Sports : life magnified

Lokendra Pratap Sahi puts all the blame on Chappell and gives a clean chit to Ganguly. Little surprise there. What is even less surprising is that he has raised no apparent objectivity of his on the out burst of Ganguly to the media.

On the from page of the same newspaper, By the same Mr. Sahi, Chappell is compared to Fergusson and it is stated that:

It’s a fight, essentially, to occupy the one Big Boss chair in the Team India dressing room.

Also Ganguly is painted as a rose boy waiting till meeting BCCI officials before telling all. Really again I ask, why did Ganguly open his mouth initially in Zimbabwe if he was so goody-goody.

The article goes on:

The e-mail was sent after the first Test (Bulawayo) which is why Chappell didn’t nail Sourav for lack of form. He scored a hundred there.

Frankly, the coach’s accusations don’t exactly add up.

Really Mr. Sahi, it would be better if you stuck to journalism rather than making speculations.

My answer to the question asked by fellow Indian fan Arjun here.

There is a lot of stuff Indian cricket needs. The thing is if the National team is in such a state and the board election process is such a mess one can imagine how the Indian cricket really is over all.

There are so many associations and each one has its own share of mess no one knows about.

Indian cricket is a reflection of the politics of the country at large in fact.

The domestic matches give no money so neglect them. The poor do not have any money so they do not have much of a say like wise as they cannot bribe the officials. Thankfully the poor can still cast their vote in India - Indian cricket fans are thus in a worse state in this regard.

The latest comments from Ganguly are irritating to say the least. Ganguly tries to draw the lines the crisis should be embroiled in by saying:

I don’t think the entire team should be dragged into this

This comes a two days after Tendulkar’s statement that it was wrong on Ganguly’s part that dressing room matters were told to the press. Why should team members not have a right to comment on an issue as important as the decision of a captain and a coach when their own captain has not been responsible enough to deal with a matter with the BCCI rather than make a media circus of it? Who is Ganguly to say team members should not drag themselves into it if they want to.

Also Ganguly remarks:

It was some statement made by the coach. It is between the coach and me and we have to sort it out.

Sorry but it was a statement made by you Mr. Ganguly which spilled the milk. The statement of Chappell was his opinion told in private to you. If you had qualms with his opinion you should have dealt with it in a better way. If you really felt it was to be sorted out between you and the coach, you should not have gone to the media in the first place.

It is important that the team does well regardless of whoever leads it or coaches it. The team is more important than individuals. We need to play good, hard cricket as we will be facing very good teams. We will be playing Sri Lanka at home, then tour Pakistan and play England at home before going to the West Indies. It is going to be tough and we need to get our act together.

Really are all these things required to be said. I doubt if its not a way of Ganguly trying to show he is very much a team man. Really shows his insecurity.

Add to all this, Sambit Bal gives a perspective on the timing of things. The timing of the remark made by Ganguly a few days before the AGM of the BCCI where Dalmiya faction was likely to lose. The leaking of the coach’s e-mail diverting the attention from the adjourning of the AGM.

All this leading to a Ganguly supporting Dalmiya faction organising an urgent meeting on the 27th of September to sort things out.

I watched more than six hours of good tennis live at the Sunfeast Open. I wanted to comment on the Uberoi sisters, Sprem and Myskina. The current scheme of things in Indian cricket had to clog my mind regretfully.