Who is the Greatest Indian Captain?

As entire India erupted in a frenzy, when the lump of leather left M.S.Dhoni's bat and sailed into the crowd for a massive six, the World Cup dream had morphed into an euphoric reality, turning India into being 2011 World Cup - Champs, yet again, post 28 years, in retrospect of 1983. The man, M.S.Dhoni a.k.a Mahi, for all reasons, who had a poor batting average in the world cup thus far, having no big knock to his name, had strolled to the pitch that night with India in disdain, losing Viru and Sachin pretty early. We all know, we expected Yuvi to walk in instead. The devil Mahi grew in confidence and slowly loomed large over the opponents, there was no looking back, he did see India home to an unforgettable world cup victory. Congrats to Team India and Mahi for a stupendous show.

This definitely opens up another huge debate - Is Dhoni the best captain India has ever produced? Let us take a step back and try to live in the past for a while.

This dates back to the year 1999/2000, Hansie Cronje had confessed all about the match fixing episodes and had opened up a huge can of worms which had dire repercussions on Indian cricket too. India lost Azharuddin, the then successful captain who faced a life ban from cricket, alongside Ajay Jadeja (4 years ban) too. This had left the team in shambles, with nobody to lead. One man had the guts and dared to take the reigns from a de-moralized team and rebuild it from scratch. This man turned out to be an innovative leader who changed the face of Indian cricket for ever. He increased the inflow of youngsters into the team. He handpicked young players like Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Dhoni, Mohammad Kaif, Irfan Pathan and many more. This man had a flair of running the show his way, he induced a glut of aggression into the team, made the team believe, nothing was impossible. He always looked into the eye of the opponents, took the attack to them. All in all his fabulous leadership had transformed the team into a single playing unit. Who is this guy? Undoubtedly, he is Sourav Ganguly a.k.a the Prince of Kolkata, known to be the most successful Captain India had ever produced. Dada's cricketing life was a roller coaster, making a lot of come backs, slapping the critics in its face by amazing performances.

It makes me believe that M.S.Dhoni has inherited some of Ganguly flair in his Captaincy, barring the fact, not being as agressive as Dada was. So what was different about Dhoni? His cool as a cucumber attitude? was it his luck playing in his favor all the time? He soon lead India to T20 World Cup title followed by the ICC 2011 World Cup title, makes him now one of the most influential persona, ranking 52 in Time's list leaving Iionel Messi and the President Barak Obama way behind.

If winning most prestigious title's on a big stage converting those finals into victories is a measure of being the greatest Captain, then M.S.Dhoni is the man.On the contrary, if the pre-work, the effort, to build such a winning team from scratch is a measure of being the greatest Captain, undoubtedly Sourav Ganguly is the best ever.

It is up-to every Indian to aptly weigh these personalities at different levels for different cricketing reasons and call them the greatest ever in Indian cricket thus far......