Vikram Shah:

Can someone from your organisation lead a discussion on the validity of this penalty, please?

Let us not talk about Saurav's form as a batsman as that is not the issue here.

Do the rules of ICC [Images] provide a penalty such as that imposed on the Indian Captain?

Simple.

And I will be obliged if you could point me to the rules with regards to all different levels of offences and the provision of penalty for any and all such offences by players as well as captains.

If the rules provide for such a penalty, Saurav Ganguly [Images] should accept that and move on.

On the other hand, if there is NO such provision in the rule and the referee has penalised Saurav beyond the provision, he should be banned from ever referring any cricket match or at least until he has appeared in some form of a test to verify his knowledge.

Team Rediff: Vikram, you ask, we deliver. Here is everything you want to know about slow over rates, ICC penalties, and such

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Saurabh:

There is no questions about being fairness, I dont think Sridharan Sriram is half as good as Ganguly, and as a matter of captaincy nobody is better than him[its not me ,its the records] . its just few people who does not like ganguly stirring it up. its not even a matter to debate.

close the chapter, ganguly is india,s captain and one of the top one day batsman. if he thinks he is undone by the decision of match referee then he can appeal. thats like in any legal matter. who r u to question it

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Yogesh Hasabnis:

Q1. Is the Indian skipper above the laws of the game? In November of 2004, he was penalized for slow over rates. The ban was appealed, and overturned. On Tuesday April 12, he was penalized for the same offense. Again, the ban has been appealed and is sought to be overturned.

A1. How do you conclude that he is above the laws of the game ? If his appeal is not accepted, the ban on him will continue to exist. An article on your own rediff.com site (http://in.rediff.com/cricket/2005/apr/14gang.htm) quotes "Once a ban is appealed, it is automatically stayed until the review process can be completed." So if he plays, there is nothing unlawful.

Q1 (contd)"By contrast, Pakistan skipper Inzamam ul Haq was banned for two Tests, for slow over rate during the recent Test series between India and Pakistan. He -- and the Pakistan Cricket Board -- accepted the punishment the offense deserved."

A1.(contd) It's PCB's problem and not ours!

Q2.Ganguly was dropped from the squad, following the announcement of the ban. BCCI chief Ranbir Singh Mahindra points out that since he is no longer in the squad, he cannot play in Kanpur.

The selectors can, if they so desire, meet again and undo what they did on Tuesday evening; they can drop Sriram and reinstate Ganguly, thus clearing the decks for him to play in Kanpur. Question is, is this fair to Sriram.

A2. It's upto Mr.Mahindra and the selection committee to resolve this confusion. With respect to Sriram, he was selected assuming that Ganguly is unavailable. Now since Ganguly is available it is obvious that he will have to be dropped. It's not Ganguly's fault. It's the fault of the circumstances. And with due respect to Sriram's talent, please note that he was selected in Sharjah tournament in September 2000 and he failed. Then he was selected against Bangladesh recently and he failed.

Q3. If Ganguly plays, can he also lead? Should he? How fair is this to Rahul Dravid [Images] -- a player in form, who finds himself appointed captain and stripped of captaincy all inside 24 hours, for no fault of his?

A3. Yes, Ganguly should lead ! Because he is a better captain than Dravid. Again Dravid was selected as a captain on the assumption of Ganguly' s non-avaialbility. Now that assumption is not true and so no issues. And frankly, Ganguly and Dravid are very good friends and know each other's strengths and weaknesses very well. They will sort out the matter between themselves. No need to feel sorry about Dravid.

My emphatic answer : Yes Ganguly should play if ICC accepts his appeal and should lead if he is selected!

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Sudhir Mehta:

Once selectors have selected the team for next two ODIs, they should not make any change now and keep Rahul Dravid as Skipper and Shriram as a replacement of Ganguly.

In fact, selectors should not take decision in hurry prior to receipt of any communication regarding punishment to Ganguly.

Now the present position should remain as it is and Ganguly should be given rest.

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Thambi Durai:

Don't Criticize Ganguly. He is a good player and very good captain in Indian cricket histroy. He already dropped from squad. He needs rest for sometime. He has to practice in net. He has to come again in the squad as captain. All the player having the out of form problem. But out of form is happeing for him since long back. So no need to talk about droping from squad permenently. we have to think about he has already about 9,9,50 runs in ODI, who is the world no 3rd batsman. He is having 40 + avg in test cricket. He is one of the world class player. Don't criticize the person. Criticize the person's permance!!!. Still he is a good captain Compare to others in Indian cricket history.

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Jitesh Dev:

Sourav shoud not be rested in the next coming onedayers. Now IIC have agreed that he can play, all can say now that his batting form is down, yes its true, theres ups and down for a person in his career, that doesnt mean that he must be sacked.He's one of the best successful cricket capatain for Team India, he must be given some chances so that will be able to improve is batting mastero, as a captain in the field He's the best compare to any former captains, he good unity with team mates and also with trainers. He's know to be his arrogance, that all will have the character when we lead a team either in cricket or any other areas. But for this silly reason theres no need to drop him from the next oneday squad, may be he can show his skill with bat also with ball too... we cannot ignore him, bcos his avearge in the last years was better than sachin or rahul. I think he must go as opener slot with shewag that will be good right-left combination, giving sachin 1 down slot. this alteration make a difference for him.

I hope and wish he will make some miracles with his bat.

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Virendra Pratap:

Ganguly should have been removed from the Team long back. He has been under performing since ages.

I think this is a great platform for him, the 'great' player of yesteryears to bid adieu to cricket. By reinstating him as a Player in the team for the 5th ODI, the BCCI will do nothing but Jeopardise India's chances of winning the Cricket Series or Worst Levelling it.

