Bangalore Bangalored

I hated it. I loathed it. From its very inception itself I thought it to be a copied idea from its competitor. And when it was launched it was (and is) nothing more than money making machine. Obscene amount of money was involved in a game where players where ‘auctioned’ to the highest bidder.

But now I am writing on it. And I have no qualms about it. Why? Well it is my blog after all. But here something very personal is involved, something to which almost every Bengali is attached to. Something which each and every Bengali holds close to his or her heart- its cricket and Saurav Ganguly.

Ever since Ganguly lost his captaincy of Indian Cricket Team to Rahul Dravid. There has been some evitable bad blood between the two. One may not see it, but feel it the way team was working. Coach changed, but the animosity remained, though lessened a bit by now.

September 2007, big three of Indian Cricket, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid voluntarily decided not to participate in Twenty20 World Cup. It was their personal decision based on the fact that Twenty20 is a young man’s game. The decision yielded results, India won the World Cup.

However for Ganguly it was still a war, a battle to prove his mettle, to prove why he is the best captain India ever had and why unceremoniously he was dropped in favor of Dravid. He got his chance and that too as captain, not in Ranji but in Indian Premier League Twenty20 challenge.

IPL as it called is a Twenty20 championship made to counter Indian Cricket League’s separate Twenty20 challenge. It involved great sum of money as I have already written, and I would not get down to them thinking about the moral question. But here Kolkata franchise owned by Shah Rukh Khan and named Knight Riders made Ganguly Captain, on the other side Bangalore side, owned by liquor baron Vijay Mallya also known as Royal Challengers chose Rahul Dravid to be captain (in other way both of the player where designated to be captain as they were not auctioned and have special value).

April 18, 2008 is the day when first match was played, Knight Riders versus Royal Challengers at Bangalore. As expect the match started with usual pomp and show. When it stared Knight Riders showed its intention by Brendon McCullum blasting his way to highest individual score in T20 history with 13 sixes to his credit. When given to ball Knight Riders bundled up the Royal Challengers for 82 runs against the gigantic 222-3 scored by them which includes McCullum’s 153*.

However, the real battle was between two ex-captains of Indian team, Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. Both of them have their reasons and both wanted to win. But for Ganguly it was matter of pride, he wanted, not only to beat Bangalore, but to knock them out. Hit them so hard that Indian Cricket establishment would remember why he was the best captain of Indian team. And he did it in style.

Needless to say, victory was a sweet revenge for Ganguly, 141 run trashing can be not only saddening, but humiliating. And Ganguly directed the entire event. Bangalore is Bangalored, floored and beaten, so hard that it would be difficult to them to recover easily. It will be something that will be etched in their minds. Tacitus has rightly said “Gratitude is a burden, Revenge is a pleasure.”