Pity Saurav

My response to a Ganguly fan in my company

Sriram,

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I believe, of those who played this Test, Sourav handled all the bowlers well(technically). I am not sure if there is any other player other than Dravid who has a solid defense as Sourav to negotiate good bowling. I am still wondering if there is anyone better than Sourav to handle the spin bowlers in the 20-40 overs in one-dayers. Until one finds the alternative, sourav deserves his place in the team. Moreover he played Shoaib Akthar much better than others.

I agree with you in this. Thanks to Greg, now for the past two series Ganguly is concentrating on the game more than what he did for the past 2 years. Sitting on the past laurels is not the correct way. If that is going to be the case, then we have to stop all the domestic tournaments, as the new bloods are not going to get into test team. Come on Sriram he didn't play the pace bowling well for the past 2 year (Infact more than that). Just by performing in 2 innings cannot - and should not - convince anyone. In LOI, Saurav will come at number 3 position. To play spinners, first he has to survive the pace. Also he will concede at least 10 to 20 runs in the field. Sourav does one thing consistently when he comes to bowl. He will bowl 2 no-balls and he will give atleast 15 runs in his first over and take off the pressure from the opposition. After that he won't bowl at all in that match. Mark my word. Keep an eye on this whenever he comes to bowl an over in LOI or Test. This has been the pattern for him all through his cricketing career.

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Regarding his attitude, everyone runs a story as though they were part of the dressing room. Its a pity. How can we comment about the nature of a person sitting from here. Ridiculous. Everyone goes through a bad patch and so too he.

Sriram, there are lot of incidences where his wrong attitude raised its ugly face.

1. Many cricketers has mentioned this in their AB. Steve Waugh, Flintoff are some of them.
2. Infact when Haryana played Bengal in a Ranji match, Kapil warned Saurav, then 19, in the middle of the pitch itself for bad attitude.
3. Also there was an incident when he came late for the toss in a match against Aus.
4. Then for standing in the pitch - after the LBW decision was turned down by Darell Hair - looking at the big screen in the MCG to cross check the umpire decision.
5. Not coming to the hotel on time to attend press conference, along with the coach, before leaving to Zim.
6. Disclosing the team's internal matter to the media after scoring an hundred against a mediocre attack.
Only time he was made a scape goat is during the infamous Mike Denness incident in SA.

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Then why dont they suggest the same psychiatrist, senior players , implementation etc to one other prominent player who is back after injury layoff and noway contributing to the team, but wins praise from the coach.

I agree with you in this. Consistency should be there. It can be Sachin or VVS or Rahul. If they don't perform either they have to throw the towel or they must be shown the door or they have to go back to the Ranji, perform well and win the place back in the team.

For the guest who quoted that 'All Aussies are racist', I just want to ask only one thing. How can you comment about a country just by sitting here? If Steve is a racist, what is the need for him to do charity (Udayam in Calcutta) in India. He can do that in his country itself. In my knowledge, he is one of the best human being I have ever seen (I have to say I have ever read). If he is a racist, them he has to target everyone including Sachin, Kapil Dev, Viv Richards and others. Infact it is Aussies (Riche Benaud) who spot the talent of Sachin during 1991 series. Viv Richards, who is strictly against racism, always targets England and not Australia for racial abuse. Infact he likes Aus a lot and has lot of friends there including the biggest thug of all - Rodney Marsh and Jeff Thomo.

If the Aussie crowd gives some racist comment on the opposition players, Aussie players are not accountable for that. Only ICC and CA has to take necessary actions. Also in any crowd they we will be some rotten eggs who has to be controlled by force. Even Indian crowd is not completely decent. There are many occasions when the Chennai crowd, considered to be the most knowledable, used some unparliamentary and racist words against the touring WI team in 2000 series. Words like 'Antha Karuppan oru kaataan' were used by us against Chris Gayle. I was there in the crowd. Also everyone knows the famous 'Aalu' incident against Inzamam that happend in Toronto. Only difference is that they did that in their local slang as they are not articulate in English. Wrong is wrong in any language. So can I say all Indians are racist? Don't generalize anything.

Guest you should know the difference between sledging and racism. Even when we play, we say something 'dey, yorker poduda. Avanukku ada theriyadhu.' or 'Varatta, Varatta. Avan nichayama kaava vituduvaan' or 'Antha Dadiyanaala oda mudiyadhu. Athanaala ulla vaa' to our team mates in our mother tongue. I don't think any wrong in this. This is just a mind game and good player will get with all these things. This is sledging. But off the field they don't hurt any one verbally. Also In NDTV, most of them were from Culcutta. You can't expect a Bengali to speak against Saurav. So those defense doesn't count.

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So which cricketer dont have weakness. Even the highly hailed Dravid struggles against left arm spin bowlers.