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Kiran Kumar:

Ganguly is in awfully out of form since last two years. If you look at the averages since January 2004, he stands no where. You find people like Dravid, Sehwag and Laxman topping the list. Still, you find Laxman has been dropped from the team. Ganguly has never been supporter of Laxman. Ganguly cleverly put pressure on Laxman before the start of the Test series with Pakistan by saying that Laxman is our triump card. People knew that he was targetting Laxman.

If you take the averages of Laxman and Ganguly, Laxman is clearly the best. But still he is dropped on the pretext that he is not a good one day fielder. All Indians know how good a fielder Ganguly is. Ganguly has this bad habit of protecting his people like Yuvraj Singh [Images], Zaheer Khan [Images] and so on. And keep talented people like Laxman and Kumble out of the team. I don't deny the fact that Zaheer and Yuvraj are quite talented. But you have to be fair with other talented people as well. Everyone knows his liking for Bhajji ahead of Kumble. The way he treated Kumble is sin. Ganguly gives a feeling that he is against talented South Inidan players.

Friends, Ganguly doesn't deserve a place neither in one day nor in tests. He doesn't deserve even a place in ranji trophy matches. As a captain, he is playing favorites. Get rid of him...... Dravid will make a good cool captain. And we can also get one good batsman.

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Aurobindo Ghosh:

Most likely this email is not going to see the light of the day given your extreme bias against the present Indian captain, anyway I think I need to point out some facts about accepting decisions without appeal from ICC.

Ganguly was not dropped by the selectors (though he could have been) due to poor form. Since when is ICC allowed to pick the Indian team? For example, Sehwag plays shots that are not available in the cricket books (hence the term copybook), so ICC could ban him as well.

Dravid was not made captain because he deserved to be, but because Ganguly was banned. This is not a good reason to choose the next Indian captain. If the selectors had chosen Dravid as the captain (without ICC's help), it would have been terribly unfair to him to change him. But now, I am not quite sure its unfair.

Sriram could still be kept in the team of 16, though what is the probability he would play as a batsman given Dinesh Mongia is still there and Kanpur is not supposed to be a spinning track.

If you guys really have to select e-mails to post, why not write a few e-mails by yourself and post it, explaining why ICC is suddenly so compassionate with the BCCI selectors that they are doing their job for them.

Best of luck to India, actually to the bowlers, and of course to the experts who think that 18 of 33 bowls 10 overs to go was the reason India lost, had Yuvraj been given out lbw before the last over, or had hung on to the simplest of chances of Malik on 32, would not have made any difference.

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Amrita Pal:

I believe, Dravid would be very happy if the burden of captaincy is relieved from his shoulders. Dravid had never proved to be a successful captain before and whenever he did lead team India, his game was affected. So whether Dravid is declared captain and then shrugged off his responsibility within 24 hours can create media upheaval, but will not affect Dravid to the least.

All these questions are being raised just because people don't want Sourav to be in the team, which they have never wanted. People love criticizing the man who has developed the Indian cricket team from the scratch and has led India to the finals of the previous world cup cricket that too after 20 long years. Just be unbiased for a moment and thick for a second about Sourav.

Don't you think such bans and unnecessarily swift changes made by the committee will leave no mark on a person who is trying to recover from a bad patch, a person who has the second highest number of centuries and third highest number of runs in international one day cricket!

Just imagine if the same situation would have been faced by our beloved Sachin or Dravid, any comments?

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Vinod Abraham:

The decision of allowing Ganguly to play in the 5th ODI is questioning the credibility of ICC and BCCI. Does a person shown a red card be allowed to play in a football match in next 3 matches, have you heard any one meddling with FIFA on bans and rules. Has ICC changed its name to Indian Cricket Council?

I dont have any grudge against Ganguly, but I feel he should obey the ICC and promote the Goodwill of the game to other non cricketing nations. We are not short of talents..Dravid,Sachin all can lead...They have shown it in the past.

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Roshan Barwal:

Ganguly should rest for next few Matches according to the Ban of ICC.  No Problem Take it easy Saurav'

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Gita:

The more important question here is how do you back your country men....its been often seen that only the sub-continent players are targetted for such issues...i really back saurav and would like the BCCI to offer him the suport...when ICC's Code of Conduct itself doesnot have a "BAN" for slow over rate, why should we let our magnificent Captain succumb to it...

Matches ending late in the day due to slow over rates are not new to this game...we all can remember how the same Sourav played magnificently in Dhaka in 1998 against Pakistan under very bad light conditions and won us the match and the trophy..

During the summer days, that too in india, its very difficult for the players to maintain their stamina on the field....the players do develop cramps, dehydration etc...these breaks also count...

We all can remember how bad the behaviour of Ricky Ponting [Images] towards Rahul Dravid was during 1998...Still, he was neither banned nor was given any word of caution...And if this can be seen as a very aggressive approach and not as a breach of code of conduct, then, i would reccomend ICC to go through Oxford's to know the meaning of "conduct".

Well...considering his lean form, Sourav should make room for another youngster...but this does not mean that its the end of his career...he's just having a prolonged lean patch. Its the high time for all of us to again show immense solidarity towards our great captain who not only made us believe that we too can win, but also has shown how to handle and nurture the talents of the team-mates...

Sourav, thanks for such a wonderful team that you have built and I back you very strongly. All the very best.

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V Panidhar:

I am Panidhar. V, working as a Software Engineer in Hyderabd. I am giving my idea to drop Ganguly in the 4th & 5th ODI's against Pakistan.

Ganguly has banned for 6 ODI's by ICC. Can he play for next matches?

Ans: There are 2 answers for this question. First, ICC has to give permission to play. Second, even though ICC gives permission, BCCI can drop him from the squad because of his worst form.

