Sourav Ganguly waves to the crowd during the victory parade in Nagpur on Monday. (AFP)

Nagpur: Greg Chappell stopped addressing me as “Lokendra” and switched to “Sahi.” That was shortly after his spat with Sourav Ganguly in Zimbabwe, a little over three years ago.

That period also saw hate mail for much of what I wrote on Sourav. Like Chappell, some readers probably felt I’d taken “sides” in Indian cricket’s most headline-grabbing row since Mohinder Amarnath called the selectors a “bunch of jokers.”

If there was a downside to a close relationship with Sourav, that was it. The point I’d then been making was icons cannot be treated so disdainfully. That the Chappell-Sourav issue had been handled poorly.

At no point, however, did I worry about my personal association with Sourav becoming a liability professionally. It’s not that Sourav and I didn’t have differences. He didn’t, for example, like it when I criticised his indirect attack on one-time mentor Jagmohan Dalmiya in the lead-up to the 2006 CAB elections.

Sourav was then turning out for Northants and had been hit on the head. The criticism, therefore, wasn’t timed well and I’m not sure whether the 35-minute trans-continental talk we had convinced him about my stand.

To his credit, Sourav never spoke about it again.

Of course, one got branded pro-Sourav within Team India too, and one senior player, in particular, became very formal. Not that it stopped others from enquiring (on tours) about “Dada” during the time he’d been left to rot.

The end of this Australia-series has brought much sadness. It’s personal, but Indian cricket is also going to miss Sourav. Not to speak of fans, thousands of whom couldn’t control their emotions at the VCA Stadium in Jamtha on Monday afternoon.

Sadly, over the years, many (in different quarters) loved to hate Sourav, for no reason at all. As bad, few actually gave him the credit he deserved.

It’s fashionable for today’s cricketers to be aggressive, yet till Sourav took absolute control of the team (early 2001, about a year after he got the captaincy), hardly anybody would look the opposition in the eye.

Backing off, or almost, had been much the norm.

Sourav changed the team’s body language and, as Ian Chappell (no big fan of his, by the way) pointed out, changed the “mentality” while playing overseas. That, perhaps, will be Sourav’s lasting legacy.

Just the other day, Anil Kumble paid Sourav the highest compliment when he said he’d taught the team to win overseas. India’s most successful Test captain can’t forget that in a hurry.

Sourav will be remembered for backing youngsters too, for bringing back the Harbhajan Singhs and for shunning the temptation to think and act on narrow regional lines. “I’m the captain of India, not any zone or state,” he’d insist whenever anybody suggested that he advocate some player’s cause from East or Bengal.

Another of Sourav’s arguments was that the deserving couldn’t be stopped.

Sunil Gavaskar, indeed, was spot on when he saluted Sourav (in these columns) thus: “He provided the kind of leadership you seldom see in any walk of life.”

Coming from one of the first few legends of Indian sport, that’s awesome.

As a batsman, there was a time when Sourav outshone even Sachin Tendulkar in ODIs, but didn’t do complete justice to his talent in Test cricket. Over 7,000 runs is very good, yes, but he should’ve been in the 9,000-plus category.

In the lead-up to his final Test, Sourav admitted as much in a one-on-one with The Telegraph.

Sourav was an absolute joy to watch on the off-side and those who found fault with his handling of the short-pitched stuff (no batsman relishes them) need to remember that quite a few of his runs came on some of the quickest surfaces. His comeback innings of 51 not out at the Wanderers, 23 months ago, being one example.

His first captain, Mohammed Azharuddin, has rubbished talk that Sourav had an attitude problem on the 1991-92 tour of Australia. That puts to rest the whispers which surfaced on his maiden tour and we don’t need to bother about the whispers in more recent times.

If anything, the passionate Sourav gave the team attitude.

What could definitely be said is that Sourav was often the hardest worker. Two memories stand out: In the lead-up to the Kandy Test on the 2001-02 tour of Sri Lanka and the build-up to the Wanderers in 2006-07.

Extra hours, practising with wet tennis balls on a concrete surface... Turning up for optional nets... He did everything.

Sourav got the MoM award in Kandy. At the Wanderers, he made a comeback which is part of folklore. Only somebody with his mental make-up could’ve (a) made a return in the first place and (b) made it count for so much.

In the (Greg) Chappell-Kiran More era, at that.

Sourav wasn’t the best mover on the field, but he got targeted more than some of his teammates. Actually, it wouldn’t have been much of a risk if you’d bet on a catch coming down on him.

By his own admission, Sourav is “quiet and soft-spoken” off the field. A pucca gentleman as well. The lady who took his autograph with a leaking pen, on last Monday’s Calcutta-Nagpur flight, will vouch for that.

“I didn’t have another one... I’m sorry your hands have got soiled,” the lady-in-black apologised. “Madam, don’t worry... Theek achche,” Sourav assured her, somewhat embarrassed by her discomfiture.

An absolute Dada on the field, pretty soft off it... He’ll be missed.

Footnote: Sourav, one learns, was subjected to much leg-pulling during the dinner in his and Anil Kumble’s honour. One of the seniors even said he would now have the time to “contest against Mamata Banerjee.” Somebody else asked whether he would now drop Sana to school! A video presentation was made, listing the achievements of the former captains.