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Sehwag asked to
plaster his mouth on the Ganguly issue
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By BV Swagath, May 09, 2006
 The Board of Control over Cricket in India has
asked Virender Sehwag and other players not to
speak anything on the Sourav Ganguly topic and
also the player burn out issues. Niranjan Shah,
the Board Secretary has asked the players to
refrain from making any casual comments to the
media on the two burning issues of Indian
Cricket. Viru will now have to put a plaster on
his mouth like his other teammates Yuvraj Singh
and Harbhajan Singh, who had shown their respect
for the deposed Indian Captain Sourav Ganguly in
the recent past. Virender Sehwag, India’s Vice
Captain has been reported in the media that the
team has often missed Dada Sourav Ganguly’s
presence in the side. Sehwag was hoping that the
former Indian Captain, who had supported him a
lot during his initial hurdles to return back
into the Indian Side soon. Sourav Ganguly has
not played ODIs for India since the Videocon Tri
Series final in Zimbabwe where India had lost to
New Zealand in the final and has last played for
India in the 3rd Test at Karachi.
 Sourav Ganguly was expected of making it to the
Indian ODI team for the limited overs series in
the West Indies with Sachin Tendulkar dropping
out due to a shoulder surgery. But the Selectors
and the Indian Coach Mr.Greg Chappell have
joined hands and taken oath not to include the
Bengal Southpaw anymore in the Side. Kiran More,
the Chairman of the Selection Committee has
already made a few strong statements directly
and indirectly about Ganguly – that the Bengal
Cricketer would never be brought back in the
side as long as this present Selection Committee
is there and that the wise men or the bunch of
jokers as called by Mohinder Amarnath in his
playing days have closed this chapter of Sourav
Ganguly and are not going to look back anymore.
The Indian Board has cut this ‘Freedom of
Speech’ from its players and the people of India
haven’t got their questions answered about the
Sourav Ganguly episode. Ganguly has ofcourse
been the only Indian batsman to score over
10.000 ODI runs after Sachin Tendulkar. Talking
about Sachin Tendulkar, the Mumbai Maestro’s
form with the bat has been totally off-colour.
He has been struggling to blast on all cylinders
and has often fallen down to rookie bowlers. But
Greg Chappell and his team of Selectors do not
have the guts to do the same that they had done
to Ganguly to Sachin as they might get the ire
of the entire nation. Greg Chappell and Kiran
More in particular have already had hundreds of
their effigies burnt all over India. Luckily for
them as Team India found some sparkling all
round players and their itinerary being against
relatively weak sides, they have been able to
pull off victories in the one day version of the
game. They did get away against a much stronger
side in South Africa, who scared the Indians of
winning the Series but for the one match at
Chennai being rained off and the fact that the
Series had just 5 ODIs. The Indians won two
games on square turners and had come croppers in
the other two games. Against minnows Sri Lanka
and England, who looked to play just like
kittens indeed in the recent one day series, the
Men in Blue had a cakewalk. All in all it looks
that the Men in Blue had serious competition in
the Series against South Africa and then in
Pakistan.
 For all the One Day Success that the Indians
have enjoyed, their performance in Test Matches
has dipped although they are No.3 in the
rankings. One just cannot imagine an Indian Side
losing out to a depleted England team at home
and that too at the Wankhede. And India has been
often saved in Test Matches by the sheer
brilliance of some one like Anil Kumble who has
done it all by taking the wickets and saving the
face of the Indian bowling attack. On the
technical side, Irfan Pathan who is doing well
as an all rounder has lost the sting in his
bowling and is struggling to bowl out even the
tail enders in Test Cricket. Pathan is
definitely one of the main players of the Indian
Team and for him to bowl at 125 kmph is a
pathetic sight as he was bowling more than
10-15kmph than what he is today. Guru Greg and
his BioMechanics Specialist Ian Frazer probably
do not have any answer to this except that one
cannot expect Irfan Pathan to bowl quick. The
promise that Irfan had shown in the tour down
under where Wasim Akram had suggested that the
boy would only bowl quicker as he gets older and
stronger looks to go completely downhill. But
fortunately, Irfan Pathan still has the deadly
swing that can get the wickets if and only if
the conditions suit his kind of bowling that is!
Guru Greg has failed totally in getting the best
of Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar, when
they were struggling with their form and
confidence. But he has cleverly ‘bowled
underarm’ over all these important issues along
with his friends in the Selection Committee who
nod their head at everything that Mr.Chappel
wants.
Dropping Ganguly was fair and square after his
consistent poor performances with the bat, but
he was a totally changed individual putting
everything into his batting, despite all the
insults and the constant fear of getting axed
without any reason. Not many could have matched
the determination of Sourav that he had shown in
the Series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan. But
he has to blame himself that after having spent
good time in the middle and after getting
through the difficult periods of the game, he
got out making those valuable 30s and 40s. Had
he converted that into three figures, he could
have survived atleast one more series but for
now he has to wait and perhaps wait until his
hair becomes grey as Greg Chappell will be there
running the horses till atleast the 2007 World
Cup. Till then its time to put plasters on the
players’ mouths as Greg Chappell goes on with
his mission 2007. Viru will have to carefully
get on with his career now or he could all of a
sudden be certified as ‘mentally and physically’
unfit to play for the country!
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