I think he is not recommendable to play for the current series and for next serious. As a Caption of India, his average in recent series for 4 ODI's is less than 8. I can say he is in worse form when compared to any Captain's in the world. Ricky Ponting, Inzy, Ponting, Atapattu, Chandrapaul and etc, they are playing very good captain innings for their team. But Ganguly is not playing good cricket now adays. He scored less than what Anil Kumble [Images] scored in current Test Series. Ganguly is a person to drop catches and doing misfield and etc.

Laxman has dropped from the current ODI series, because selectors are not considered him because of his fielding. When Laxman has dropped for his bad fielding, Why Ganguly shouldn't drop from Indian squad, Ganguly is in bad form in all ways, like fielding, batting and Captain also.

My sincere advice for BCCI/selectors is, Please give chance to some other players to prove themselves whenever any person is not performing well. Selectors had given 4 chances to Ganguly in this current ODI, but he didn't even score more than 20 runs in any match. His total in 4 matches is 31. In other side, Inzy is playing very very good cricket and he is playing captain innings also.

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Krish Nukam Reddy:

I think Media and the nonsense people are doing too much on Ganguly issue.

He has done exceptionally well in bringing the team together (not relying on one or two guys who njoys individual performance ratherthan team success).

People are doing nonsense things against him. This is not correct. He should lead the team and should play in coming mtches for india.
His presence will bring lots of confidence for the team.

Everyone knows that he has not done well in recent couple of days. But that doen't mean that he should not be in the team. Also everyone knows his capabilities and he can comeback strongly in the coming matches.

The Harsh punishment of Ban against the captain is rediculous. It's not his fault. It's the entire team fault. I think the bowlers should get punishment ratherthan captain.

Think about this guys. Ganguly has done an excellent job . I am sure that if ganguly is exit, then again the individual concept will come into the team and will spoil the entire nation image. Ganguly should continue for another couple of years until the new guys are well settled in the team.

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Thenanchery Sreedhar:

It is unfair to drop Sriram and allow Ganguly to play at Kanpur. He is absolutely in out of form and should not be allowed to play.

Please do not insult Dravid by allowing Ganguly to lead the team on Friday.

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Gopakumar:

I am Gopikumar, working as a Manager in one of the chemical company in Saudi Arabia.

Regarding Ganguly's case, what ever may be the outcome of the Ban & protest. The BCCI & Ganguly should accept it as a God's gift.

All over the world the people ( Indians) are very much annoyed and want to see Ganguly is axed from the team due to his shabby & poor captancy. As a batsman also he failed miserably and I don't know why the selectors are lingering on the issue of dropping him from the team.

I am pretty sure that if Ganguly plays again in the rest of the two one dayers, India will lose both the matches.

You can take it granted from me.

Match after the match he failed to learn the lessons from his rival captain how one has to lead the team from the front.

Let Rahul Dravid lead the side and show it to the selectors and Ganguly " What the real captancy is meant".

I think the time has come for Ganguly to call it a day.

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Kaisar Malik:

Yes he should, as a player most certainly we can not write off such a great player in a whisker. Relieve him of captaincy pressure he will deliver. He is too good a player to be kept quiet for long. He is just going through a bad patch and will come out of it. The great Inzy did virtually nothing in world cup look at him now. The great players have the quality of jumping back.

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Vinay Pagaria:

We ought to consider three things before answering the question Whether Saurav ought to play the next ODI.

(a) What if he was in peak form?
(b) What if he was not the captain of the side and the ban came for some other reason and later overturn?
(c) What if the team was to be selected after the lifting of the ban?

(a) Well to be honest: If he was in peak form or any where close to it, I dont think any controversy would have arisen about his being selected back! The answer would have been as simple as saying : YES HE SHOULD PLAY.

(b) If he was not the captain of the side and was available for selection the logic of captaincy changing hands to Rahul Dravid would not have been possible and similarly he would have been selected back. We only need to imagine a ban on Sachin or Sehwag, getting another player in their position and then the lifting of the ban. There is no reason why Sachin or Sehwag would not have been brought back into the side.

(c) Finally if the team would have been selected after the lifting of the ban, again Saurav would have been persisted with on the merits of his past performance.

If we analyse the logics above, one thing would be very clear, if Saurav deserves to be dropped from the side or stripped of the captaincy, that should be done plainly on the merits of his form and performance and the duration for which the selectors are willing to wait to see him return to form. If the selectors would have dropped him or stripped him of captaincy had he not been banned, yes he should not be brought back to the side. But if the selectors would have persisted with him there is no reason why he shouldnt be called back into the side.

The argument that the fine should have been accepted does have weight but one has to consider the fact that the objection is on the extent of the ban 6 ODIs and every player has the right to appeal. If Saurav is really wrong, the ICC has the powers even to increase the ban. So knocking the doors for justice is a fundamental right and shouldnt be questioned.

As far as being unfair to Sriram, thats a petty excuse, if some one deserves to be in the XI he should be there on his strengths and which I am sure he certainly will be in time to come. The best XI should play any match is what is important.

And finally Its sick to think that it would be unfair to Rahul Dravid who will lose captaincy within hours of getting it. It appears Indian Cricket would be taken back to the days of Inter-Player Rivalries by talking on these lines. The chemistry between Saurav and Rahul is there for all to see and trying to disturb it will only harm Indian Cricket.

Give him the chance YES and let him get back to his prime. He has given Indian Cricket enough to be worthy of this. If in all fairness and THE reasonable timeframe (as per Selectors) he is not back to his class, do the unevitable, but not in the disguise of a ban.

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Shree Krishna:

Our Captain, Mr. Ganguly, has been an outstanding player. It seems that he is tired and definitely needs some rest and retrospection. Please allow him the deserved rest. Let Rahul Dravid lead the team. We have nothing against Mr. Ganguly but the inform & outform are the situations one has to enjoy & face in this carrer.

