Indian cricket is a force to reckon with in the world stage. A man who has played a critical role in putting Indian cricket on a world stage was Sourav Ganguly. His playing aura and aggressive captaincy made him a household name. He took Indian cricket to dizzying heights.
There were moments under Dada’s captaincy that gave Indian fans unparalleled joy. Seeing Dada bare-chested and unfurling his t-shirt on the Lord’s balcony is still a matter of pride for the 90’s kids. The 2003 world cup campaign was another such mystical experience when he took his side to the final.
Sourav Ganguly’s downfall
The Indian cricket team was doing a stellar job from 2001-05. The team played aggressive cricket overseas and they had become a side to beat. The test and ODI squad were balanced and Dada encouraged youngsters to pick up the baton. However, issues started to arise when Indian coach, John Right, decided to resign in 2005. Thus began the hunt for the next coach of the Indian man’s cricket team.
As a metaphoric as it could get, the Indian cricket captain, recommended BCCI to appoint the Australian legend, Greg Chappel. Everyone was confident that Dada and Chappel would take Indian cricket to even better heights. One could not be far from the truth.
Over the course of time, it was evident that Sourav Ganguly and Chappel were not getting along. Slowly but steadily, Chappel took away the captaincy from Sourav and then he was dropped from the team. Rahul Dravid was the new captain of the team. Chappel used his might to ensure no one spoke against him in the team and ensured a gag order on the team players.
The selector’s made it evidently clear that they were not looking at Dada as part of the squad. Even when Dada attempted to return in the 2005-06 Pakistan series, he was played for a game and not given a chance after that.
Sourav Ganguly – Pepsi connection
It was slowly starting to become clear that Dada may have possibly played his last game for India and his chances of donning the Indian jersey was looking unlikely. At the same time, something peculiar was happening. One of India’s biggest MNC’s, i.e. Pepsi was also going through a tough time. There were allegations of pesticides in the Pepsi cola and there was widespread anger and public outcry against Pepsi at the same time.
Pepsi had become incredibly popular in the 90s and early 2000s due to extensive promotion and advertisement by leading Indian cricketers. Sachin, Dada and Dhoni all used to promote Pepsi. However, when they were going through this phase, it seemed as if Pepsi would never be able to regain their place in the Indian market.
In order to come up with something out-of-the-box, Pepsi decided to do an advertisement campaign which no one may have thought. They decided to bring in Dada for their campaign. A player who had lost everything in the team was going to be the face of a brand which was struggling to maintain its image. The advertisement began with Dada sitting in an empty stadium, looking into the camera and saying “hope you have not forgotten me.” He then goes on to speak about what happened, both in case of Pepsi and his career. This campaign resonated with the public and people who had briefly forgotten Dada were now again speaking about him.
The Mighty Comeback
If the set-back for Sourav Ganguly was loud, his comeback was deafening. He ensured that his performance was such that his detractors and critics were made to shut up, one and for all. He played against South Africa in the test series and scored a half century on his come back. On the back of this performance, he also returned to the ODI team and put up a string of good performances. In the 2007 ODI world cup, where India performed abysmally, Ganguly was one of the leading light. Therefore, by the end of 20o7, Ganguly had made a mighty come back and his place in the team was beyond any question.
