5 good reasons to drop Ganguly. Review on Should Saurav Ganguly Be Dropped from the Indian Cricket Team - Case for 'Yes'

It makes me think twice about writing on this topic as this is the most debatable one. But before I make any comments on 5 Good reasons to drop Ganguly I admit here that I was a great fan our Dada and Geoffrey boycott’s Prince. People always speak about mind&heart and I have never understood this until now. But now I do – My heart wants sourav to continue playing and what my mind says follows ….

1. Sourav is a terrific player … but a poor performer

I still remember how Allan Donald suffered at the hands of our prince. The ball went flying past Jonty at the speed of a tracer bullet. Sourav is one of the finest players cricket has ever seen for his sheer elegance. There is no doubting is talent. But he does not perform. Not just now, but for years. A hundred against Australia at Australia is what I remember to be his great knocks for a while. Rest is few hundreds against minnows. (I am poor at keeping statistics … but it is a fact most sourav fans will accept). Sourav is too good a player to produce such once-in-a-while performances. We do not need players; we need performers.

2. Sourav does not learn

Point number 1 seemed more like compliments than being derogatory. But I that leads to “why is he not performing even though he is highly talented?”. This is very simple to answer – Every player has weaknesses and sourav too has weakness (which is too obvious for me to state. Any sourav fans there not accepting that he handles bouncers miserably?). He has had all the time in the world to work on his weakness and play to his strengths. But he is not a hard-worker. I believe he hardly works. When we work on our weakness - we learn to correct it; we learn to cover it; we learn not to get perturbed by it. But sourav keeps making same mistakes again and again, which clearly shows he is not learning.

3. Sourav does not know to handle pressure well

This is what is required when you play for a country that has countless cricket followers. I am not speaking about his captaincy. He definitely has been a very good captain and tapped talents. But when it comes to batting, the way he handles pressure clearly shows on the field. Pre determined shuffles at the crease and nervous stands … its easy to judge these.

4. The effect sourav has on other team members

Things are now different. He is not the captain. He is not performing. There are many youngsters waiting to grab a chance. But there is pressure as well from his supporters, from critics for dropping him and they discuss sourav issue in parliament! What this has done to Indian cricket team:

§ Rahul has to open to create a slot for sourav and middle order loses solidity

§ Indian opening pair does not get settled and this has been a very big problem for India over the years

§ Youngsters like gautham gambir/wasim jaffer lose their spots

§ There is a bundle of pressure (unnecessary pressure) on yuvraj to perform simply because he is replacing sourav after so much of controversies

§ Every single moment of sourav is noted by media and is sometimes exaggerated, which does not provide a peaceful ambience to think only cricket

5. The effect sourav has on other team members

Oops, same as point 4? Read the heading again. Yes, it is same. But the effect different

Drop Ganguly and that will keep all the other team members on their toes. There will be no place for complacency.

Let us face it. It is high time to drop Sourav. I don’t understand why we are hesitating so much. Kapil dev was dropped. Wasim akram was dropped. STEVE WAUGH was dropped. Why not ganguly?