I accept this. Other than Sir Garfield Sobers, all cricketers had (have) weakness. Infact Sir Don had weakness to play in the fourth innings pitch. He had never score an hundred in fourth innings. Also he shares one more thing common with Sachin. Even he didn't know to finish the game. Stan McCabe in that great team is good at that. But it is not about the weakness of a batsman, it is about how the batsman overcome his weakness or cover up his weakness.

You say Dravid has weakness against left arm spin. Yes, when compared to other Indian, he is sedate player (take note of this I say 'Sedate' not 'Bad') against spin. But he knows how to tackle them. Infact his record against Vettori, in my opinion the best left arm bowler, is really good. He was dismissed thrice by Vettori in test cricket and every time Vettori has to give 75 runs to purchase Rahul. (Mind you, there are many instances where Rahul has score tons of runs against this Kiwis without losing his wicket or losing his wicket to some other bowlers. If you take this into account he would have score around 100-125 runs against Vettori). FYI, Ganguly's captaincy record looks good just because of two men. One Rahul Dravid and another Kumble. Here's Dravid's contribution in all test wins under Ganguly. Total runs:2733 Average:105.11 Here's Kumble's contribution in all test wins under Ganguly 80 wickets taken at 22.75 I have to say Rahul has been astonishing for the past 3 years.

But look at Ganguly. When any of the Ganguly detractors raises the 'shot ball-bouncer' issue, immediately Saurav fans point Steve Waugh as another example. But Steve has won many matches for Aus against fearsome pace bowling (Famous innings against Curtley and Walsh in Sir Frank Worell trophy triumph under Mark Taylor in 1997). He also has another unofficial record. Out of his 34 centuries, 26 were match winning crisis innings, 3 were match saving innings which, in percentage, is the maximum for any batsman.

Ganguly has weakness against short balls on his ribs. There are four methods against a short ball. 1) Compulsive Hook - Viv Richards Method 2) Always leave the ball - Sunil Gavaskar Method 3) Recieve Blows - Steve Waugh method 4) Go back to pavilion - Can I call this as Saurav Method. He neither knows to play it nor ignores it. Ganguly, at one time (around 98-99), had an average around 50. Now it is around 40. Just because of one thing - Short Ball. He doesn't accept his weakness and also not keen to work on that. There was an instance when Bob Simpson, appointed as consultant for India, asked the ball boys to bowl short balls at Saurav, Gangs got frustrated and threw his bat and asked another ball boy to bowl around Outside off - his honeymoon corridor. Another instance of having wrong attitude. At that time Ganguly was in his peak, also one bouncer per over rule was not there in LOI. For the last 2 year his average against good bowling attack (don't consider Bang and Zim) is around 20.

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This is only after the Chappell issue. Before that have you heard anything like that. By the way he is competing for a place in Indian Team not South African Team. You know the standard right.

This is typically a CPI/CPI(M) argument. When the whole world changes, you have to change. When the world starts to use machines for production, then we Indians has to accept that and should use machines. You have to improve yourself to the world standard and you can't say I am happy with this. If that is going to be the case, you will never succeed. Atleast, you should not lag and should perform the basic things. When every fielders from all the teams want to be Jonty, atleast we have to try to become one. If you say 'My standard is this and I wont improve" then don't expect us to win. You have to improve your standard. Atleast you have to be a safe fielder like Sachin who doesn't drop catches and never misfielded.

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Even Steve Waugh did not run at the end of his career. I have seen lot of instances where he asked Bevan and Martyn to run when two players were chasing a ball. But then i agree his fielding is not that great

I wonder when it happened. It will never happen in Aussie cricket. A player of Steve Waugh caliber, who doesn't believe in By-Runner even when got injured while batting, will never do these things. Sorry I can't accept. Aussie Motto "Perform or Perish".

My Say : Here the biggest culprit is BCCI's selectors who don't treat anyone in the proper manner. Picking him, again dropping him is not the correct way. In my opinion, they should have dropped Ganguly 11/2 years back and asked him to play Ranji or county for a period of time. By doing that, there is a chance that his attitude would have become better. He was a very 'Good' player (I won't use the word 'Great'. The word 'Great' has been misused by most of us. In India there are only 5 great cricketers. Sunny, Kaps, Sachin, Erapalli and now Rahul Dravid). He has contributed to the team as a batsman, captain and some times as a bowler. No doubt about that and he must be given a better farewell than this. More than anything, when it comes to Stylish Southpaws, he is next to Lara. I will remember him as Eastern version of David Gower.

Finally I just want to ask everyone, why there is no protest for dropping Anil Kumble? Why for Saurav? Anil is the most determined Indian to play the game and also the most effective bowler. May be Kannadigar are little bit soft by nature. Feel sorry for Anil, a best cricketer on and off the field. We don't need to give him a decent farewell, but atleast we have recognize his contribution.

God saves Indian Cricket from our selectors.

"They are bunch of jokers" - Jimmy Amarnath