Best captain: Debate may have just begun

Dubai: It's been one whale of a year for Sourav Ganguly. After spending more than a year in the wilderness, his recent poise and batting form had been a surprise.

In Indian cricketing circles - which itself had seen quite a rollercoaster ride from the despair of the World Cup to the recent successes in the England series and then, of course, the T-20.

Yet another pleasant surprise, however, was in store for him when Ganguly was chosen the Best Test Captain by the Castrol awards committee in a glittering function to celebrate Indian cricket's last 75 years.

Granted, it was not an 'official' recognition from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), but the amount of thought that the sponsors showed behind the entire effort forced one to accept it as the most definitive honour to date.

The modern-day Indian cricketer is not exactly known for his sense of history, though for Ganguly, it must have been a humbling experience to be sharing the stage with immortal names like C.K. Nayudu and Vinoo Mankad, not to speak of the Gavaskars and Bedis, and still be named the best.

Once the excitement is over, it could, of course, be good fodder for cricket romantics: Was Ganguly really that good? Was it right to nominate him just on the merit of his maximum Test wins? Are we doing enough justice to Ajit Wadekar for scripting the Indian team's first-ever away wins in 1971?

But as the debate rages, nobody can dispute the bottomline: it's all about winning. This is where the judges arguing for the 'Prince of Kolkata' must have had an open-and-shut case: with 21 wins in 49 Test matches, 12 of them away (a list that includes Australia, Pakistan and England), it was difficult to think beyond him for this award.

Tremendous significance

Going by the media reports that Mr Azharuddin's name was not even mentioned in a such star-studded gathering, it was not difficult to assume if he was ever in the 'running'. The twin-triumph of Wadekar's men in the West Indies and England were of tremendous historical significance as that possibly began the process of India shedding off its inferiority complex.

There was Tiger Pataudi's progressive thinking, Gavaskar's subtleties and several other odd flashes of brilliance, but then - captaincy is also about the art of survival. It's not for nothing that they call this job the second most important after the Indian Prime Minister. It requires a special kind of resilience, almost to the point of being thick-skinned.

The man from Bengal had it in good measure. Add to that the famous saying that a captain is as good as his team and you know the chemistry behind Ganguly's success.