Calcutta thesis

By John Cheeran
The desperation with which Calcuttans are clinging onto the free falling stock of Sourav Ganguly fascinates me.
It is a pity that West Bengal, (Waste Bengal as one wag has put it) has no heroes but Ganguly to celebrate.
When Congress managed to cobble together a coalition government at center, Pranab Mukhrejee had delusions of becoming the first Bengali Prime Minister of India. Sonia Gandhi, for all her faults, put Mukherjee in his rightful place.
Even Biharis have succeeded to vote out their rulers but all-knowing Bengalis time after time have sucked up to the Left Front. Where are the rebels? Where is the rebellion?
The rebellion has been mutated to heckling Indian cricket coach outside Eden Gardens. The cause has been reduced to the emancipation of Ganguly and to end the imperialism of Greg Chappell.
Eden Gardens can accommodate over 90,000 cricket fans. But these fanatical following has not translated into decent cricketers leave alone heroes.
The only decent cricketer that Bengal has given India in the last 25 years is Sourav Ganguly. When Ganguly became Indian cricket team’s captain many Bengalis treated the post as more prestigious than the office of Indian Prime Minister.
In this context, I can understand the Bengali angst when Ganguly was stripped off Indian captaincy, the last vestige of honour West Bengal had in contemporary India.
Calcuttans till now could boast of Jagmohan Dalmiya’s ICC heroics.
But Dalmiya’s role and rule in Indian cricket has almost ended with Sharad Power taking charge of the BCCI reins. There cannot be a bitter blow than this after Ganguly was sacked as Indian captain.
During Dalmiya’s hour of glory, Calcuttans had conveniently forgotten that Dalmiya is not a Bengali. The Bhadralok merged into the background as the Marwari took center stage.
I would like to point out one response in this context. When Eden Gardens had to be emptied of spectators to complete the Asian Championship Test against Pakistan in 1999 owing to crowd trouble, I had asked a few of Calcutta’s Bengali journalists how such things can happen in the City of Joy.
They assured me that it is not that Bengalis who come to watch cricket these days but rich Marwaris and the trouble lies with them. Is not this interesting?
They are all okay with Dalmiya, a Marwari, lording over Cricket Association of Bengal, but when crowd trouble happens at Eden, the blame is heaped on Marwaris!
Come to think of it, in a city that has so much passion for cricket, it imports players from outside to fill the Bengal Ranji Trophy squad!
Why doesn’t Calcutta’s blood boil when CAB allows a non-Bengali tourist, Rohan Gavaskar, to play for them?
For is it that the Great Bengali Cricket Fan admits that Bengal don’t have eleven quality players to make up a Ranji squad? Rules allow it, I know. Ranji teams like Kerala make space for India rejects like S Ramesh since they don’t have enough good players; even then the move has caused considerable heartburn among local cricketers.
Calcutta’s cupboard is empty not just in cricket. Even today, the josh for football remains the highest in Calcutta. But tell me, in the last 25 years is there any Bengali footballer who has emerged as India’s best?
I put this question to two Bengali journalists from Calcutta and they could not point out anyone. Bhaichung Bhutia and IM Vijayan make many critics’ list as the best footballer in last 25 years…They have played for Calcutta clubs but they are not Bengal’s own.
Even the Calcutta-based, so called giants of Indian club football – Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Mohammadan Sporting – have fallen on troubled days. The current National League champions are Mahindra United, a Mumbai club.
The last Bengali footballer to be in news is Subhash Bowmick. Not for scripting any success but for accepting 1.5 lakhs as a bribe, misusing his official position as a CISF inspector which he secured as a footballer. And he had the cheek to hit the police inspector who was trying to catch him.
So much for Bengali bravado.
For heroes to emerge, bribes, casting votes and rigging of votes (in selection committee meetings, BCCI elections and polling booths) will not do always.
A touch of humility, loads of hard work and a slice of luck might take you there.
Keep trying, Calcutta.