Rise & fall of the Phoenix…

In the past 6 months Indian cricket has undergone humongous changes starting with Greg Chappel’s appointment as the coach, and then Sourav Ganguly being stripped of captaincy, resulting in Dravid taking over the mantle. And then Ganguly was shown the door in one-dayers but still considered for the tests (which left me flummoxed since he had done better in one-dayers). And today he was shown the door in tests also which now casts a shadow on his career. Analysts seem confident that this is the end of the road for Sourav. I hope people vociferous for Sourav’s cause read this blog and understand the real logic behind this…

I would say Sourav has not been in form since 2003. His average in both tests and one-dayers (excluding countries like Zimbabwe) has reached its nadir. If Sourav had recognized his problems and quit cricket in 2003 or 2004, the whole nation would have given him grand farewell, for the way he uplifted Indian cricket from dire straits when Tendulkar had quit. But then I don’t blame him because all Indian cricketers feel that they are superhuman and can continue to play forever. Why doesn’t any Indian cricketer do the way Nasser Hussain or Steve Waugh or Mark Taylor quit at their peaks?

The leniency of the Indian selectors is a known thing of the past. I don’t want to venture into Ganguly’s association with his mentor Jagmohan Dalmiya, but then only in India you have a person not performing for nearly two years and still comfortably finding a place in the side. No… I am not opining that BCCI selectors should be as hard as ACB (Damien Martyn was dropped for not performing in one series – Ashes). But then they need to look beyond a player’s past & statistics while doing selection. But even after all this when he is dropped, we see people clamouring in Bengal (weird indeed!!). Well change is the only thing eternal in the world…. For people following Indian cricket it is imperative that they realize this sooner than never.

And as for the events today (Sourav was dropped from the test squad also), many feel it is unfair since he had decent scores of 39 & 40. Yes, those are not bad scores but you cannot eliminate Yuvraj (who scored an unbeaten 77). Ganguly can at most continue for another 2 years and more so with tougher tours and Pakistan & England coming India’s way, Indian selectors have to look into the future. It’s been 5 years since Yuvraj and Kaif started playing for India and its high time they are drafted into the test squad also. So, Sourav you had his highs… and now its time to accept that his silken cover drives that he used to play only result in nicks to the slips. His legacy as one of the most successful Indian captain will always be remembered and its time for younger guys to take over.