You think of Sourav Ganguly and you think of captaincy and how that had a massive impact on Indian cricket at the beginning of this century. But talks around leadership at times do injustice to what was one of the finest left-hand batsmen to have taken guard for the country.
Having made his debut in 1992 but really cementing his position in the side in 1996, Ganguly played 113 Tests, 311 ODIs and scored over 18,000 international runs.
Former India batsman-turned-commentator, Arun Lal, remembers watching a young Ganguly bat and says the Prince of Kolkata "was born to play cricket".
"I have always been a fan of Sourav. Like Tendulkar, Sourav was special. I remember watching Sourav play an exhibition match at CCFC in Kolkata. This young kid hit about 6-7 sixes in that exhibition game," Lal told Sportskeeda in an interview.
“He was hitting them out of the club, onto to the tramlines and with ease. He was all of 16-17 years old. So like Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly was born to play cricket. He had an extremely unbelievable amount of talent."
"Sourav stood out, it was apparent that he is very different. I was always sure that there will be no stopping this young man, whatever happens. And like any other time, I have been a firm believer in understanding the moment," he added.
Ganguly had to wait for four years to play his second international match after his first. In the second, at Lord's in a Test against England, the left-hander scored an outstanding hundred on his debut in the format.
Lal thinks those years of wait and toil at the domestic level were the making of a matured, high-class player.
"Sourav was gutted, devastated but when you look back and even at that time I said that if he wasn’t dropped from Indian cricket at that stage, he wouldn’t have become what he has now," he said.
"Because a couple of years out of the team gave him time to mature, to understand and recollect himself and come back strong. And so you have Sourav Ganguly the captain and Sourav Ganguly now heading the BCCI."
With Ganguly now president of the BCCI, Lal thinks he has a very good second innings left in him.
"I do believe that we haven’t seen the best of him yet. The best years are ahead of him," he assessed.
