Claim to fame: India’s most successful captain — and in trouble
“MORE than milestones and records, what the media looks forward to in cricket is controversy and they are getting plenty of it these days. The recent row between Indian cricket captain Saurav Ganguly and the team’s coach Greg Chappell is making headlines all over and giving people much to talk about.
Just a day after winning a series for India, for the first time in 19 years, away from the subcontinent, the captain Ganguly got thumbs down from the coach Greg Chappell. In a six-page email to the BCCI, Chappell termed the prince of Kolkata as “physically and mentally unfit” to lead the Indian team and Ganguly’s attitude and outlook are not ideal if India wants to seriously aim for the 2007 World Cup. Chappell also claimed that Ganguly does not follow the prescribed fitness regimen and indulges in a divide-and-rule policy in order to retain his captaincy.
Now there really isn’t anything wrong with a coach giving his views to the board about his team’s captain. But when the press gets a whiff of what has been cooking up inside the dressing room and close doors, they add their own mirch masala to it and give the cricket-crazy public lots of juicy gossip to gulp down.
Both these guys were not happy with the fact that their row became public news, and Ganguly, who can’t really conceal his emotions well, retaliated by saying: “You can imagine the character of a person who within hours of a truce goes and writes such an email”.
Lucky for them and the team, the BCCI Review Committee stepped in to patch up the differences between the two. And it was reported that during the meeting the committee had with the two, the Indian captain flushed out two emails that the Australian had written to journalists and in which Ganguly was portrayed in poor light. Ganguly pointed out that this behaviour by the coach implied indiscipline on his part. However, a compromise between the two was reach, thanks to the board’s efforts and having talked enough to the media about this matter, the two have been asked not to make any statements about this issue or each other.
As things stand today, Ganguly is the most successful captain in Indian cricket history, with 21 victories in 49 matches since he took over the job in 2000. However, there has been some criticism about how he performs the job. For instance, time and again the team has failed to meet the stipulated over-rate due to the sweet time Ganguly takes to discuss and change field placings. With the Sri Lankans visiting India from October 25 to December 22, this year, for a seven ODIs and three Test series, Ganguly will have to work hard to prove that he deserves to retain his position as the head of the team and work on improving his attitude, if not his game. Despite the whole blame game between the two, both are determined to retain their positions and won’t let a tiff make them call it quits. — Salman Younus
Name: Saurav Chandidas Ganguly
