Book Review: A Century is Not Enough by Sourav Ganguly

A century is Not Enough: My Rollercoaster Ride to Success is narrated by Sourav Ganguly and written by Gautam Bhattacharya. As you can make out from the title that in the world of cricket performance is everything, that’s why Ganguly emphasizes that one century is not enough. As a player, one has to keep rolling. Consistency matters most. As expected that this book will cover each and every moment of Dada, well it is just 254 pages, and covers only the main cricketing issues of his life. Also the book is famous for motivational stuff. Dada asserts that, “Choose the most challenging path to emerge out as a winner in life.” There is no glory for mediocre players in this game, as a matter of fact in any sports.

Here Ganguly talked about his first game at the Lords (he scored a century there) and the nervousness that surrounded him then, also people labeled him as an East Zone Quota player. He also talked about his stint as a captain and what he did to groom new players, how he instilled a factor of never-give up spirit in the team. But surprisingly, Dada has hardly mentioned about his peak time of cricket i.e. 2003 World Cup and 2001 Test Series with Australia. He did talk about confidence and self-belief that a cricketer has to wear all the time in the field as well as in the dressing room.

The most crushing setback of his life was to unfairly being dropped from the national and IPL team. He deserved more than a premature retirement. The Greg Chappell episode was the darkest time of his life that changed his career untowardly. The book is not about his personal life, rather what goes as a player is that he talked throughout the book. One book cannot be enough for a great player like Dada. This book will be a treat for those who rarely watched and heard of him. Dada fans know most of his story.

Yes, he also talked about other legends, Sachin, Laxman, Dravid. He didn’t talk negative about anyone, even about his games with Pakistan, his rapport with Pakistani players and its cricket-watching public. Written in simple and clear style, it’s a fast read.