Pulling back Rahul is unfair.

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Raj Kumar:

As the Ganguly in not in the best of his nicks, he has to save his image by withdrawing his name from Team India. Take rest and come back again, save himself from critics.

Give a chance to youngster, so that team india will win

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VS Muralidharan:

Its time we look ahead and prepare the core for the world cup.As for the current entangle in Ganguly's episode,its surely a blessing in disguise for him in taking a well needed rest and to doubt his sincerity based on just one series,is rubbish.One can see the desperation in him to play a longer innings and silence his critics,but,given the current status in the ongoing series,we need a better captain than a guy not in form.And our board should in reality,take a cue from our pakistani counterpart in accepting the ICC ruling and take this opportunity to give ganguly the temporary rest.He's too good a player to be sacked permanent.

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MKC:

I hope that as a mark of respect to the ICC decision he should wait for the adjudicator decesion and come out clean from the episode. Also he will have an oppourtunity to readjust his mind set about his own performence and then camoe back with thums up to make his critic to shut their view. Also the nation will support him till the next world cup in 2007. He is the best bet for the captaincy.

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Kamran Habib:

As a Pakistani fan, I'd personally love it if ganguly plays but in all fairness, I think the indian team would do much better without him, Morally and Physically. The fact that there is some fresh blood in the team will change the dynamics of the team. Even if the new player makes 20 runs off 20 balls, its better than Ganguly struggling at critical stages of the match getting 18 runs of 36 balls! In the current climate of this series, a strike rate of 70% is not good enough, let alone a strike rate of 50%!!!

In all fairness to Ganguly though, if there is a clause that allows him to be not suspended..why shouldn't he take it? To me this shows his resolve and determination and confidence as a leader....So comparing that to PCB and Inzy is not a fair analogy as Pakistanis are used to downgrading their own players.....As for the other two issues you raised, Selectors should have the final say..and as for Sridharan, I'm sure he'll get much more chances in the future to play cricket, but I doubt Ganguly would in case he does get banned now.

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Lakshmnarayana:

'Bengal Tiger' has lost its (his) roar. It (he) should take a break, rest its (his) vocal chords, which have made it (him) let out only a 'meow' for a few days and come back with a full-throated 'roar'.

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Vaisakh:

The question is not how fair it is with others (Rahul and Sriram). the question should be is ganguly eligible to be in the indian squad with his current form????? i think no.

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K V Ranganathan:

Ganguly should not play . Is he above law ? He has been penalised several times for the same offence. Either it is arrogance or lack of respect for the law and authorities , he does the same offence. High handedness of the board will only make the match referees to harden their stance against Indian players. Why is Mr.Dalmiya still acts as a super boss of the BCCI rather than disciplining Ganguly every time he is using his clout to bail him out. People who have the concern for Indian cricket should allow Ganguly to suffer his punishment.

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Raghavendra Rao:

1. He is not above Law. But it is well within the law to appeal - and so he did. If we want to follow rules, let us follow them. I don't
think he has done anything here to suggest that he is above law. Let us stop over reacting with emotions for a moment and look at facts.

2. Again is this fair to Sriram ? Cricket selection shouldn't be based on emotions or some absurd fairness logic. It should be based
on merit.
2a. Is ganguly better currently than other batsman (not in the team) ?

Here is my answer:

I would say that it is a difficult question to answer. You pick the most heavily scoring guy in domestic cricket and the so called in-form Mongias and Srirams - and they aren't likely do miracles either going by whatever little they have achieved at the highest level. But ganguly is no better or worse either. He isn't likely to achieve wonders given his form.

If there is some special talent (some one like clarke), I would say drop Ganguly and bring that talent - otherwise trying Srirams/Mongias over and over again is no better than continuing with Ganguly.

2b. The next question - is he the most capable person to lead the side currently ?

Here is my answer:

Probably yes. I said probably because there are no great captaincy materials on view either due to poor record or lack of exposure. Who knows Dhoni [Images] could be the best material - but he better try his skills in some other games and prove it. We can't blindly make some one captain unless he has some special ability or has proved in the past.

So my feeling is that whether Ganguly is the captain or not, the team will have to perform as a unit - Take for example, Sehwag's batting - he isn't going to fire or not fire whether Ganguly is there or not. It is still a team game - captain is important but not extremely critical to win the game all by himself.

3. Now about your - Are we fair to Dravid ? What wrong has he done ? These are again silly questions. No emotions please. If Dravid is better that Ganguly to lead the side currently he should. I personally doubt though whether Dravid can come and do miracles tomorrow on the field as a captain.

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Sarin:

It is not fair to include ganguly in place of sriram. dinesh mongia may find one place in the playing ahead of sriram. but sriram lost the important Ranji one day match final because of his inclusion in the national side.and also if you are considering the form of players, it is very clear that mongia and sriram are far better than ganguly. so no chance for ganguly in the playing eleven.

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Kumar Gaurav:

I think it's high time for ganguly to leave cricket, at least for the moment. It would be good for the country and probably for him too. He is contributing nothing; I repeat nothing for many matches, not just this series. Forget about playing a captain's knock, he has been poor, rather I should say rubbish. Ahemdabad match was also lost due to his selfishly slow batting (18 off 33 balls) .If he was not in form then why not sends rahul or yuvi first or slog in whatever way possible. Atleast don't waste the much crucial balls especially when runs should have been scored at more than 6 runs per over.

I would say bye bye dada. Your time is up!

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Harsha Shetty

This clearly is an example of something where anything can be done using power, In my view its a collaborated effort of Ganguly and Dalmiya. Ganguly should have taken some time out and worked on his batting, may be the ban came as a blessing in disguise for him. Now if Ganguly plays the last 2 one dayers he might as well lose his place in the team leave alone captancy.

