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| it is now clear to every right thinking person that the future of Indian cricket will be determined by the Rahul Dravid-Greg Chappell partnership. There is simply no room for Ganguly in the new scheme of things. |
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| Ganguly should quit gracefully Nirmal Shekar There is simply no room for Ganguly in Indian cricket's new scheme of things. The sooner he accepts this reality the better for him, writes Nirmal Shekar If Sourav Ganguly thinks that he has scored a major point in a game of oneupmanship with Greg Chappell, the Indian skipper is sadly mistaken. For, if anybody came out of Bulawayo still looking valiant and every bit a gentleman, it was the former Australian batting great. And, with each such flare-up it seems more and more unlikely that India's most successful Test captain would be able to go out on his own terms. What Ganguly did at the press conference on the third day of the first Test against Zimbabwe is inexcusable. It was an unpardonable error of judgment from an emotional man with a highly combustible temperament, one whose shortcomings Team India has had to live with grudgingly in recent times because some of the most powerful men in Indian cricket continue to believe that the man from Kolkata is irreplaceable. If the Indian captain said what he did because he thought he had created the right sort of platform for it with a century, then nothing can be more ludicrous than that. For, a laboured century against a bowling attack which talented schoolboy cricketers would merrily feast on means nothing. If anything, it was further proof of the fact that Ganguly's best days with the bat are well behind him. A tragi-comic figure The swaggering machismo of sunnier days now sits on Ganguly like a shredded, well-worn robe we can see through. There is a sure tragi-comic touch to the drama he contrives these days and the whingeing in Bulawayo was of a piece. After leading India in a record 48 Tests, winning 20 of them — the most by anyone — Ganguly might have come to believe that he was invincible. But, then, sport is a strange business, a capricious business where invincibility is almost always a myth. And his ill-conceived, mistimed attack of India's new coach — a widely respected high-achiever in the world of cricket — is bound to backfire on Ganguly. It was poorly planned. What is worse, it was poorly acted out. The captain looked no better than a cry baby — Ooooh, they tried to drop me, you know! — who wanted to win public sympathy with a sensational coup at a time when there was very little of it for him outside the BCCI offices. Given his experience, Ganguly should have realised that there is nothing worse that a captain can do than reveal the gist of dressing-room discussions with the coach to the media in an era when a whiff of scandal is enough to whip up a media frenzy. If this wasn't a breach of confidentiality of the highest order, then what is? It was not only a reflection of Ganguly's maturity — the lack of it, to be precise — but it also held a mirror to the man's emotional state at a time when he seems prepared to go to any length merely to hold on to his place in the team. Chappell is a class act For his part, Chappell came out of the episode a hero. He was very polite when answering difficult questions and made no attempt to get even with the Indian captain. In fact, after the match, the great Aussie even paid tribute to Ganguly's batting. He is as much a class act as a man as he was as a batsman. Then again, given all that's happened in the weeks since he landed here to take over as coach, Chappell will need all his reserves — both in terms of patience and man-management skills — to survive in his job, the highest-profile coaching job in the world of cricket. From the moment the choice of Chappell as coach was announced in Mumbai, Indian cricket has been sending out all the wrong signals. There was absolute bedlam at the venue where the announcement was made. If anything, things have deteriorated since. On the day the team left for Zimbabwe, via Mumbai, Chappell arrived early in the day hoping to meet the team members and discuss a few things. He waited through breakfast, lunch and dinner in vain, before addressing a press conference without the captain, who turned up Maharajah style, at his own convenience! The man who made the great Steve Waugh wait in the middle for the toss in Kolkata might have believed this was another useful mind-game that would send a subtle message to Chappell: Hey, I am the boss here. Beginning of the end But, then, we can see through Ganguly's pathetic games these days. They are desperate attempts to pluck the first available emotional chords by a man who knows that his days are numbered as a team leader and as a Test batsman, one who has so far successfully managed to keep out one of the most committed and talented cricketers in the country — Mohammed Kaif. Quite apart from the injustice done to Kaif, the best fielder in the Indian side and one of its finest batsmen, it is now clear to every right thinking person that the future of Indian cricket will be determined by the Rahul Dravid-Greg Chappell partnership. There is simply no room for Ganguly in the new scheme of things. And the sooner that he — and his powerful supporters in the Board — realises this, the greater the chances of a graceful exit for Indian cricket's most successful Test captain. But it doesn't look as if that — a graceful exit — is going to happen. Ganguly's huge ego, his whole sense of self-esteem, is tied up with his role as the leader of the Indian cricket team. It is going to be very hard for him to accept the fact that his days on the centre-stage are over. But accept he has to, for his own good and for the future of a team that he has led with distinction for so long. |
Source : http://www.hindu.com/2005/09/18/stories/2005091802 451700.htm
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