Sports : life magnified

I said some months ago, before I started this blog, that Ganguly should have retired from tests after the series win in Pakistan. The guy had achieved what no other Indian captain had - defeating Pakistan in Pakistan. It could not get better than that. It indeed went a lot worse. Ganguly has done his legacy no good and its really sad on the scheme of things currently.

I would like Ganguly to play in the Indian one day squad come world cup 2007. Why? Because it would be good for the team to have a player with his agression and his one day match talent in the squad. If it was a perfect world where back room groupisms and comments to the media of what happens in the dressing room were not made public, I doubt despite the bad form of Ganguly if he would denied a 2007 world cup place. Right now there is legitimate doubt.

The question every one is asking is will this episode harm Indian cricket. Is this a depressing turn of events in Indian cricket. It is depressing. But if you look at the results from the post India’s tour of Pakistan, nothing has gone right for Indian cricket.

India has lost almost every series, tournament. So this is the nadir. This is as low as it gets. Things can only improve from here and the firm stance of Chappell, a person known for having his own mind always, I believe can indeed be a catalyst.

This incident brings a ray of light to Indian cricket again and is not some thing which will harm it.

Away from the dirty mess surrounding Indian cricket at the moment, a visit to the Sunfeast Open in the evening provided me some much needed reminder as to why I love sport so much.

I managed to catch the last game of the Shikha Uberoi-Myskina quarter final. Uberoi did well to win 4 games in the first set. It is a tier 3 WTA tournament but Uberoi has the potential to reach top 100 at least. Two Indian women playing in grand slams regularly will be nice.

The Likhotseva match was much closer. The oponent broke back in the second set only to lose it 7-5 in the end. Myskina is looking much stronger and is likely to win the tournament.

Tomorrow Sania Mirza and Pascual pair up in the women’s semis to face Likhotseva-Myskina pairing. Also their is another Indian doubles pair in the other womens semi final doubles. Plus the two singles featuring Myskina and Likhotseva. They are favourites to reach the finals but who can say in sport.

I am going to watch all the action over the weekend.