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Aanand

The selectors were just too fast. Knowing fully well that th ban was overturned last time, did it not occur to anyone of them that such thing may be repeated? And if they did not consider this either out of ignorance or arrogance, they are the ones deserve a replacement more than Ganguly.
 
If a board can not be with the captain through his bad patch, it does not deserve a champion captain. If Ganguly is continued as the captain, when he gets back into form which will not be too late, India will see a captain who will not be moved by anything else.

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Rasool

I don't think that any player who is currently out of form should be given a chance. Also  if you bring in a new player in place of Ganguly he needs some time to settle down. To be fair, Ganguly should be given a chance to carry on. Its just a bad patch for him and he will definitely overcome it. For your information he has an average of 40 which is tremendous. This time his bat will do the talking.

Best wishes for Ganguly

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Yogesh

The ban imposed on Ganguly is really very nice. This what really Millions of Indians have really wanted from a long time. Is the selection committe blind , can't they see the performance of Ganguly?  He should be kicked out of the team, as he is playing for money and not the country. If he was playing for the country then he would have taken the moral responsibilty and stayed out for some time in order to improve his performance and the position of the country in the world of cricket.

If he was a true sportsman he would definetly moved out of the team and given a chance to some other playe,r who are in good form, to hold the reputation of the country.

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V

It is fair.

How can you drop a person of such highness with almost 10000 runs and that too a successful captain of 100 crore people Indian team with out having a official confirmation (Any one can say verbally...!).

Why we are thinking in negative way., when there is chance of appealing in the ICC laws,why can't we utilize it..?. And how come it is above the laws of the game?

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Mahesh

Our Captain, Mr. Ganguly, has been an outstanding player. It seems that he is tired and definitely needs some rest and retrospection. Please allow him the deserved rest. Let Rahul Dravid lead the team. We have nothing against Mr. Ganguly but the in form & out form are the situations one has to enjoy & face in this career.

Pulling back Rahul is unfair

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Dr. George John

No Ganguly should definitely not play, much less as captain!!

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Prashant Narula:

Ganguly should NOT (also shouldn't be allowed) to play.

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Suvabrata Hajra:

No everybody should obey the law but Indian skipper is the VICTIM he is always targeted. Indian skipper never did it purposely and that is the reason BCCI always tried to protect Indian Skipper. May be Pakistan Board had some doubt on Pakistan Skipper.

Yes, no problem with this Sriram decision. Please do not forget that this is only the stop-gap arrangement for Indian Cricket Team and Sriram is a young player with a good track record and Indian Captain will take care of him like he does in previous years (he made a balanced TEAM INDIA by giving chances to the young players - don't forget he is the man behind Md. Kain, Y. Singh, Harvajan, Dhoni, P. Patel, Pathan, Nehra, Z. Khan and list continued.........).

"A player in form" - what does it mean? If Rahul in form, Sehewag is also in form so he can also be a captain for India team. People are forgetting that the decision was made only to continue and complete the serious not to award the Indian Captaincy to Rahul Dravid. Rahul is a great player and I believe automatically Captaincy comes to him in near future.

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Rajeev:

That part about Inzamam accepting his fine is not completely true. He, in fact, was going to appeal the ban. Besides, if the appeals process is there, one should use it. Why should all of us play judge and write rules, when there is a centralized body whose purpose and duty it is to do this.

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Manjari Varshney:

I strongly feel Sourav Ganguly [Images] should play in tommorow's match.

1. No, Skipper of any county is not above any cricket law,and this also aplly for our skipper but , Wrong decisions should be challenged. Sourav Ganguly has been facing fines and bans for every single fault,on other hand other skippers does not face this. look at case in Inzamam-ul-Haq [Images], he throwed his bat, that was also an offence but he was not even fined for that. None of the australian player faces this kind of ban. The only thing is the Punishment giving to Ganguly is tooo harsh in comparision to the offence.

2. Well Sriram will not get chance to play anyway, so nothing harsh on him.

3. As far as its the question of Rahul Dravid he knows that he is only a stand in skipper for this series. And now when captain is back, he has to go back to his position of deputy. Dravid in sensible player and he understands that.

What india really need for last two one days is a skipper in form of Sourav Ganguly and a player in form of Rahul Dravid. One thing is sure, if Ganguly plays tommorow something special awaits him.

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Durga Praveen Kumar:

Ganguly deserves a ban for 6 ODIs.

He should not play. Undeterred by flak, he tried a lot to prove his stamina, but failed after hitting boundary recently. So, I feel it is the time for the new faces to raise the Indian flag.

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Bhupendra Singh:

Ganguly is doing more damage to the indian squad rather than making it strong. In the form of ICC ban it was a good oppurtunity for ganguly to sit out for 6 matches and work out on his form and come back with renewed strength. This would have saved him from his critics and disappointed fans.

Now that he has appealed against the ban and ICC has said that he can play in Kanpur ODI, he has put himself and BCCI into a very very complex situation now. If BCCI allows him to play kanpur ODI then ganguly will be under tremendous pressure to deliver during this ODI and if he fails to deliver then I am sure he will be out of indian team permanently after this series.

At this point of time I am very confident to say that Ganguly will not be able to perform in coming ODI and he will be blamed for loss of further matches.

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Capt. Neeraj:

He is turning into a national embarrassment. How can a person who cannot accept the truth lead a team. A Captain is a person who leads from the front, sets example for the others, has character and leadership quality and exudes flair.

Ganguly has just one of these qualities and that is (partly) leadership. The country has put up with him and tolerated his failures. He is not above the nation and neither is Mr.Dalmiya. The BCCI should have spine and stand up and tell them to shut up.

The president should pay little or no heed to this suspension and go right ahead with the new announcement that he had made. The others are also sons of the soil and deserve to be given a chance. I am sure they have as much fire in them.

