India's 'Change Agent'

I had a feeling that India would lose this Series and for a brief period thought otherwise, then again rechanged my thoughts to India's defeat. I think I would stick to that.
I had said earlier that Pak would beat us 2-1, but I guess, Pak might surprise us with 1-0. I think they have their best chances at Calcutta, a place where not only they have a geat record and one Mr. Steve Bucknor India's nemesis, to help them, but what is most important right now in this series , is that they have the momentum with them and have a feeling that they might just sneak past the Indians.

That brings the question to Saurav Ganguly. This is the only way to get rid of Saurav's Captaincy. India has to lose the series. It's extremely a sorry situation that a change can be brought about only if we lose a/few series. Australian's professional approach wouldn't allow this. They see signs much earlier and take actions, even if un-popular. Such pro-active approach comes only with clear, rational thinking, unmuddled and unburdened with past glory and idolatry behaviour.

My friends and previous readers of this column might be surprised that a person like me who has always been such avehement supporter of Ganguly is now baying for his blood.

Make no mistake, Saurav Ganguly was the best thing that happened to Indian Cricket after the dreary of days of Match Fixing and Sachin's pathetic captaincy. Here was one chap who was honest, straight, passionate, positively aggressive and most importantly believed in meritocracy. He was certainly a breath of fresh air and the troublesome past of Corruption, Politics, Bombay Cricketing Mafia's dominance in Cricket, was to a large extent was being laid and crushed down to the ground. He was certainly the biggest 'Change-Agent'.

But then I have to be realistic, time has come for a different kind of change. Saurav Ganguly is outdated and exceeded his services required for India.
Indian Cricket has to be taken to the next level. There have been too many instances of 'Not going for the Kill' under Ganguly's captaincy and the frequency of that is alarmingly increasing. There are more misses these days than victories.
1. Losing innumerable One Day Finals
2. Not able to force Victory in the Sydney Test.
3. Losing The Lahore Test, although Dravid was the captain then, but Ganguly's presence and influence was prominent.
4. Not forcing the issue with the Aussies again, this time at Chennai
5. Now not pushing for victory at Mohali against Pakistan.

Ganguly's rigidity both in selecting right kind or personnel and using them intelligently on the field is affecting India's chances, often. His batting was never great, nothing much there to talk about. His inexplicable field settings and fixed bowling changes are clear sign of an inflexible and declining mind.


Ganguly's captaincy declined ever since he realised that he was facing pressure from Yuvraj Singh for his middle order berth. In Pakistan last year, Ganguly got injured, Yuvraj in his place, came up with a century and he has been under pressure ever since. How did Ganguly react to that ? Instead of playing better and stretching himself, he started playing Politics. That was the beginning of Ganguly's Captaincy spiralling downwards. He exactly responded in a way which the Indian team has outgrown under him - Politcs and Favouritism.