This was the image that was carried in the daily telegraph about a year ago. This made big headlines at the time and people from West Bengal were furious at the paper for displaying this image. Well, it all seems to be true one year after the news first made healines. We all have seen him play for years, first as a regular player and then as the Captain of the Indian side. But the Bengal tiger’s days seem to be over. If there were any doubts of him making a comback to the Indian side for the World Cup, then the Challenger Trophey has put those doubts to rest. I can clearly see that Saurav Ganguly will not be able to make it to the Indian side for the Wolrd Cup. Call it politics, call it a conspiracy of Dravid and Chappel, call it his poor form but Dada will soon be history for Indian Cricket.
I am/was a big fan of his captaincy and always admired his guts to back his players. But you can’t stay in the side just for your captaincy. You have to lead the side from the front and that’s something that he wasn’t doing at the time he was stripped of his captaincy. Though I always felt that the way he was shunned out of the team was a little too disgraceful for a player of his stature. He was the most successful Indian captain and the selectors should have asked him to step down as a captain and given him atleast two series to see if he can recover from his poor form.
If this Challenger Series held the public’s imagination at any stage, it certainly didn’t beyond 7pm on Tuesday, when the tournament ended for Sourav Ganguly. The one thing that the public was keen to see – if they could manage to tune in to Neo Sports, the newly launched television channel that is broadcasting this series – it was how Ganguly would bat. And if he did not last long enough during his 24 against India Blue, it was even more disappointing today in his game against the Reds.
Only 3 runs from 9 balls before an angled bat outside off redirected the ball back onto the stumps via the inside edge, and suddenly the question surrounding Ganguly changed slightly. It was now not so much whether he could make it back to the Indian team, but whether he still deserved a place in the Rest of India team that would take on Uttar Pradesh in the Zal Irani Trophy match at Nagpur, starting October 9.
Truly sad days for the former skipper and in my honest opinion he should just retire and concentrate on his business.
Gagan's Blog (www.Gagan.ca) 