I have admired Ganguly but I guess that it is going to become a thing of the past. Having seen his recalcitrant attitude and loss of ability, I think time has come to move on, he can be confined to the pages of history. He may have been the most successful captain but has he been the most charismatic -- NOT BY A LONG SHOT. So we should all wake up to stark reality and face the truth as it stares in our face.

We have to put the nation before individual. Unfortunately this time it happens to be Mr. Arrogant.

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K R Sathyan:

I would be the last person to say that Ganguly is doing well at this moment.

But Every other international player goes through a slump. And after-all they are humans!

Ganguly is been the prime reason behind this Indian Team's success story. When he took over the captaincy, no one was willing to take over the hot seat of India. Sadly that was the time, when India's most accomplished Master Blaster was also not interested to lead a 'Loosing' team.

Now I would like to quote WISDEN - CricInfo, it says, "When he took over the captaincy after the match-fixing exposes in 2000, he quickly proved to be a tough, intuitive and uncompromising leader, traits best illustrated in the historic series against Australia in 2001, when he made light of personal travails to lead India to a famous victory. Under his stewardship, with John Wright [Images] providing inputs off the field, India started winning Test matches away, and put together a splendid eight-match winning streak that took them all the way to the World Cup final in 2003. Despite having been his team's most consistent one-day batsmen over the previous three seasons,
he also relinquished the opening slot to accommodate Virender Sehwag [Images] and Sachin Tendulkar [Images], and several gutsy efforts in Test cricket were none-too-subtle reminders to critics who insisted that he was deeply vulnerable against the short ball. Effective with his medium-pace on seaming tracks, Ganguly will most be remembered though for having forged a winning unit from a bunch of talented, but directionless, individuals."

Who can forget his contribution in getting these players, starting from Harbhajan, Yuvraj, Kaif, Schewag, and the last addition, Dhoni. It was him who firmly believed that Sehawg is Test Match Class and he can give INDIA a huge advantage when he opens and scores a quick fore century.

It is this time of his career when he needs all the players and public support. Former Cricketers who are sensible still feel for the man and still say that he is too good to throw him out.

Its is the worth for nothing, bla- bla "Cricket Geniuses" who in the name of former cricketers who are baying for his blood.

He is a class act even today in his batting. Can you recall the Ranji matches he played for Bengal in this season? He scored centuries.

Let him have a break for two matches and make him Captain again, (as soon as ICC's ban comes to an end) and that would be the only way for Indian Cricket to move ahead.

Even a Player like Dravid have gone through a slump like this. 5, 1, 16, 0, 13, 1 these are Dravid's scores in continuous six matches from 24/07/2004 to 03/09/2004 and in another sequence of ten matches starting from 24/11/2002 he has scored 3. 20, 18, 20, 18, 7, 21, 12, 17, 1 and then scored a 43 against Zimbabwe at Harare braking the shackles. I am not asking why Dravid was not dropped, I am saying that even a batsman of Dravid's caliber goes through this slump.

Who can forget the form of Tendulkar before and during the tour down-under, (eventually he scored a double hundred in the last test at Sydney), and even Ahmedabad's man-of-the-match Inzamam was in a worst form during the 2003 world cup.

So if you can give Ganguly support and Love or at the least do not ask his blood.

So taking all this into consideration, there is a way to treat such a man who has done so much to Indian Cricket. Fine, he is out of form agreed, but let the selectors talk to him, ask him is opinion, tell their likely decision, and finally let Ganguly announce and decide on his retirement. Let him go out with pride.. I would love to see how the same media, including rediff reacts if Sachin or Dravid Loose form (after all they are human) just before their retirement!

And as for as your three latest questions are concerned, simple logics without emotions would give you the answer. When some one is not there, it is imperative to hand over the charges held by him to some one else. But when the due person arrives, the moral and logic is to hand him over whatever was him!

All I can say is we Indians have poor memory. And this is a country which took seven years and even more to acknowledge Dravid as the most valuable player in the side!

Sathyan on behalf of many many more decent and educated cricket Lovers.

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Srinivas Josyula:

If Dalmiya can get him through the back door. Our selectors should show gumption and throw him out of the front door. The way he is playing right now, he is not even an automatic choice for lowly sides such as Orissa, J & K, Andhra.

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Shyamprasad Reddy:

Ganguly Should not be selected EVER. That's it.

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Vishwanathan Shankar:

Thanks for the excellent commentary so far. Please keep it coming.

Imran had written a piece last week saying this series was the tale of two captains. Rightly so.

Look around you at the captains of rest of the major world teams and the reasons for Ganguly's need to leave are clear: Respected captains (Ricky, Inzamam) are brave and lead from the front by example, while Ganguly is all bravado. During the course of this series I have not read a single thoughtful and strategic comment from him when we have lost a match or when we have failed to win. It is always stating the obvious facts and then repeating the same mistakes again. His coming in to bat in front of Dravid in the last match was a last straw. A case of putting ones ego ahead of the team's interest.

It is time for him to go.

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Devraj V Bhagwaani:

As we all know that enough has already been said about Ganguly's current batting form and I strongly believe that he should be rested for a game or two and go back to the basics.

I would also like to add a little about comments on various TV channels especially by one of the panelist of Silly Point on Sahara TV about his repeated diplomatic comments on Saurav's performance that please do not live with the past. I agree statistics do matter to a certain degree but you can't keep saying it all the time because when you play for the country as a professional, you must perform as an individual but if you continue with your inconsistent form, definitely it's a great concern that cannot be overlooked.

Now that Sriram has been included replacing Saurav and Dravid has already been named to captain the side, I don't think it would be fair to make changes and reinstate Ganguly in the side as captain again.

