This piece was meant to be a Q&A: a deep and trenchant interview by the end of which the real Sourav Ganguly would stand up. The Sourav Ganguly who, more than any Indian cricketer before him, has the ability to not merely divide opinion, but to divide it into cults. See that guy sitting beside you, he believes that Captain Ganguly is the hard-ass that Indian cricket desperately needed. And the chap next to him, he believes that Ganguly is lazy and spoilt and insolent. They would willingly enter into a debate which would soon turn personal. Like globalisation or Marxism, Sourav Ganguly has become an ideology; you must be pro or anti, in or out; a middle path doesn't seem to exist. Talking about past incidents, comments by the media, and general perceptions, it was hoped that Ganguly would explain this phenomenon. The interview happened at about midnight on the day that India prepared to depart for a long English summer. Ganguly had irked some of the Mumbai press by not attending the pre-departure conference; it was the third successive time he had missed it. Yet, when he did arrive, along with his wife and seven-month-old daughter, he was ready to offer time to anybody who requested it, and do it with a courtesy that he is not often credited with.

"Let's not get into what the former players have said. I've made my points in some interviews and columns, but it doesn't help things," he had said before the meeting. Yet, the questions were asked of him, because they just had to be. He neither declined nor deflected them; he just responded in softer tones. What came out were not blazing salvos, savage dismissals or heart-rending explanations, but something as significant nonetheless: the fact that Ganguly chose not to react. "There is a huge misconception," he wants it to be known, "that I take on people. I don't. Only when people go overboard do I think they need to realise where they stand."

Increasingly, Ganguly is seeing the value in letting things be. Increasingly, he gives the impression of a man who is realising that statesmanship is as crucial a facet of his job as any other. Every day, he is getting more accustomed to the truth that criticism, constructive or destructive, comes with the territory. He is keen to appear less confrontational even if he did tell one newspaper recently that it was "strange that my commitment to the team is being questioned by someone who declared the Indian innings due to the fear of getting hit." The "someone" was Bishan Singh Bedi, not so much Ganguly's critic as his eternal condemner. But that was one barb in a long volley of baits tossed at him, and Ganguly executed it elegantly.

More than ever before, Ganguly is acknowledging to himself that the signals he may be sending out could be detrimental to his and his team's fortunes. Television, arguably, has brought out the worst in Ganguly. TV slows down and magnifies and dissects – and then does it one more time. Every replay makes Ganguly out to be a dissenter and his body language is analysed by commentators to be schoolboyish or graceless. It's not entirely unfair – observers call it as they see it. But nor is it entirely fair; observers don't have the benefit that Ganguly's team-mates do – of being comfortable with his style.

All the same, it impacts minds. Ganguly knows this – even his father has been telling him not to lose his temper on the cricket field. "I need to calm down a bit," he reflects. "It's not that I like being demonstrative, it's probably the heat of the situation. When you're trying hard sometimes, it happens. I don't carry it off the field… I don't have many people off the field that I dislike, let me make that clear. On the field it's a different thing, you are playing for your country, it's competitive, you're trying hard to win." This rawness, this bluntness, it's his strength, yet it is what works most against him. He admits that he has "made more enemies for that… "

Now, he almost expects bad press. He knows the inevitability of it when he lands in England. He will be greeted by a few vitriolic columns, and will encounter the odd bigot like the writer who last winter urged the Indian selectors to "get rid of this chump of a captain" who was "about as much use as a chocolate fireguard." References will be drawn to his rich Kolkata upbringing – as if that were his fault – and to his scraps with Steve Waugh, which have evolved into an interesting relationship; Waugh went back to Australia and wrote that Ganguly had added a new "steeliness" to India and called him a "prick" in a good sort of way; when Ganguly is now asked who the captains are, past or present, that he looks up to, Waugh's is the only name he summons.

He will also come up against a team that, he must know inside, is better than his own. If all of them report fit, England's seamers will provide a fair challenge for Ganguly the batsman. He is now out of his Test-match slump – he continues to be India's most valuable one-day performer – and so is more at ease admitting that it happened. Yet Ganguly doesn't see what those watching the game saw. The short ball, he says, had never troubled him – it was only a matter of finding form. His commitment to fitness, he says, had never dipped. It's the sort of defensiveness that can get under the skin of the public: pardon is not hard to find if a man is willing to confess; look at Bill Clinton. The fact that Ganguly made the dreamiest possible start to his Test career at Lord's six years ago will, he knows, hardly count for a thing when he leads his team out for the first Test there this summer. "The memories are good, but that doesn't mean that things are going to fall in place automatically."

Not only that, Ganguly will go head-to-head against a captain more tactically skilled than himself. Together Nasser Hussain and Duncan Fletcher have made things happen. It was the promise that the Ganguly-John Wright combine held when they capped a first season with successive series wins over Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and mighty Australia. Hussain is good with PR, sharp on the field, off the field and in the field. The best way for Ganguly to come out on top would be to win the series. If that happens, it would be a landmark, and he may be celebrated as the best captain India have had. If it doesn't, well, public patience will once more be tested, and as is usual, the captain will bear the brunt of it. Patience is perhaps the virtue that Ganguly is looking to cultivate – and he wants that the public and the media show some more too. Untiringly, he has answered questions at the end of a losing day. He wants it to be known, and believed, that this Indian team is taking a natural – and ascendant – course. Time and again he has asked for more time. Time and again he has stated that with a young team he has reached the final of the ICC Mini World Cup. Time and again he has taken pains to point out that, though his team has not won series away, they have at least started winning matches outside India. Things, he believes, are shaping up.

"We've got the right people at the top," he says. "John's a hardworking man. We've been blessed with Adrian le Roux. He's fantastic. He can do wonders with the team over a period of time. The senior guys are not very old… there is hope, but if people are expecting wonders overnight it's not going to happen."

So how shall we react? Sourav Ganguly doesn't really need our sympathy, nor does he warrant extreme censure. What he deserves is to be viewed in moderation. His considerable achievements as captain – of being India's most winning captain overseas in terms of number of Tests and their most successful captain anywhere in terms of win percentage need to be seen in context of opposition, but they still need to be appreciated as definite steps forward. Likewise, his return to Test form should not be celebrated emphatically until the runs start coming consistently, but it needs to be welcomed. What Sourav Ganguly deserves, basically, is more maturity from everyone. If he is making the first move, it is only right that we follow.

Rahul Bhattacharya is a staff writer with Wisden Asia Cricket and Wisden.com India

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