Sourav Ganguly - The Phoenix of Indian Cricket

The phoenix is a mythical bird of the Arabian desert burning itself and then rising again from the ashes. The much-maligned and controversial ex-skipper of India - Sourav Ganguly who has electrified his fans again by his heroic comeback can be justifiably given such a comparison.
 Cricket fans make heroes out of players in a gusto just as they dump failed heroes without shedding a drop of tear. Sourav has been around for 10 years, scored over 10,000 runs in ODIs besides playing in many tests. But his captaincy was in question when Indian team performance had repeatedly poor showing. To add insult to injury, his own personal form became poor.
 Greg Chappell - the coach had no choice but to show him the door. Sourav was a shinning star in the eastern sky seen after a long time. He hails from the state West Bengal whose people love the game and his sacking was taken as an affront to the Bengali pride. The whole development was made to appear as a personal spat between Sourav Ganguly and Greg Chappell rather than as a professional decision taken in the overall interest of Indian cricket.
 Instead of sulking for the ignominy, Sourav had the steely resolve to fight and win back his lost reputation spreading over 18 months during which he slowly and relentlessly regained his form. His superb performances in the recently concluded matches against West Indies and Sri Lanka and getting the Man-of-the-Series left no choice for the selectors to keep him out of the Indian team. Greg has welcomed him to the team and said “For me, as a professional coach, the team always comes first. Sourav did what was asked to do in South Africa and did it rather well”.
 An experienced player like Sourav can do wonders for India in the World Cup, 2007. If he fails again, he will walk into oblivion where he was heading before he took the U-turn.