Ganguly sacked; will Bengal secede from India?

By John Cheeran
All good things come to an end. And this should be the end of the road for Sourav Ganguly.
Not many would have prepared for this doosra from national selectors and coach Greg Chappell. The kind of dummy Chappell sold a section of Indian media by saying that Maharaj is a mentor for the juniors in the side should make some of the cricket writers a bit wiser. Always think for yourself.
But those who are not infected by the Sourav Syndrome could see it coming.
Let me put it bluntly.
I don’t have any tears to shed for Ganguly.
Sourav Ganguly did not deserve a place even in the team for the first two Tests against Sri Lanka purely on the basis his playing form. He has been a decent player who is unfortunately now out of touch with realities. He was considered as a good one-day player once but never the best in Test cricket.
Now remember this.
Ganguly has been a given a fair trial in the middle in the last two Tests and he had three innings. He scored five in Chennai, 40 and 39 in the New Delhi Test, which India won in an emphatic fashion.
Ganguly was hardly impressive during his twin essays at Feroze Shah Kotla; his crawl at the wicket was at the cost of Team India’s overall plan of getting quick runs. A man who was deemed as a decent player of spinners was all at sea against Muttaiah Muralitharan and Malinga Bandara.
Those who are in Ganguly’s pay roll, should realize that he is not an indispensable player in the current circumstances.
Look the pool of batsmen Indian selectors can fish from – Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Venugopla Rao, Wasim Jaffer, Amol Mazumdar, Akash Chopra, Shikhar Dhawan and S Sriram. The list can go on.
In fact Ganguly has been denying youngsters like Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif a regular place in the side using his prerogative as captain.
In this context, I appreciate the courage shown by chairman of selectors Kiran More to dump Ganguly for the greater good of Indian cricket.
Now there are no more hiding places for Ganguly in Indian cricket except Calcutta. More than the patchy, doubt-ridden innings Ganguly came up with in the New Delhi Test, which India won convincingly, what clinched the argument was the plucky innings from Yuvraj Singh.
Team India need youngsters who can give their body and soul to the game; not those pretenders with grand delusions of their glory.
Selectors have done the right thing. They have brought in Mumbai opener Wasim Jaffer as there is little room for manoeuvre in the middle order with Yuvraj Singh and Kaif ready to fulfill their roles.
Ganguly’s apologists in the media, most notably Headlines Today and Aaaj Tak, have begun their customary but ludicrous defence of Maharaj.
It beats me that on a day when Team India carved out a exhilarating win over Sri Lanka, they could see Ganguly’s posterior bigger than anything else.
They roped in former Indian coach Anshuman Gaekwad to argue the case for Ganguly. Gaekwad says Ganguly was brought in as an all rounder but was not given a chance to bowl. Gaekwad you should know selectors pick players but it is the prerogative of captain how to use his players.
You wanted Rahul Dravid to gift Sri Lankan batsmen a perfect opportunity to defy his declaration by bringing on Ganguly to bowl.
I can understand your tears for Ganguly but your argument is the silliest, Mr Gaekwad.
Everyone knows that coach Chappell wanted an all rounder when selectors picked the Test team in Chennai but Jagmohan Dalmiya’s stooges foisted Ganguly on the team.
Selection committee– with its composition radically altered -- have rectified their Chennai mistake; they have axed a specialist batsman -- Ganguly – and brought in another batsman – Wasim Jaffer.
That’s a move solely based on cricket; not on emotions or board loyalties.
Now I’m waiting for Calcutta’s response.
As writer-activist Seema Goswami wrote in Hindustan Times a few weeks ago, West Bengal might as well decide to secede from the Indian Union on the Ganguly issue.