Long live Sourav Ganguly

By John Cheeran
Where are the protesters, where are the TV studio experts?
And where is Jagmohan Dalmiya?
Is Dalmiya there in Calcutta?
The sepulchral silence in Calcutta and elsewhere that greeted the announcement of Indian team for Nagpur Test shows that the fight is over.
And winner is Team India!
It was no surprise that Indian team selectors did not have any time for Sourav Ganguly.
Ganguly’s exclusion from the Test team to face England in Nagpur is one of the sensible move by the new regime in Indian cricket.
India should now look forward, not stop its progress to wait for players who live in their past glory.
India should identify its future Tendulkars and Dravids to strengthen their middle order.
Time has ran out for Ganguly, and in the next two years we will see the decline of Tendulkar and Dravid in much sharper relief, however unpleasant the thought may be.
Ganguly will not be missed by anyone but Bengalis as the developments during the Pakistan tour firmly shut the door on him.
Yuvraj Singh’s emergence as a player who can handle the gravest of situations in the middle has helped selectors to quickly tear the Ganguly card.
It is quite another matter that Yuvraj has to miss out the Nagpur Test owing to injury.
It is just not his friend Singh who has been troubling Ganguly.
A host of youngsters – Suresh Raina, Venugopala Rao and Pujara – are knocking on the doors of Indian dressing room. And I even forgot to mention the curious case of Mohammad Kaif.
At one level, Ganguly should not quit the game.
He still has it in him to contribute towards the development of cricket in West Bengal.
But it would be better for Ganguly to ease his pain if he could realize that Team India does not need him any longer.
Long live Ganguly.