Daniel, How can you say that Ganguly may not be the captain after 2004. Unless some thing drastic happens he is gonna be the captain of the country at least till 2007 world cup. I would say that Steve Waugh will be lucky if he is the captain of Australia against India for the test series.
Indian media is and always been quite generous. It is the Australian media that needs to be controlled and that includes most ot the Australian commentators too.
mr. laidlaw, your comment about ganguly's and waugh's similarity when it comes to competitiveness is well taken as is their similarity when it comes to standing up for their team mates with the selectors (sometimes swimming against the current). for these reasons and for his inclination to give as good as he gets from opposing captains such as nasser hussain (for which he is roundly condemned and despised by the english media), ganguly has been a terrific skipper for the Indian team. however, ganguly's cricketing "brain" is no match to steve waugh's nor is his ability to assess risks and seize the moment with a well calculated risk. ganguly's field setting and bowling changes continue to frustrate and defy logic in test matches, and lest everyone forgets, his late, late declaration on the fifth morning of the famous aust. vs. ind. kolkata test almost cost ind. the match! (aust. had a good chance of salvaging a draw by batting through the final day in their 2nd inning which they almost succeeded in doing, thanks to ganguly continuing to bat on day 5, "insuring against a loss," when india clearly could not afford a draw in the 2nd test with aust. already up 1-0 in a 3 test series!)
The media likes to make too much of everything. I am sure that both captains are mature enough to respect each other. All the media does is take one small comment and blow it out of proportion which makes both the parties look bad.
Daniel is the best cricket writer on the Rediff Staff--Prem and company should serve under him for a few years before they can reach good journalistic standards.
