Sourav Ganguly has said farewell to cricket after 12 glorious years and at times controversial seasons in the highest level of the game. But for cricket, it`s not merely the loss of an icon, rather of a born fighter, who led his country with passion and shrewdness and would go down as one of the best captains in the annals of cricketing history.

After staging glorious comebacks time and again to prove wrong the cricketing pundits who frequently penned the obituary of his journey, the talismanic left hander finally announced to the world himself that he has reached the end of his glittering international career.

history will speculate and debate - till the principal protagonists make some revelation at some point of time in the future - on whether any voluntary retirement scheme was forced on Ganguly by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), there can be no second opinion that the game would miss a colourful cricketer and a gutsy genius.

And he should have little regrets. Very few sporting heroes have enjoyed such public support in his home turf, as Ganguly did in India, particularly in his state West Bengal. This is borne by the scenes of public outrage that followed the Prince of Calcutta`s exclusion from the national team in December, 2005, with fans blocked roads and railway tracks, and burning effigies of then chief selector Kiran More and coach Greg Chappell.