Ganguly is the best left-handed batsman India have ever produced.Of course,he is one of the best in the world.There is no hiding in it.But most of the fans are against him.I don't really understand why people often find fault with him(especially in his batting).He has achieved great things unlike his prdecessors.After all,his average is over 42,which by a batsman's standards are exceptional.People are fools,yea,they are!We should be proud of his achievements.His performance in the tournament finals are good.He has to score many more centuries and prove that he is one of the best.Sourav,it doesn't matter what fools say.Do your job.Try your best.You are not a choker,nor your talents are hidden.You are the one and only tiger of indian cricket.I Bow to you with great honour!I love you!
Whenever a game is lost it is very easy to sit on the couch and brickbat the captain. One forgets that he has maximized his resources and produced a challenging team that has come to a reckoning in the cricketing world way after 1983.
Ha Ha Ha what an objective for writing the article. Well the writer seems to have succeeded in getting on the nerves of the readers looking at the responses. Why do we have to react so passionately to an article whose purpose was to irritate the reader. There are no pretensions to objectivity etc. We all are passionate about cricket and someone wants to get on our nerves and enjoy the fun !!!. Don't react to such provocations. Leave the cricketers alone, they are doing a good job. Well the disappointment of a near miss is understandable but any amount of crying is not going to change the result. Post mortems rarely help especially by those in the media. It seems our cricketers don't read what appears in the media so why raise our blood pressure. Enjoy the good performances or switch over to the cartoon channel.
The problem with Indian journalists is that they highlighten the negative things about the Indian team and tend to overate teams like Australia. They praised Steve Waugh as a captain. I think he's ok and not all that good. See how he struggled with the bowling since the top bowlers like Mcgrath and Warne were missing. A captain is only as good as his team. So stop critising Ganguly so much. The point about going for the win is valid for this was India's best chance.
Also People in India are too obsessed about Tendulkar. for anything and everything they speak about him. He performed well only in the last test match. The others like Kumble, Dravid and Laxman played well throughout. Ganguly set the tome in the first match. Please give credit to others as well. Also the tendency to ignore bowling performances is also there. Kumble's bowling will never be mentioned as much as Laxman's or Dravid's batting. Another example is the 1999 series against Pakistan. Tendulkar played well in the match in Chennai scoring 136 in the second innings but that is spoken about whereas Srinath's 13/132 in the match in Calcutta is never spoken about. No wonder no one wants to become a Bowler.
The writer has mentioned a few points of what should have and what might have been. Life is full of ifs and buts. It is impossible to imagine that Sourav Ganguly would not have tried to win the series. Think about his bad luck. Wrong decisions by the umpire, missed chances by the wicket keeper and Steve Waugh defending his team from defeat. A typical situation of the Steve Waugh variety. He scored 200 runs against Curtly Ambrose and co and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. He did something like that again at Sydney. Don't blame our bowlers or captaincy. Yes we would have been thrilled if we had won. Nonetheless it was great cricket played by our team. Even if Ganguly had tried something else don't assume that the Australians would have lost. Think for a moment. How do you expect to bowl out the entire Australian side in a day? That too twice in the same test. Come on they also have great batsmen who can at least defend if not attack on the last day. Remember cricket is a game of uncertainties and nobody can predict what can happen. We are sad that we could not clinch the series but our team's performance is praiseworthy. Results are not in your hands. A draw was OK.
It is very wholesome to know that you have choosen the recently concluded test series of the Gavaskar-Border trophy from a critical angle, especially the captain.
I think you have missed a chance to critisise this team like anything, for having lost the series 4-0.
It would have been someone like you who must have curse Saurav for over bowling Sachin and for having started problem with his back once again.
You people seem to be not satisfied with anyone neither with someone submissive & not know anything sort of Azaharuddin nor with an agressive and brought back the killer instinct sort of Saurav.
I think you are just being paid for this sort of negative article, otherwise you won't be paid.
RE:Mr. Pai's analysis was good, but require bit more imagination on his part
by Rajeev on Jan 15, 2004 04:54 AM
Dear Joy, as far as I can remember Sourav has never overbowled Sachin, so I don't quite see what you are talking about. Most times, he has only underbowled him. Maybe it has something to do with his back problem, you may be right.
I think the writer is right to an extent. Any team that plays Australia is bound to improve.
We should have won that test but did not, we were so close to rewriting history but yet so far. We could have shut all critics mouths and started a new chapter in India cricket on a fresh pg by winning our first tour abroad against Australia, yet we didn't.
This tells you exactly why Team India can never really be no 1 , we just don't have strong enough bowlers to back our batsman.
Congrats to the writer for his fantastic article, spot on. We must learn from this and move on.
