End of an Era or beginning of a struggle.
The announcement of Rahul Dravid as captain of Indian cricket team for the home ODI series against Sri Lanka and South Africa has excited everybody from the media to the roadside cricket enthusiast. The general feeling is that Ganguly's term as captaincy has ended for ever. This perception is partly made by media and partly by the cricket lovers who loathe him. Obituaries about his captaincy have appeared in newspaper about how it was a great era for Indian cricket and how Ganguly is destined not to play cricket for the country any more.
But the Indian selectors have sidelined Ganguly only for the first 2 games that also because of his injury. There is every likelihood that he will be selected later albeit as a batsman and not captain. My own feeling is that Ganguly is a shrewd person who will maneuver the selectors first to choose him as a batsman and later as a captain. Then tug of war will begin between what coach Greg Chappel wants and what Ganguly can achieve.
The politics apart the selection of the 15 for the first 2 games are exciting and controversial. Some good performers such as Laxman and Zaheer Khan have been dropped and in place new talent such as RP Singh, JP Yadav, Sree Santh and Venugopal Rao have been inducted. Venugopal Rao deserved his place just on the merit of his performance in the Challenger Series. But Laxman also performed exceedingly well in that series as well as in the ODI's in Zimbabwe. Sachin Tendulkar on the other hand coming out of an injury has shown very poor form in the Challenger series. But the question is does any selector in India have the guts to drop Sachin when he is ready to play. Even the so called professional Greg Chappel has defended his inclusion in an interview saying he is a mater batsman and with time and better competition he will raise his game. The inclusion of Sree Santh is a pleasant surprise. For 2 reasons; 1. He was relatively unknown before the Challenger series and, 2. He has been chosen over Zaheer Khan and L. Balaji.
The selectors for a change have been bold to make these selections and the fans should be patient with the newcomers. But then the Indian cricket fan is a very demanding customer. They expect miracles from day one. And many a youngster has shown in the past and have faded away due to pressure and/or politics. Sanjay Bangar, Hemang Badani, Dinesh Mongia, SS Das are just few of the names that are slowly fading away from public memory.
Squad
Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid (captain), Yuvraj Singh, Venugopal Rao, Suresh Raina, JP Yadav, MS Dhoni (wk), Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, S Sreesanth, RP Singh.
But the Indian selectors have sidelined Ganguly only for the first 2 games that also because of his injury. There is every likelihood that he will be selected later albeit as a batsman and not captain. My own feeling is that Ganguly is a shrewd person who will maneuver the selectors first to choose him as a batsman and later as a captain. Then tug of war will begin between what coach Greg Chappel wants and what Ganguly can achieve.
The politics apart the selection of the 15 for the first 2 games are exciting and controversial. Some good performers such as Laxman and Zaheer Khan have been dropped and in place new talent such as RP Singh, JP Yadav, Sree Santh and Venugopal Rao have been inducted. Venugopal Rao deserved his place just on the merit of his performance in the Challenger Series. But Laxman also performed exceedingly well in that series as well as in the ODI's in Zimbabwe. Sachin Tendulkar on the other hand coming out of an injury has shown very poor form in the Challenger series. But the question is does any selector in India have the guts to drop Sachin when he is ready to play. Even the so called professional Greg Chappel has defended his inclusion in an interview saying he is a mater batsman and with time and better competition he will raise his game. The inclusion of Sree Santh is a pleasant surprise. For 2 reasons; 1. He was relatively unknown before the Challenger series and, 2. He has been chosen over Zaheer Khan and L. Balaji.
The selectors for a change have been bold to make these selections and the fans should be patient with the newcomers. But then the Indian cricket fan is a very demanding customer. They expect miracles from day one. And many a youngster has shown in the past and have faded away due to pressure and/or politics. Sanjay Bangar, Hemang Badani, Dinesh Mongia, SS Das are just few of the names that are slowly fading away from public memory.
Squad
Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid (captain), Yuvraj Singh, Venugopal Rao, Suresh Raina, JP Yadav, MS Dhoni (wk), Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, S Sreesanth, RP Singh.
posted by kgroupie @ 9:59 AM
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