Cricket: Did Sourav Ganguly deserve this ?

Sourav Ganguly is not even in the team thats playing the Ahmedabad test against Sri Lanka. The man who has been the #1 man of Indian cricket since 2000 when Saurav Ganguly was asked to take over as the captain of the team India. And with time he has earned a few friends and few enemies. And now with a new coach and a new BCCI administration around, Saurav Ganguly is not going to have a good time.

First Ganguly was dropped as the captain of the one day team and then dropped from the team which played Sri Lanka and then South Africa. The Bengal tiger was asked to “perform” in the domestic cricket and “prove” that he is fit. Ganguly humbled by the events that unfolded went ahead and made a few good scores and got a few wickets. Not good enough according to the officials to get into the one day side, but good enough to make it to the test team that played Sri Lanka.

If we look at the whole scenerio from what BCCI’s point of view, Ganguly did not have a great run with the bat, India needed a more stable captain and a new team for the next world cup, and the new coach, Greg Chappel and Ganguly did not gel that well. And yes, a winning combination should not be broken.. so Ganguly had to go .. !! And so he was dropped from the one day side. But BCCI thought Ganguly should play the test matches. So when the first test match was washed out and the second test match was being played, Ganguly was worthy of the position in the test side. Well thats what the selectors indicated.

But Ganguly made the best of the scenerio.. got around 40 runs in both the innings in a not so high scoring game. India won the Kotla test convincingly. Greg Chappell commented that the team now gelled well and Ganguly and Chappell have sorted things out. And guess what, bang !! Ganguly is dropped from the team that plays the next test !! Not even in the team, forget the playing eleven. Instead Jaffer, the opener from Maharashtra comes in. Sharad Pawar, the new chief of BCCI, also from Maharashtra is surprised and shocked at Ganguly’s exclusion. Gautam Gambhir who got an average around 10 runs in the Kotla test is retained and yes he is in the playing eleven opening the innings and managed to score just 19 runs in the first innings in the third test.

This was a winning combination and India is not playing any test world cup .. and performance was not the key here !! The board just made it loud and clear that cricket, like every other thing in India was just a pawn in the hands of the politicians.

Rahul Dravid was not doing well before the test and insiders knew that Dravid could drop out if things did not improve.. so that would be one more open position in the side. And Dravid is not an opener .. so had Ganguly been there in the team, Ganguly could have been in the playing eleven. And so the steps were taken to keep him out, away from all possibilities that lady luck might throw on him. The biggest and most important thing is the team and keeping Ganguly out to get their personal rivalries straight was a loss to the team and an injustice metted out to a player who did not deserve it.

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