Dec 20, 2006 05:01 AM
7282 Views
I am a Mumbaite. I have followed the Gavaskars, Tendulkars, Manjrekars, Shastris and the likes. I will not judge Saurav Ganguly as an Indian in my analysis from here on, but I will do that as a neutral.
I don't want to know what happened behind the scenes between Greg Chappell and Ganguly. What I want to ask the BCCI Selection Committee is this :
Why was he dropped as a batsman from the one-day side?
The records prove that he has been the 2nd best batsman to Sachin Tendulkar in One-day internationals. Even when he was dropped he was an in-form player in the one-dayers. He was criticised for his fielding. But his useful bowling skills have more than compensated for his fielding inadequacies all these years. He has taken more than 5 wickets in a one-day international on 2 occassions. He has taken 93 one day wickets. And has bowled on some very crucial occassions for India in one-dayers. And we still keep hearing about his one-dimensional facet. And well not to mention his excellent batting record. 22 hundreds, 60 half-centuries, and a career average of 40 odd. And most importantly he has fired on those occassions when our big guns have not. He was the best captain for a long time till he got into some controversies. Nobody is perfect. Instead of solving the misunderstandings within the team camp, he was asked to prove himself at the domestic level and make it to the team.
My point is if he had blundered as a captain, then why not pass on the same to someone and retain him as a player. Why was he shown the door so early. Hasn't Sachin Tendulkar gone through a lean patch in his career, hasn't Rahul Dravid gone through some. But they have never been dropped for lack of form.
Now that he is back, let's congratulate him and cheer for him!
