Ganguly's retirement frees him to say what he thinks; hopefully he'll be as forthright against Australia.
Sourav Ganguly’s career is drawing to a close as it began: under the shadow of questionable selection. His inclusion in the team to Australia 16 years ago evoked surprise, and was attributed to reasons other than cricketing abilities. His selection for this Australia series, meant to be his last, is being attributed to a voluntary retirement scheme worked out by the board for some of our best cricketers referred to by the pejorative term of “seniors”.
In the interim, he was reviled by cricketers on the English county circuit as Lord Snooty, had a fracas with Greg Chappell, and got dropped from the team when he should not have been.
For four years in between, from 2000 to 2004, Ganguly could do no wrong, and was the most influential individual in Indian cricket, perhaps even more than Jagmohan Dalmiya. He was certainly more in the limelight than the administrator.
It is not surprising, therefore, that Ganguly, after announcing his retirement, gave an interview to his favourite Bengali newspaper and used it to express the frustration which is bound to build up when you go from being the crowned king to an anathema and fail to understand the reason for the change.
Having announced his retirement, Ganguly perhaps thinks he has no one to fear, certainly not the selectors or the board. He is financially secure and good enough to spark a bidding war among television channels to obtain his services as a commentator. Having announced retirement, he was ready to express himself.
Umpire’s Post hopes that he would express himself similarly while batting against Australia. For, he has chosen just the wrong time to give that load-shedding interview. What he said is just and honest, when he said it is baffling. Overnight, some people, who thought of his imminent exit as gracious, may begin to look at him as churlish, a player who took the chance of creating unpleasantness in the dressing room during a crucial series.
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No doubt, Ganguly deserved far better treatment than meted out to him by the board and its selectors. He was a very good batsman; he averaged over 50 in his first 30 Tests with seven centuries. Sometime after that, the captaincy applied the brakes on his batting, but he became the most successful captain India has had. He won 21 of 49 Tests as captain. More importantly, he won 11 of 28 Tests overseas, which is about 37 per cent of all overseas Tests won by India.
One, however, fears that the board, known not to forget an affront, may strike back. After all, in his retirement series, Ganguly has been chosen only for the first two Tests.