Watching Ganguly lead the Indian team off after beating Australia almost moved me to tears. First of all, hats of to Dhoni who proved that cricket is still THE gentleman's game. Not many captains have the chance to lead their teams to series wins against Australia, AND he forfeited that right in order to allow Ganguly to leave the field for the last time as the captain of India. How many other times in the history of the game (and in all sports in general) has the current captain briefly stepped down in order to allow a retiring player to be the captain?

In a sense, it was bittersweet, since so much of this current Indian side--this aggressive and competitive team--were built by the work of Saurav Ganguly's captaincy and John Wright's coaching. Dhoni is himself a captain with excellent instincts, and all the players who have come in since Ganguly are good in their own right, but it was Ganguly who 8 years ago today who turned India from a team that focused on the accomplishments of individual performers to a single-minded unit that could actually challenge the best of the best and win.

Like many India fans, I was a bit afraid going into this series since it is the changing of the guard for what will remain for a long time one of the most prolific middle orders in history. But, with the new talent of players like Sharma, Gambhir, and Misra under the genius of Dhoni I think the team is in good hands, though it will be awhile before new idols to the stature of Ganguly and Tendulkar come again.

In closing, how awesome is it that Sachin made his 100th catch in test cricket too? He seems to be all over the stats...

More stats:

Ganguly's test average has never been below 40

He debuted as skipper on this day in 2000

His first score in test cricket was a century (131) and his last innings was a golden duck

Also, does Dhoni remind anyone of Pietersen? Quick rise, awesome batsmen in all forms of the game--but particularly Twenty20, penchant for weird hair decisions, and very young captains? Also they both seem to piss of the Aussies.