Of Paupers and Princes......
Et voila...we have done it again....This time...the victim was none other than our very own Captain Corageous,Sourav Ganguly.In a decision that marks yet another dark day for indian cricket(god how many more will there be...) Sourav Ganguly...the man responsible for ushering in a new golden era in Indian cricket,was dropped after giving a solid performance in the Kotla test..In spite of the fact that he did not set the stands on fire with his stoic knocks of 40 and 39 in the two innings of the test,the fact remains that in both tests he played a sheet anchor role,holding one end up allowing the batsmen in partnership with him to play freely,and it would be fair to say that Sourav was instrumental in India's victory.
We Indians have quite a history of making our heroes cry,of reducing there reputations to ashes..Four years ago,it was Kapil Dev,who broke into tears on BBC...Yesterday,it was Sourav..well at least there are rumours that he cried...Four years ago,it was Manoj Prabhakar,whose pedestrian achievements need no mentioning...Yesterday it was a group of five wise men(with a collective experience of 49 tests and 103 ODI's that did in a man with over 15000 runs in international cricket,and who,even his harshest critics would agree,was one of the finest playersto don indian colours,and one of the most elegant batsmen of modern times.Surely he deserved better than the ignominous exit he got,considering the enormity of his contributions to Indian Cricket..
Of course,i forget,that there was a mastermind behind the whole fiasco.A man called Greg Chappell.Greg Chappell has had an interesting cricketing journeys as well..A manwho was one of the first exponents of Aussie Spirit,(that is of course,win by hook or crook) was one of the finest batsmen of his age.However,all his credentials are marred by one incident,which has gone down in the annals of the game as one of the worst instances of unsportsmanlikespirit,when he asked his brother Trevor to bowl the last ball of the world series final against New Zealand underarm to prevent them from scoring the five runs they needed for victory..Greg Chappell had a very good relation with Sourav,and in fact it was on sourav's behest thatChappell was appointed coach of the Indian Team..However the two had difficulty adjusting to each other,with the result that a public spat took place,which had an adverse effect on Sourav Ganguly's career.Since then,Chappell has left no stone unturned to keep Sourav out of the team,first stripping him of captaincy,then dropping him from the ODI team.But what happened over the last two days is quite astonishing..On day four of the Kotla test,Chappell told the press that he thought his spat with Sourav Ganguly was overdone by the Indian press.He even went on to say that he was happy the way that Sourav had fitted in with the rest of the team,and how he thought that Sourav was coming back to his prime form,and how he thought that Ganguly was a Mentor for the younger players in the dressing room.However,after day five,at the selection meeting,he voted against Sourav's inclusion in the team,claiming that his form was patchy,and if reports are to be believed,that the team did not need him any longer.His yes man,Dravid,obviously had nothing to say on this(poor jammy...he is 32....but i guess it is convenient to act like a kid some of the times)....Thanks to the immense and alarming sway he holds over the selection commitee,which is well known thanks to former North zone selector Yashpal,the other selectors (reluctantly?) followed suit,and voted against,and effectively ended the career of a man whose credentials are unquestionable,in fact who is comfortably the most skilled batsman of the great indian batting lineup(thats my opinion,don't bombard me for it).The point to ponder is,why did this happen..what did he do wrong this time..if u ask me,i will tell you that this is merely one man's immature attempts at a vendetta,in a fashion that maybe be expected from a banana republic,where a general is beheaded every second day,but certainly not out of a civilized(???) country like India. In fact,I have a gut feeling that Mr Chappell might eventually be a victim of his own dirty politics,as the signs don't augur well for him.And neither do they for his yes man Dravid..As for the rest of the board,well i didnt make much of them anyway,some of them having never played a test match...
Coming to Dravid,i can only say that i am decidedly disappointed in him..I had a very highview of him,and his glorious moments playing for India strengthened my belief that he is the perfect team man..But alas,I have been forced to change my views about him in the last six months or so..And it gave me a lot of pain to do so..The man,as i see it now,lacks integrity...He has kept mum on the Sourav issue throughout,and has by all means gained,in the form of the captaincy that he was so obsessed about..Does it behove a general not to stand up for a wounded soldier...Sourav always stood up for his players,and that is why he won the love and respect of his team...players like harbhajan played for "Dada".But i doubt wether Dravid will ever get that kind of a response from his team..Dravid is a bootlicker,and that is an understatement....i cant tell you what he really is without resorting to obsceneties,which i am in no mood to...Dravid has realized that by being Greg's yes man,he can hang on to the captaincy...whereas,if India start losing under his captaincy,and Sourav starts performing consistently(which by the way,he has given signs of already)then his captaincy might be in danger...and therefore the naturallly following course of action(natural for nitwits like him,ofcourse)...drop Sourav....Dravid gets to keep the captaincy,Greg gets to intimidate the team even more.....in fact...Greg Chappell can be compared to the British East India Company,and Dravid to the Rai Bahadurs appointed by them.Pathetic really,but can we help it.....i guess Indians,with their lack of integrity will accept it all the same....we accept everything..thats our problem...As for Dravid,every dog has his day under the sun,but,then again,life comes to a full circle.What he is doing today to his comrade,somebody will do to him at some point of time..As far as Sourav is concerned,well at the end of the day,its a sad end for a man who showed the way...but i guess there isn't much we can do about it...can we.except to salute the achievements of an extraordinary man,and who,...well for me...he is still my hero...