I don't see any law restricting the selection committee from deciding to rest him for a game or two till he regains his form. Decisions must me made keeping in mind good results for the country as a whole rather than caring for an individual's image.

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Benedict Fernandes:

If Ganguly has a little bit of self respect or cares for other players and country he should not play. He is a shameless and a bad cricketer I have ever seen. Give chance to the inform players and and show the door to the players like Ganguly who are having the grace of the big daddy's of the Cricket.

I Give Ganguly a 0 out of 10.

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Sriram Natarajan:

It appears that commercial considerations are foremost in Ganguly's mind, and possibly on the BCCI's mind as well (Ganguly's relationship to Dalmiya).

Short of being physically injured, it appears that nothing will stop Ganguly from playing as captain.

It appears that failing to perform in ODIs for a stretch of 2 years (and Test matches as well) is not enough to sack him.

His days as a player are over. His onside game is nonexistent and his reflexes and eyesight for the offside play are no longer good enough.  He does not have the respect of fans. But he will ignore all this and more.

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Kalyan Bannerjee:

He should , in no circumstance, be re-selected and allowed to play considering his poor form.

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RKG:

1.Sure, Ganguly should play and lead-- both.
2. He can play now because the laws of "ICC" permit him to do so-- he is not just barging in or going on a hunger strike to get his way!!
3. No one should ignore that the violation for which he was banned for was really speaking not an individual violation attributable 100% to Ganguly himself. To a major extent-- all the team members contributed to the slow over rate-- the bowlers bowled 3 plus overs extra because of no balls/wides . I also recall seeing the 'slow march' Tendulakar made from the boundary area when called upon to bowl the last over( I did not see the full match but I am sure that there would be many other similar instances of default by the others also)-- why as a senior player was he not realizing that this could put his skipper in trouble?
Everybody knows that this is a team game so if everybody knows the rules and puts in their bit -- the overall over rate could have been faster and their captain saved the penalty.
Sure, as the Captain ,the buck stops with Ganguly and he will still have to face the music finally in any case that is also fair-- but to question the reprieve that he is now getting is being too petty in my opinion.
The only person to feel sorry for in this situation would be Sriram

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Madan Mohan Pandey:

1. It is under law of if a player is banned, it can appeal against the ban. And I do not thing that slow over rate is due to Ganguly only its due to team.
2. Let me put this as another way is it fair that to drop Ganguly even if he is eligible for next game (I am not considering his current form. If the selection is based on form of the player then it's a different issue).
3. Rahul is appointed as captain only because Ganguly is not present in team due to ban. so I do not think there is any problem.

There is only one question which is "is Ganguly eligible to be selected in BCCI team on the basis of his current form."

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Vikram Ravi Menezes:

My firm opinion is that Ganguly shouldn't be reinstated into the indian team as of now because it not fair to Rahul and Sriram. Also because he is awfully out of form.

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Rajendra Prasad:

If Ganguly have moral credentials he should opt himself out of the remaining part of the ongoing ODI series.

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Rajeev Aiyar:

It's totally unfair.It seems Ganguly has some sort of nexus in the BCCI and ICC. He doesn't want to leave his captaincy and at the same time sending wrong signals in the game.And one main thing is hat he is depriving a deserving player's place in the team.

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Cyriac Jose:

Ganguly should play

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Vijay:

All this is because of the various 'Heads' now vying for power in BCCI !

If Jagmohan Dalmia has the decency to keep out of the way, then BCCI has a chance to function as a professional body and you would not be soliciting comments from all and sundry!!

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Santosh Singh:

India is a labour based country and so is the mentality of majorities. Ganguly should be dropped because of his performance. There is no question on it. When it comes to ICC we have seen their atrocities. Ganguly is there in the team because there are no alternates. Dravid is not a captain element at all. Bring Kumble in the team we need some bowlers. It takes time to understand the management qualities which normally editors lack else they would have never in that job.

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Pankaj Butalia:

Throw out the man. This habit of using Dalmiya's clout to evade action is typical of the elitist attitude of Ganguly. Throw him out and throw Dalmiya out. Good riddance. For almost five years we have seen that Ganguly performs once in ten matches and is kept in ... Laxman performs badly in one in ten matches and he is kept out. Enough of Ganguly. Out with him.

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R Bhatta:

The ban has come as a blessing in disguise for Ganguly. When a batsman is not in form, he is not confident and all his decisions looks faulty. He should take this as a God given opportunity and take his own time and make a strong come back.

Now the Indians fans are already quite disappointed with his play and this is a golden chance for him to gain their sympathy. Instead, if he prefers to play third rate politics and play at Kanpur, spectators will throw stones at him. That gives a clear indication that he is not only the most successful captain, but also most shameless cricketer in India.

Again if he fails (most likely), that is the end of his cricketing career. Then he should be kicked out for ever.

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Tuhin Kumar:

Ganguly should be allowed to play Kanpur ODI but let relieve the captaincy load of him, otherwise we are losing a very good player because of captaincy load.

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Preetanshu Pandey:

I made this point earlier and today again, that Kaif is our single's expert and he is been asked to slog! Defies all logic. When has he ever slogged?? Is there even one such match?

I read an article on rediff today that make strong statements about importance of singles. Side who had gathered most singles in Ino-Pak series till now, wins! Then why is our single's expert coming into play in the 45th over! Do we need singles then? Please comment and bring this in limelight so that someone atleast takes notice of this simple logic. I won't be surprised to see Yuvraj and Kaif both moved up now that Ganguly is out. But that doesn't make sense. We need Yuvi in the later overs, Not Kaif! Try to get this idea out. If you disagree then I would love to see a reason.

