Sourav Ganguly – the awkward dad who suffers from the Rajinikanth political syndrome

Sourav Ganguly’s biggest strength is his status as the Bengali Everyman – everyone's favourite Dada, who likes his ‘toast buttered on both sides’.

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly addresses a press conference in Mumbai | ANI Photo

A few days ago, Sourav Ganguly was at Lord’s cricket ground in London with “very dear people” Jay Shah – Amit Shah’s son and secretary of BCCI – and Arun Thakur – minister of state Anurag Thakur’s brother and BCCI treasurer.

A month before that, on 9 November, he was happily posing with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the inauguration of the 25th Kolkata International Film Festival, calling her “our very own Didi”. It’s typical of Ganguly, says an informed observer, somewhat snarkily. “He likes his toast buttered on both sides.”

The most recent example of this was when Ganguly tweeted that his daughter, whose 18th birthday he had celebrated a few weeks ago and who studies at Oxford University, was “too young a girl to know anything about politics”. This, after Sana posted a damning excerpt from Khushwant Singh’s 2003 novel End of India to comment on the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens.

“Every fascist regime needs communities and groups it can demonise in order to thrive. It starts with one group or two. But it never ends there. A movement built on hate can only sustain itself by continually creating fear and strife. Those of us today who feel secure because we are not Muslims or Christians are living in a fool’s paradise,” Khushwant Singh had written.

Will he, won’t he

There is no doubt Sourav Ganguly is a concerned father eager to protect his daughter from any social media backlash. But there is also the delicate balance he has to maintain as a potential chief ministerial candidate against Trinamool Congress’ Mamata Banerjee. After all, if she is Didi, then he is Dada, and the BJP’s best bet in West Bengal, given that the party is currently headed by the entirely uncharismatic Dilip Ghosh.

But as one of his close friends, who wants to remain anonymous, observes, Ganguly is likely to run the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for another three years. According to the RM Lodha Committee reforms, he has a nine-month tenure. The BCCI has amended its constitution, but it cannot be implemented unless the Supreme Court approves it. “After 2022, we will see if he enters politics,” says the friend. Cricket writer Pradeep Magazine told ThePrint it’s hard to say whether Sourav will join politics. “He has had good relations with all chief ministers—from Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to Mamata Banerjee, who supported his bid to become secretary of the Cricket Association of Bengal. With Mamata still ruling West Bengal, it’s hard to see him risking joining the BJP. Although one never knows.”

Iconic sports writer Sharda Ugra told ThePrint: “As BCCI president, he is the boss to secretary Jay Shah, in what many believe is merely a warm-up act and that Ganguly will soon be made an offer (of joining the BJP) that he cannot refuse.” A path into politics may look inevitable, she adds, “but Ganguly has always been his own man, and I would be very surprised If he does go down that route. Cricket is where he is in his element, a larger than life figure in Indian cricket today. Should he join politics, it will nibble away at his legacy as an iconic Indian cricket captain and he will turn into a mere ‘neta‘, operating in alien territory. He is not Imran Khan and he knows it.”

A proactive captain

Ganguly has always been a leader of men. Cricketer Deep Dasgupta, who replaced him as the captain of Bengal state team, ascribes it to his ability to read people and situations. “As a Bengali, he instilled in me the belief that someone from the same maidan, eating the same food, breathing the same air, could become an international sportsman. Otherwise, we are better known for our intellect,” Dasgupta said.

He instilled a belief in Team India that it could win overseas, groomed youngsters and led from the front (sometimes in unexpected ways like waving his team jersey in shirtless joy after winning the NatWest Trophy against England in 2002), says former broadcaster and contemporary of Ganguly, Harish Thawani, to ThePrint. “He is a true all-rounder in every sense. Off the field, he is detail-oriented, calculated and goal-focused.” As BCCI president though, Thawani points out, Ganguly will be only as effective as the old guard allows him to be because his tenure is short. Adds Magazine: “He may solve some minor players’ issues but his powers come from the entrenched brigade of BJP politicians, Amit Shah and Anurag Thakur, who were instrumental in installing him. Jay Shah will now be the real power centre in the BCCI.”

But Ganguly does have innovative ideas. He showed it with his relentless publicising of the pink ball test between India and Bangladesh at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, which was aimed at reviving interest in long-form cricket.

As India Today once wrote of Ganguly in 2004: “After Tiger Pataudi, he is India’s most non-parochial, pro-active captain. Regardless of the lure of individual acclaim, he wanted collective achievement to matter in Indian cricket. His eye for talent led to the rise of a young hungry generation of team men.”

Bengali Everyman

For all his bhadralok breeding though, Ganguly can be socially awkward. His handling of his daughter’s post was typical of the Indian state, where everyone wants to be like Uttar Pradesh DGP O.P. Singh counselling “children” not to protest and infantilising students. His public conversations with wife Dona, an accomplished Odissi dancer, are also typically chauvinistic, from the ridiculous (“every girl looks pretty at age1-15 to a boy”) to the forgetful (forgetting his wedding year).

Yet, his biggest strength is his status as the Bengali Everyman – everyone’s favourite Dada, who has maintained his connection to his upper-middle-class roots.

Could he become Kolkata’s Rajinikanth – forever sparking a will-he-won’t-he join politics rumour that keeps punters guessing?

The author is a senior journalist. Views are personal.