  We bring out here the role of initial data in causing the black hole and
naked singularity phases as the final end state of a continual gravitational
collapse. The collapse of a type I general matter field is considered, which
includes most of the known physical forms of matter. It is shown that given the
distribution of the density and pressure profiles at the initial surface from
which the collapse evolves, there is a freedom in choosing rest of the free
functions, such as the velocities of the collapsing shells, so that the end
state could be either a black hole or a naked singularity depending on this
choice. It is thus seen that it is the initial data that determines the end
state of spherical collapse in terms of these outcomes, and we get a good
picture of how these phases come about.
