s Australian team, was good enough to play in three tests against Lord Tennyson’s team two years later, and also played in a test against the Australian Services team in 1945. But his test career was limited to just one appearance, by which time he was 35. His name however was immortalised by his heroic batting in a first class match at the Oval, in 1946. He and Chandu Sarwate added 249 runs in 190 minutes for the last wicket for the Indian tourists against Surrey. Sarwate made 124 and without losing his wicket. Banerjee, coming as the last man, scored 121 and it is still remembered as the singular event in first-class cricket wherein number 10 and 11 have scored centuries. It was a day when Bedser couldn’t knock over two tailenders.

 

I started following cricket from circa 1973-74. Bengal has been good in cricket as early as 1970s. To name few, Gopal Bose, Raja and Raju Mukherjee, Barun Burman, Subroto Porel, and Dilip Doshi, are players who should have been given a chance to play for India.

 

Each one of them was capable of playing for India as they were exceptional but were typically ignored and sidelined. Gopal Bose played unofficial tests against Ceylone (Sri Lanka) and scored a century. Doshi played for India with distinction, Subroto Porel was arguably best medium pacer at that time and during his time Varun Barman could bowl real fast. Gopal Bose is another class cricketer who suffered from injustice done to the Bengali cricketers. During 1970s when Parthasarathi, Sharma and Solkar were given chance after chance to bat alongside Gavaskar, this opener was overlooked time and again.

 

No doubt the Bengali team did not won the championships, in those days. Bengal used to play in the regional league only and never made much impact in the second (knock out) stage, primarily because of the ‘first innings lead’ rule and their happy go lucky spirit. Does championship really matter? If these players were talented why were they not encouraged and given a chance?

 

There was a temporary void that improved with players from outside the state migrating to Bengal, including ArunLal and Ashok Malhotra. Sambaran Banerjee, who was a capable leader, was overlooked and Bharat Reddy was taken to England. Utpal Chatterjee, another spinner was sidelined and preference was given to Venkatapathy Raju. Snehshish Ganguly, Sourav Ganguly, Devang Gandhi continued the tradition. New players are emerging all the times in Bengal.

 

The tradition of neglect still continues. Just consider the tradition of consistently being neglected despite producing talented cricketers for more than 50 years and then try to evaluate why that region of India is so passionate about Ganguly, why Ganguly is such an icon in Bengal. Once you realize you will carp those fans, who see their iconic Indian Captain fall from grace and publicly humiliated by people of lesser credentials and react, at times violently. If you understand the pain and frustrations of generations of talented but neglected cricketers, then you better criticise those retired first-class cricketers from Bengal who see the fulfillment of their dreams through Ganguly. There is nothing wrong with the iconic status of Ganguly. Ganguly for Bengal represents the answer to the long injustice starting from Shute Banerjee in 1940s.

 

And above all, if India’s obsession with Sachin is not harmful and has not gone too far, Bengal’s obsession with Ganguly has not gone far either.