The End of Saurav Ganguly

December 15th, 2005 · 5 Comments

In a post sometime in September I had written about the end of Saurav’s career. According to The Hindu, it has come with him being dropped for the third test. Sooner or later, it had to come.

Saurav’s exit has been unceremonial. I agree with this article when it says he deserved a standing ovation on his way back to the pavilion after his last innings for India.

Come to think of it, we have rarely treated our cricketers with respect. They are always ridiculed for the advertisers that they sign up for. When a Kumble gets ten wickets in an innings for the 8th time in his illustrious career it is attributed to the spinning track of Kotla. Whereas Kumble is one of the top 3 spinners in the World for the last decade and a half.

People are waiting with ink in their pens to just wait for the opportunity (even if there’s none, they will create one!) to pan our cricketers. Poor chaps! Give them a break guys!

At the end of it all, Dalmiya has made Ganguly his battleground to assert his power on Indian cricket. I remember reading somewhere that the Parliament is going to discuss Ganguly’s case! I hope the BJP doesn’t walk out on this one! ;) Probably, amidst all the bomb scares and etcetra they have nothing better to do! This might loosen them up.

My take on this is simple: Ganguly was not treated properly. For that matter neither was a Sunil Gavaskar or a Kapil Dev. He deserved another chance for the Ahmedabad test, but it was not to be. The selectors decided to suspiciously drop an “all rounder” (that’s why he was called in to the team) and go in for Wasim Jaffer an “opener” (with an eye on the future as Chairman of Selectors, Kiran More, said). I respect Saurav for his contribution to Indian cricket. But for now, its goodbye Saurav! :)

Tags: Sports · Cricket

5 responses so far ↓

Sudhu // Dec 17, 2005 at 1:59 pm

Dude, like i keep saying on my blog, emotions have no place in a Professional sport. Ganguly has sidelined many players in his career. As for fitting into the team, he could have chosen to open the innings, after all he does it in One dayers. Rahul Dravid, experimented by leaving his well-earned coveted 3rd position in batting line-up.
I wonder why everyone thinks he should have been given one FREE match (3rd Test). He doesnt deserve to be in the team, then he has to go, Wasim Jaffer is required for the opening position, & since Yuvraj did well too, he’s taken Ganguly’s spot. So no more experimenting with opening position. That very well justifies the selection committee’s decision.

As for the political twist.. it is just depricable.
the exuberant // Dec 18, 2005 at 1:59 am

” People are waiting with ink in their pens to just wait for the opportunity (even if there’s none, they will create one!) to pan our cricketers ” >>> and who would you say made these cricketers what they are? You really think cricketers are at a disadvantage cuz of the media? You think a Sachin Tendulkar century once in a year really requires a front page centre spread?
Its just the politics dude.Gotta be scrapped asap.
Talking about the team for the future aka world cup WI’07, where the heck is a young, premier indian pace bowler called Zaheer Khan?
Grapewine is that the poor chap had some sorta argument with Greg Chappel….!
Yuvi&Kaifu // Dec 19, 2005 at 10:29 am

End of Saurav is it??? What makes you say that? As an ardent Saurav fan, I’ve always been of opinion that his critics suffer from short-term memory loss a la Ghajni…. I know this is a pretty much repeated argument from the side of Saurav fans, but there’s nothing much we could do about that, coz that’s the plain true fact! He’s done so much for Indian cricket, and he deserves much better treatment! He realized when he had to work his way into his team and stood up to the challenge with performances in the Ranji trophy and rightfully earned his place in the side. He played two crucial knocks in the previous test match… they were significant, if not big scores… And at the end of it all, they drop him and pick an opener when everybody in the world knows it’s gonna be Viru and Gambhir opening! Even if Gambhir is gonna be dropped, it’s gonna be Kaif fitting in withYuvi opening alongside Viru. Ridiculous display by the selectors! But, knowing the fighter that Saurav is, he’ll get back for sure, but could do with a little less unfair treatment!

-YuviKaif
adi // Dec 19, 2005 at 10:39 am

Sudhu:
If respecting someone’s contribution is an emotion, then I want that emotion to be there in this gentleman’s game! :)

Yuvikaif:
Saurav is a great player. I am sure he can come back. Though I have written him off, I will be very happy if he comes back and plays with the same elan as he did earlier! :)
adi // Dec 19, 2005 at 10:43 am

the exuberant:

Media is a double-edged sword! :) I agree with you. Right now, am talking about the disadvantage-edge! ;)

Mysorean