We Indians have quite a history of making our heroes cry,of reducing there reputations to ashes..Four years ago,it was Kapil Dev,who broke into tears on BBC...Yesterday,it was Sourav..well at least there are rumours that he cried...Four years ago,it was Manoj Prabhakar,whose pedestrian achievements need no mentioning...Yesterday it was a group of five wise men(with a collective experience of 49 tests and 103 ODI's that did in a man with over 15000 runs in international cricket,and who,even his harshest critics would agree,was one of the finest playersto don indian colours,and one of the most elegant batsmen of modern times.Surely he deserved better than the ignominous exit he got,considering the enormity of his contributions to Indian Cricket..
Of course,i forget,that there was a mastermind behind the whole fiasco.A man called Greg Chappell.Greg Chappell has had an interesting cricketing journeys as well..A manwho was one of the first exponents of Aussie Spirit,(that is of course,win by hook or crook) was one of the finest batsmen of his age.However,all his credentials are marred by one incident,which has gone down in the annals of the game as one of the worst instances of unsportsmanlikespirit,when he asked his brother Trevor to bowl the last ball of the world series final against New Zealand underarm to prevent them from scoring the five runs they needed for victory..Greg Chappell had a very good relation with Sourav,and in fact it was on sourav's behest thatChappell was appointed coach of the Indian Team..However the two had difficulty adjusting to each other,with the result that a public spat took place,which had an adverse effect on Sourav Ganguly's career.Since then,Chappell has left no stone unturned to keep Sourav out of the team,first stripping him of captaincy,then dropping him from the ODI team.But what happened over the last two days is quite astonishing..On day four of the Kotla test,Chappell told the press that he thought his spat with Sourav Ganguly was overdone by the Indian press.He even went on to say that he was happy the way that Sourav had fitted in with the rest of the team,and how he thought that Sourav was coming back to his prime form,and how he thought that Ganguly was a Mentor for the younger players in the dressing room.However,after day five,at the selection meeting,he voted against Sourav's inclusion in the team,claiming that his form was patchy,and if reports are to be believed,that the team did not need him any longer.His yes man,Dravid,obviously had nothing to say on this(poor jammy...he is 32....but i guess it is convenient to act like a kid some of the times)....Thanks to the immense and alarming sway he holds over the selection commitee,which is well known thanks to former North zone selector Yashpal,the other selectors (reluctantly?) followed suit,and voted against,and effectively ended the career of a man whose credentials are unquestionable,in fact who is comfortably the most skilled batsman of the great indian batting lineup(thats my opinion,don't bombard me for it).The point to ponder is,why did this happen..what did he do wrong this time..if u ask me,i will tell you that this is merely one man's immature attempts at a vendetta,in a fashion that maybe be expected from a banana republic,where a general is beheaded every second day,but certainly not out of a civilized(???) country like India. In fact,I have a gut feeling that Mr Chappell might eventually be a victim of his own dirty politics,as the signs don't augur well for him.And neither do they for his yes man Dravid..As for the rest of the board,well i didnt make much of them anyway,some of them having never played a test match...
Coming to Dravid,i can only say that i am decidedly disappointed in him..I had a very highview of him,and his glorious moments playing for India strengthened my belief that he is the perfect team man..But alas,I have been forced to change my views about him in the last six months or so..And it gave me a lot of pain to do so..The man,as i see it now,lacks integrity...He has kept mum on the Sourav issue throughout,and has by all means gained,in the form of the captaincy that he was so obsessed about..Does it behove a general not to stand up for a wounded soldier...Sourav always stood up for his players,and that is why he won the love and respect of his team...players like harbhajan played for "Dada".But i doubt wether Dravid will ever get that kind of a response from his team..Dravid is a bootlicker,and that is an understatement....i cant tell you what he really is without resorting to obsceneties,which i am in no mood to...Dravid has realized that by being Greg's yes man,he can hang on to the captaincy...whereas,if India start losing under his captaincy,and Sourav starts performing consistently(which by the way,he has given signs of already)then his captaincy might be in danger...and therefore the naturallly following course of action(natural for nitwits like him,ofcourse)...drop Sourav....Dravid gets to keep the captaincy,Greg gets to intimidate the team even more.....in fact...Greg Chappell can be compared to the British East India Company,and Dravid to the Rai Bahadurs appointed by them.Pathetic really,but can we help it.....i guess Indians,with their lack of integrity will accept it all the same....we accept everything..thats our problem...As for Dravid,every dog has his day under the sun,but,then again,life comes to a full circle.What he is doing today to his comrade,somebody will do to him at some point of time..As far as Sourav is concerned,well at the end of the day,its a sad end for a man who showed the way...but i guess there isn't much we can do about it...can we.except to salute the achievements of an extraordinary man,and who,...well for me...he is still my hero...
posted by '~-)Sandman(-~' at 12:56 PM
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