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Manoj:

This is Manoj from chennai. My question is why are people asking for ganguly's blood?? He is India's succeeful captain.. only next to sachin in terms of highest number of hundreds and on the verge of becoming only 3'rd batsmen in LOI to score 10,000 runs and he scored a test century on debut.. even sachin and dravid have gone through these patches.. till the last match in sydney what did sachin score?? Instead of supporting sourav..our people r criticising?? what do u say??

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Mohit Mishra:

I'm Mohit Mishra, a student at Harvard and very grateful to you for your insightful commentary. It makes my nights come alive as the game begins here only when its midnight!

I have two questions:
a) Isnt the ban on Ganguly way too harsh? And I was really disturbed to read reports that are virtually writing Ganguly's obituary. This guy has close to 10,000 runs for heavens sake and more importantly, has transformed this team into a fighting world class unit. Doesn't his leadership deserve more credit than he has ever been given?

b) Dont you think the one day game has become way too batsman oriented. If you give away 55 runs in 10 overs, its actually considered a terrific performance- isnt that ironic?

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Bhargav Sura:

Good that Ganguly has been out of the team, it would not make any difference for him being in the team. He did not do much batting, Neither did he bowl. And his captaincy, though good, sucked in the last game. So, people say, Celebrities get sidelined by a few bad performances in the game. But hello? we are not talking about just few bad performances. You come out n the crease, along with Tendulkar in the 33rd over, you have 8 wickets still left and you still think of settlind down when the time was to hit and go over the tops. Ganguly is one of the best six-hitters and is actually one of my favorite batsmen., you might be knowing that. But dude, there are bad times, better say bad Phases in a person's life and I know, it takes time for a person to get over it. But dude, how much time you need. You have been playing the game sinc elike the last 9 years and you have enough centuries to make you famous. Then why do u lose u confidence.

So anyways, I hope Dravid Does a good job against the Pakistanis not only in his Batting but also in His captaincy. He looks too confident abut his captaincy and has also won games and test matches under his captaincy. I hope he does good... At this time, we desperatelu needed Kumble and I think, its going to build confidence in our team... and I tell you what, we need our regular seamers... Just bring back Agarkar in. He is a good bowler, he's experienced, he bats good and can be used as a pretty good pinch-hitter.

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Harun Shaikh:

I would like to first clear myself up that Im not a cricket Genius, but I'm a cricket fan from long time so, atleast I definately know that how many players are there in one Team, how many balls are there in an Over and how runs are scored!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, talking about the recent defeats of Indian Team, poor form of Sourav Ganguly and such stuff. I was very deeply moved my the last match. As you said Prem, those Singles are the cause of our defeat. I am not a cricket genius, but as both the captains said that the ball was not coming to the bat, so counting that in our picture, it is easy to guess that if one goes for hitting, it will go for a high catch. Simple Equation!!!!!!

So, the only point was that we have good fielders like Kaif, Yuvraj, Dinesh Mongia, why on this earth are we wasting them, by fielding them in deep areas. They should be used to their fullest to stop the singles which would put lot of pressure on them, tempting to hit big ones which would get them into error. Another thing was that, they might desperately try to steal singles under pressure. And you know, electric Kaif and Yuvraj can get them run out if get a chance.

Speaking on our Batting Lineup, I personally think Dhoni must come in Opening or at Slog overs (though he is performing very well at number 3), as he is a good hitter of ball rather than a strike rotator. So when he comes at number 3, 10 overs might have passed, so he might not get a chance to hit big ones, in opening or in slog overs when there is only one task of hitting he might be very useful. Though he is not as mature as sehwag in opening but in slog overs he is definately useful.

Dravid, is the best at no. 3. I dont know, but this is my personal feeling. (In short, if Dravid is standing at one End, the other end hits like he has drank whole Bournvita pack)

Another matter: Allrounders. Pakistan has got plenty of allrounders, Afridi, Shaib Malik, Abdul Razzaq [Images]. So the equation says that they have got three more batsmen than us apart from regular ones. India can also bet on Dinesh Mongia as he is also a left arm spinner and I've heard that he is in good form. This will strengthen our batting line-up, and Yes he is a superb fielder too.

Talking to Ganguly: I'm not a fan nor his anti-fan of Ganguly. I do understand that there are poor patches in any Player's life. Look at Sachin, he also got a patch so why on the earth are people against Ganguly only. Personally, I feel that it is not the poor runs, but the way he gives (read throws) his wicket is the matter of concern. It looks like that every out of form pakistani bowlers comes to form at his sight. Ganguly might be afraid of taking a break as he may loose his place, but looking at his reputation and in-circle contacts, its damn easy for a person like him to get into the game if he proves in domestic cricket.

Fifth Bowler: As in the past 4 matches, in the first match, Tendulkar bowled all of his quota got 5 wickets, yuvraj bowled 6 overs for 29 runs, in second tendulkar was not given much overs, in some match Sehwag is called to bowl in. So, there's no such permanent solution for the 5th bowler. Instead it should now be the responsibility of young players like Sehwag and Yuvraj to start practicing a tight bowling in nets. I mean a bowling which yields least runs, so they can be useful. I would suggest Tendulkar also as he can take up pressure easily as in last match. Without this, Ganguly every time runs around for new bowling combination.

One more thought: Why dont we practice new coming bowlers in nets for a few hitting and make them as lethal as Afridi. I dont mean professional & quality training, just big hitting (as Zaheer & Balaji does sometimes). This would be very useful in some tight slog over conditions and this would boost their morale also. (May be sometimes they can get their revenge against another opossition bowler!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Rest, as I said before, Im just a normal cricket fan, and whatever came to my mind is what I exressed. I dont want to critise someone, but what I saw and felt is what I wrote.

Today's Joke: Inzimam was very disappointed at the ban imposed by ICC on Ganguly (b'cos pakistan team played against indian team of 11 players minus Ganguly, now they have to try to get all the 11 players out !!!!!!!!!)

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