The Hindu's take on Ganguly

Editor’s note: Here I reproduce the editorial The Hindu wrote on Sourav Ganguly.
The Hindu is owned by the Kasturis in Madras, and its current chief editor is N. Ram, a former university level cricketer, he used to be a wicketkeeper, and belongs to owner’s family.
The Hindu has no edition in Calcutta and it is highly unlikely they will ever have one there.
The Hindu has editions in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and New Delhi. It is the only mainstream English newspaper that has a sport weekly.
Now read the editorial.
A hard choice on Ganguly
The decision of the BCCI selectors to drop Sourav Ganguly from the Indian squad for the third Test against Sri Lanka has predictably sparked unruly protests in his home city, Kolkata. With several former Indian players joining in the castigation of the selectors, Ganguly has been made out to be a pawn in a larger power game. The move has been linked to the recent change in regime at the Board of Control for Cricket in India that saw Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar replacing Kolkata strongman Jagmohan Dalmiya as president.
Why, ask detractors of the selectors' decision, was Ganguly dropped despite scores of 40 and 39 in the second Test against Sri Lanka in New Delhi? The accusation put forth is that the three selectors, who were instrumental in Ganguly's inclusion in the squad for the first two Tests against Sri Lanka after he was left out of the ODI side, were replaced by men preferred by the current regime.
Such a line of thought is as simplistic as it is damaging. The root of this issue lies in his initial selection for the first Test against Sri Lanka. Despite strenuous arguments from coach Greg Chappell that Ganguly did not fit into the scheme of things, the team was saddled with the left-hander, courtesy the aforementioned three selectors. Leaving Ganguly out of the eleven would have been in poor taste, and the management was forced to play him in the first two Tests. The logic behind including Ganguly in Test cricket while leaving him out of one-day cricket where he had enjoyed greater success was feeble.
The three former selectors left the new committee with a hornet's nest, and in attempting to grapple with it, the present wise men have stirred it further. While the thinking behind Ganguly's ouster is sound - afterall, Yuvraj Singh, aged 24, is more valuable to the side in his current form - its handling leaves a lot to be desired. The team management, looking ahead, sees no role for Ganguly as is evident from Chappell's explicitly articulated position vis-à-vis the former captain.
Yet things might have been very different had one of the BCCI bigwigs, or even Chairman of the Selection Committee Kiran More, spent a little time with Ganguly and tried to convince him that it would be in his own interests to quit. Perhaps they could even have offered the Ahmedabad Test as a grand stage for him to bid farewell to internationalcricket. In the event, what was clearly lacking was foresight and finesse in handling a sensitive issue, one involving a senior cricketer who has always triggered strong reactions in fans, opponents, and officials alike.
In this latest episode, as in every other critical point in Ganguly's career, we find that the middle ground is so thinly populated as to be irrelevant. When it comes to the Prince of Kolkata, people love to inhabit extremes when making judgments.But when you rid yourself of raw emotions - of the sort that has driven a few short-sighted people to play dangerously with combustible regional sentiments while ignoring the larger picture - and take a clear view of the history of the game, you will find many examples of such choice: most Australian captains inrecent times have been forced to relinquish not just leadership but their Test spot as well.
While the thinking is justifiable in the Indian context, its translation into action has been shabby. India's most successful captain deserved to have been treated with more grace and diplomacy. Looking back, the initial error in selecting Ganguly for the Tests ensured that his exit has come amid rancour and ill-will even as the issue has been dragged all the way to Parliament.