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| October 05, 2006 | Thursday | Ramazan 11, 1427 |
Indian media predict end of Ganguly’s career
NEW DELHI, Oct 4: The Indian media on Wednesday predicted the end of Saurav Ganguly's cricket career after the former captain failed miserably in a trial one-day series.
The left-hander, making a last-ditch attempt to regain his place in the Indian team, made 24 and three in the two matches he played in the domestic Challenger series in Chennai over the last three days.
Ganguly, playing for India 'B', slashed a catch to point off Munaf Patel in the first match against India Seniors captained by Rahul Dravid.
In the second game against India 'A', he was bowled by Test seamer Shanthakumaran Sreesanth for three.
Television channels ran special programmes to highlight Ganguly's failures and the mass-circulating Hindustan Times newspaper said the Challenger series may have dealt the final blow.
“This effort pushes him back to a point from where comeback doors seem to be closed, forever,” the newspaper said.
“The Chennai stadium has seen another momentous occasion – Saurav Ganguly walking into oblivion.” Ganguly, 34, was sacked as captain last year and later dropped from the national side following unfavourable comments from coach Greg Chappell, who said Ganguly was a ‘disrupting influence’ in the team.
The stylish batsman has not played a One-day international since September last year and was omitted from the Test squad after the tour of Pakistan in February.
Ganguly has not been selected for the upcoming Champions Trophy, but he was being regarded as a serious candidate for the year-end tour of South Africa and the World Cup in March, with the floundering Indian team having won just one of its last nine one-dayers.
Ganguly is one of only four batsmen in the world to score more than 10,000 runs in limited-overs cricket and has played in two World Cups, the last as captain in 2003 when India reached the final.—AFP
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