Bowled over by the spat

REGIONAL ROUNDUP

The Sourav Ganguly-Greg Chappell spat had all the trappings of a potboiler: An Indian captain loved and hated in equal measure, a foreigner trying to have his way in a sport that is nothing short of an Indian obsession, players openly taking sides and so on. Like everybody else, the regional media decided to dedicate substantial space to the controversy.

The controversy dominated the front pages of all the Bangla newspapers. Ananda Bazar Patrika took the lead, as it scooped the controversial email from Greg Chappell that levelled charges of indiscipline against Ganguly.

Aajkaal and Bartaman did not lag behind as they followed each development since the disclosure of the contents of Chappell's email.

Headlines and even the content of some reports betrayed a certain bias in favour of Sourav Ganguly. But in terms of prominence and display, the newspapers were as generous to the report on Harbhajan Singh's outburst against Chappell as to former Indian cricket selection committee chief Raj Singh Dungarpur's allegation that the controversial email may have been leaked by former International Cricket Council chief, Jagmohan Dalmiya.

A special despatch from former Australia captain Steve Waugh was also carried on the front page of Ananda Bazar Patrika. Waugh argued how the problem would persist unless one of them or both were asked to go.

The Telugu dailies played the five-day test with zeal, only to declare in the end that it was a draw "" there were no losers. Eenadu came up with a front page story soon after Chappell's email to BCCI was leaked to the media.

Pictures capturing Ganguly in a pensive mood and a picture of the Bangalore protest asking the Indian skipper to either perform or quit were carried in almost all the Telugu dailies the next day. Andhra Jyothi also carried an editorial on Ganguly's readiness to exit.

Vaartha and Eenadu played up the Laxman episode and Harbhajan's remarks. Dungarpur's comments on the press leak was the lead story on the sports page in almost all the Telugu dailies. Eenadu chose to call the final deal a 'Forced Draw' on its front page.

Tamil daily Dinamalar gave wide coverage to the clash by publishing prominently the accusationss made by Chappell against the skipper on Monday. The next day, it carried a six column spread on Ganguly's passive reaction to media queries regarding Chappell's email.

There were six photographs showing the different facial reactions of the captain while answering media queries at the Mumbai airport. On Thursday, Dinathanthi, another Tamil daily, published four articles on the fight.

The stand off was covered in totality by all the three Kannada newspapers "" Praja Vani, Kannada Prabha and Vijaya Karnataka.