Why Team India needs Ganguly, Tendulkar and Laxman. Twitter reactions

You may not consider the infamous Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) an efficient organisation, but its decision to nominate Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman - three legends of Indian cricket - to its advisory panel, is one of the most progressive steps it has ever taken. On June 1, the board ended speculation and announced the trio will be part of a panel that will advise the board on "various progressive steps". The three former players are expected to help Team India prepare better for overseas assignments, to assess and nurture talent and also find ways to strengthen the domestic cricket structure.

At last better sense has dawned upon the Indian cricket board. For once BCCI has taken a decision not driven by making money, and thought about the benefit of the sport.

What makes the three great players the right choice is not merely their cricketing abilities, but their temperament and steely character that they have exhibited time and again. They have also immense experience to guide Team India and prepare them for the rigours of international cricket.

Here are some of the tweets on the trio's nomination as Team India's mentors:

I welcome & thank @sachin_rt Saurav Ganguly @VVSLaxman281 fr joining @BCCI.Privileged to hv yur guidance & support,as we start a new inning!

— Anurag Thakur (@ianuragthakur) June 1, 2015

Happy to work with Sachin & Laxman but don't know yet what advisory committee is supposed to do says Ganguly in Times of India. Perplexing

— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) June 2, 2015

Sachin (admired), Ganguly (respected) & Laxman (approachable) make a killer combination to guide & advise BCCI through tumultuous waters

— Abhishek Singhvi (@DrAMSinghvi) June 2, 2015

We often wonder if the legends could be used better...the inclusion of Sourav, Tendulkar & Laxman is a step in that direction. Kudos, BCCI.

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) June 1, 2015

Happy to see that 'improvement in overseas performance' is an official goal now for BCCI...Richest board must also have the best team.

— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) June 2, 2015

"@JuliSingh_: Sourav Ganguly as BCCI director... Yayyyy Finally got something good to hear about bloody bcci ????"

— GANGULIAN (@alwaysGANGULIAN) May 24, 2015

At the outset, let's focus our attention on Ganguly - the former Team India skipper and most flamboyant of the three. It is beyond doubt that the Ganguly-era marked a point of departure in Indian cricket. Ganguly, as the skipper, completely changed the thought-process of the team. Earlier, when India went on tour, I doubt if the players themselves believed that they could win any matches (unless of course the opposition was Zimbabwe). Their main aim was perhaps to win friends, to be true gentlemen playing the "gentleman's game".

But with Ganguly, we had a captain who taught the players to shed their defeatist mentality and believe that they went on foreign tours not just to see new lands, but to play competitive cricket and take pride in doing so. Now, when both teams in a contest play to win, it becomes a contest in the real sense, and tempers invariably flare up. They say, "all's fair in love and war" and when cricket ceases to be a leisurely pastime and becomes a competition, with the contenders going hammer and tongs at each other, it sheds its clothing of being a gentleman's game.

Ganguly knew that if you had to win at the highest stage, you have to pass through fire and yet not be scared and not hesitate to give some of the opponents' aggression back to them. He led by example. So when Andrew Flintoff pulled off his shirt and ran around the Wankhede in a jingoistic victory celebration, Ganguly paid him (and England) back in the same coin when India scripted a fine victory against England in the NatWest Trophy final at the Lord's - the "Mecca of Cricket". Did it shock the purists and the keepers of the gentleman's game? The new Team India under Ganguly hardly cared; it was there to win (at all costs).

Again, it was Ganguly who got under the skin of former Australian captain Steve Waugh by making him wait at the toss, and when the Australians sledged, he taught his boys to not take it lying down. It was the Ganguly-led India that stopped the Australian juggernaut of 16 Test wins in 2001. Then when India went Down Under in 2003-'04, he set the tone of the series with a fiesty century against a fearsome pace attack, his shortcomings against the short delivery notwithstanding. India, which was so accustomed to being pummelled in Australia (it lost its previous two series in Australia 0-3 and 0-4), drew the series 1-1 and even threatened to win the last Test at Sydney, and indeed the series.

It will be interesting to see if Ganguly, now as a mentor, can instil that aggression and never-say-die approach among the Rainas, Dhawans and Umesh Yadavs of today. His guidance, as well as those of Tendulkar and Laxman would be necessary if India is to improve its record overseas, which has taken a beating lately, with 0-4 thrashings, first at the hands of England and then, Australia. Since 2011, the team has won only two Tests overseas.

What made Ganguly a great captain was also his eye for talent. He believed in having a bunch of players whom he thought would do the job for him and backed them to the hilt. And in doing so, he was never parochial; for him one's performance should speak the loudest. Thus when he found that his fellow Bengal teammate Deep Dasgupta did not fit the bill as a wicketkeeper, he replaced him. It was under Ganguly's tutelage that players like Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and Mohammad Kaif made great strides and made Indian cricket proud. Now that Ganguly will be India's cricket advisor, one hopes he will be able to unearth talent from the domestic circuit that will help to take the team to greater cricketing heights.

Not only Ganguly, the young players of the team will benefit immensely under the guidance of Tendulkar and Laxman - batting technicians par excellence. Their experience in spotting talent, devising ways to nurture them and helping them prepare for the stresses and strains of international cricket and overhaul the cricket structure in the country would be invaluable. Laxman can also perhaps tell his wards how he managed to turn into such a huge nemesis of the Australians.

How to make our Ranji and Duleep Trophies more competitive, how to make the pitches for the domestic matches more result-oriented, how to mix and match bouncy and spin-friendly tracks so that the players can adjust to all conditions, are questions that need to answered and who better to pose those questions to than Ganguly, Tendulkar and Laxman?

However, there is bit of a worry if there would be ego clashes between the three superstars. The three have had a fine camaraderie on and off the field and Ganguly and Tendulkar used to be one of the most successful batting pairs in the history of one day international (ODI) cricket. One hopes, for the sake of Indian cricket, that no ego clash between the three occurs. If things pan out as they should, good days for Indian cricket may be just round the corner. Just hope though that the activities of the advisory panel do not become merely academic.