The Indian team management dropped Sourav Ganguly in 2005. In a subsequent ODI at his hometown Kolkata, the local crowd cheered for the visiting team, South Africa.
Charl Langeveldt’s ball whizzed past Rahul Dravid’s defence to knock the off-stump out of the ground. As his ten teammates converged upon Langeveldt, the crowd erupted in celebrations, and the noise reverberated around the colossal stadium in … Kolkata, India.
For the uninitiated, the Eden Gardens can come across as a shock in more ways than one. The vastness can be as overwhelming as the relentless noise. The venue could accommodate ninety thousand fans (without the counterfeit tickets) back then. The fans had a reputation for appreciating good cricket irrespective of team, but were equally known for their volatile outbursts.
The New Year’s Day’s horrors of the 1966/67 Test against the West Indies can be put down to organisational incompetence. However, the crowd did stop play in the 1996 semi-final as well as during the 1998/99 Pakistan Test.
Now, they were not exactly threatening to disrupt cricket. Instead, they were cheering for South Africa. To understand why, one needs to go back a few months.
The Chappell-Ganguly saga: a TL;DR version
TL;DR, because the murky details of the controversy have been recounted far too often.
When John Wright’s stint as Indian head coach came to an end, captain Sourav Ganguly had voiced his support for Greg Chappell. By the time Chappell came on board, Ganguly was having a torrid time with the bat. Ganguly was the Indian captain in 2004/05 when India had lost their first home series against Australia since 1969/70. He was also at the helm when India collapsed inexplicably at Bengaluru as Pakistan levelled the Test series in 2005. The Chinnaswamy crowd had booed Ganguly that day.
Read: ‘Absolute injustice’ – Ganguly recalls controversial Chappell saga
During a warm-up game on the tour of Zimbabwe in the third quarter of 2005, Chappell asked Ganguly to resign as captain, and added that he would have preferred to pick Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif ahead of Ganguly in the Test XI.
Chappell subsequently sent an extremely strongly worded email to the BCCI, criticising Ganguly. The email was leaked, triggering one of the more serious controversies in Indian cricket. For this piece, it should suffice to say that the Indian team management dropped Ganguly from the squad for the ODIs against South Africa.
Read: ’Sourav didn’t particularly like working hard’ – Chappell revisits Ganguly controversy
Eden Gardens has had a history of protesting against such axings. When the selectors dropped Mushtaq Ali in the “Test” against the Australian Services in 1945/46, they responded with “No Mushtaq, no Test” chants. The selectors reinstated Mushtaq. Similar sentiments were echoed in 1984/85 when Kapil Dev was dropped from the Test XI.
But Mushtaq and Kapil had been outsiders Kolkata had grown to admire. Ganguly was a local hero, the first home-grown cricketer who went on to become a full-time captain of the Indian men’s team. If the public had been upset by then, this time they were furious.
Match day
Not one tried to mask their sentiments as I walked alongside the crowd through the vast expanse of the maidaan towards the historic venue. By the time I passed the turnstiles, I knew this was not going to be just another cricket match. Expecting this, Kolkata Police had been on high alert – though we, as spectators, were not aware.
Aadya Sharma – now my colleague but not back then – was there as well. Very few were wearing the India Blues, he recalls. The whole atmosphere was very rebellious and defiant. It was a complete 180 from their Test at the same venue a year ago.
© Getty ImagesI knew something was amiss when Rahul Dravid – whose only fault had been to accept the captain’s job once Ganguly was left out – was booed at the toss. These were followed by utter confusion, as Irfan Pathan strode out to open batting with Gautam Gambhir.
The experiment did not last. Irfan lasted three balls on a wicket with a surprising tinge of green. “I always listen to my captain and the coach but of course, none can dictate me. I make [the] pitch – it’s not my profession but my passion,” curator Prabir Mukherjee later explained, while reminding that “Sourav was treated shabbily”.
What was the pitch really like? “It was a very un-Indian kind of strip and I was very, very surprised,” wrote Gary Kirsten. “Indians do not play their cricket on such kind of pitches, they prefer the flatter types where spinners come into business and even fast bowlers are conditioned to bowl in a certain style. But this one was right up South Africa’s alley.”
Sachin Tendulkar, next man in, was not greeted by the characteristic cheer. No.4 Virender Sehwag blasted a 21-ball 30 amidst lukewarm, formal claps. India were 71-5 when the fans booed the Indian captain on his way back. Sitting in the stands, you would feel the anger, the hatred, the disgust of the crowd at their own team.
Any unlikely word of sanity amidst all that stood no chance amidst the decibels. For a fleeting moment, I was afraid. Growing up in Kolkata, I had heard about the tragedy of September 16, 1980, when 16 football fans had died in a stampede at the same venue. The events of the 1996 World Cup semi-final had evoked fear in me less than a decade ago. Not again…
Yuvraj and Kaif then hung on grimly as that cauldron-shaped stadium turned into a colosseum, putting together 81 runs. The partnership was interrupted by cheers from the Eden Gardens crowd: the Cricket Association of Bengal had been flashing updates from Bengal’s Ranji Trophy match against Maharashtra at Pune. After taking 5-75, Ganguly had been 81 not out at stumps the previous day. On the day of the ODI, he stretched that to 159.
There were cheers for MS Dhoni as well, especially when the long-haired youngster strode out. Two years down the line, Dhoni would let know that he did not want Ganguly in the ODI unit… but without an Eden Gardens fixture in sight.
India folded for 188 as Shaun Pollock and Andrew Hall picked up three wickets apiece. The banners – many of them in Bangla – and cutouts came out and the jeerings multiplied when Chappell walked out during the innings break. He returned after a while, without engaging without the crowd.
Graeme Smith walked out with Hall in tow. As Hall held one end up as he did for twelve hours at Kanpur a year ago, Smith took down the Indian attack stroke by stroke, bit by bit. Every shot was cheered by the crowd, and the cheers kept getting wilder as the evening wore on. And it was not merely verbal, either.
Early in the chase, the man next to Aadya stood up and threw a water pouch at the nearest player: Ajit Agarkar at fine leg. In no time, he was lathi-charged and ousted by the police carrying a big cosh and a shield.
It took Smith and Hall a little over two hours to get things done. The seamers were insipid, while dew blunted the spinners. Only Harbhajan Singh seemed capable of causing any damage, but even he could not.
The aftermath
There being no internet on cell-phones back then, we tuned in to television. Conversations on Chappell dominated the programmes – but not in a way you would expect. Every five minutes the news channels would flash a blurred out middle finger (but no one’s face). The television cameras had captured the clip as the team had been boarding the team bus.
Chappell’s subsequent explanation bordered on the cryptic: “I’m not saying that the hand that was shown was not mine, but even if it was, what is being shown is a mischievous and malicious interpretation of what happened.”
“Chappell had injured his finger during practice and he said he was just attending to it,” explained team speaker M Baladitya. “He did not gesture at anybody.” Few were convinced, but little came out of it barring the BCCI promising to have a word with him.
India levelled the series by chasing down 222 in trying circumstances in Mumbai. As wickets fell around him, Dravid shepherded the chase with a masterful unbeaten 78.
