Abhinav Bindra, the 1st Indian olympic gold medalist, had recently commented that the bane of Indian sports is that the ones in charge do not know the needs of the games. Next day Suresh Kalmadi, the (Permanent?)President of Indian Olympic Association, came back with the reply that sports bodies should be led by politicians and industrialists, because they can pool more money.

 

So it is, with cricket under the helm of venerable Sharad Pawar. India had developed the money muscle that they can flex and win probably all the tournaments. (Everybody will come for IPL, won't they?) They don't need this player or that player to win.

 

The only problem may be that after some time the viewers and the bettors will be bored to death by the monotony of Indian wins.

 

Aniruddha Sen

Mumbai

----- Original Message ----
From: saptarshi sarkar <sarkar.saptarshi@gmail.com>
To: welovesourav@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, 9 September, 2008 1:47:58 PM
Subject: [welovesourav] The days are numbered ?

Neville cardus called the scorecard a donkey. He turned out to be so true in Sourav Ganguly's test performance after his bouncing back in Dec 2006 at SA.

From Potchefstroom, through his gritty knock (86) at practice match against SA, he lifted the morale of otherwise lackluster Indian team which was down and out before test due to a clean 4-0 ODI was by Proteans.

 His stupendous knock of unbeaten half century against SA in first test led India eventually to test victory.

 

The same saga continued in English soil when his some valuable knocks at middle order ensured the solid position and subsequent series win in England.

Back home against arch rival Pakistan, He was perhaps his best test form ever and single handedly thrashed Pakistan. It was a series where entire cricket world saw the revival of all rounder Sourav.

 

In Ausie land, he not only played his 100^th test, in first two tests his determined batting infused the confidence in entire team. Had Sourav been not given the notorious out by Benson (or by Ponting ?!) at 51, the series result could have been different. Eventually India made 1-1 at the series and Sourav's contribution was seminal.

Back home, he was a face saver against SA. His two brilliant knocks of 87 should be remembered in gold. His 87 in Kanpur even was compared with famous 96 of Sunny at Bangalore.

 

But nothing was important to the selectors it seems since in a first instance when he performed badly in a series against Sri Lanka, the guillotine came down on him. Though other like Tendulkar , Dravid and Kumble himself did not add any value in their reputation.

But that's what Indian cricket. For any things and everything Sourav Ganguly is the first victim !

Performance does not count, only games people play that matters…..

 

 

 

The synopsis of glorious test comeback in 2007-08

 

 

SA test series in 2006-07 -away

214 runs at an avg. of 42 played a fabulous knock of 51 not out 66 and 46 in extreme stress after a long hiatus

Bangladesh test Series 2007 – away

 

He scored a fine century at Chittagong, though in next two innings he scored 15 and 13 respectively. Overall a decent performance

 

England series in 2007-Away

 

The good form continued - always got a good starts and scored 249 at an avg. of 50.There was a match winning knock of 79 in Trent Bridge and a brilliant 57 at oval and also good knocks of 34, 37, and 40. Some of the umpire decisions went against him – Over all a good series.

 

Pakistan series in 2007 –Home

 

It was perhaps one of the best in his career. Delhi test he scored 48 in second innings. Kolkata test will remain always special in his memory since he made his maiden test century 102 at Eden. In the second innings he just missed half century (46). Bangalore test put him in same pedestal of great test players with his 239 first innings and 91 in the second. His 239 will be remembered as a symbol of fight back - 534 run at an avg. of 89.

 

Australia Series in 2007-08- Away

 

In first two test did scored well, a decent start to the tour by scoring 40 43, 51, 67 in first 4 innings of test series. He failed in last 2 tests where at Perth he had to bat with high fever and in the last test he was given out wrongly. Overall scored 235 runs at an avg of 30

 

SA Series in 2008 –Home

 

It was again Dada's series when he scored a match winning 87 in Kanpur and a fighting match saving 87 at Ahmedabad - overall test scored 211 runs at an avg of 53

 

Sri Lanka series 2008 -Away

Sourav failed miserably there and Muralidharan became his nemesis.in six innings he scored 96 with an abysmal average of 16.But Sachin and Rahul also performed equally bad with total score of 95 and 148 respectively.

 

                  Mat Inns NO  Runs HS   Ave        SR       100  50   0   4s  6s

Year 2007 10   19     1   1106 239 61.44    62.59       3     4    0 137   9

Year 2008 9    17      1      459 87   28.68   59.68       0     4    3  54    4

 

 

--
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

- Albert Einstein

---

Download prohibited? No problem. CHAT from any browser, without download.